By Particularly for Just Dance
We’ve stumbled upon something intriguing this week – Ubisoft has been discussing an alternative to the Xbox Kinect (a device that was phased out during the Xbox One period), with the unique aspect being that it’s exclusively for Just Dance.
This concept is referred to as “Camera Controller mode”, and it operates nearly the same way as the Xbox Kinect did, but solely utilizes your smartphone. It has been an idea at Ubisoft since 2021 and has been accessible in beta for a significant duration (it functioned in Just Dance 2025, for instance), but it’s only now receiving a comprehensive release in Just Dance 2026.
In celebration of its launch, several members of the Just Dance team have recently engaged in discussions about the feature with Xbox Wire, clarifying that it was developed because Xbox Kinect was “by far the favored setup” for Just Dance in prior times:
“Just Dance has a competitive history on Kinect, which was undoubtedly the preferred arrangement for our main community due to the freedom it offered. […] This manner of playing aligns seamlessly with our primary gameplay – dance itself. It promotes grasping the art of dance beyond the game.”
“Kinect had constraints related to the game environment that made scoring inaccurate. These challenges are now irrelevant with our new in-house technology. It restores to our community their beloved mode of play – only now, refined!”
The team elaborated on how challenging it was to create this “genuine ‘live Kinect’ experience” for Just Dance while also continuing to generate new choreographies, but ultimately it appears to have been a triumph!
“It’s the inaugural time we’ve incorporated a Machine Learning algorithm at the core of the game. […] It was essential to consistently refer back to the game context when designing the feature. […] We even created our own dance motion database with assistance from volunteers within the Just Dance production group, to train a model specific to the game.”
“The passion from players inspires us to leverage this feature and develop further innovations.”
So, if you’re eager to experience Just Dance 2026 with an Xbox Kinect-like sensation, it has just debuted this week on the Xbox Store for $44.99 / $49.99. And, given their dedication to bringing this smartphone feature to life, we’re just a little optimistic that it might extend to more Ubisoft titles in the future. Hey, you never know!
Do you think this is a remarkable advancement from Ubisoft? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
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[source news.xbox.com]
Fraser is the News Editor at Pure Xbox, where he dedicates his time to covering the most significant stories in the realm of Xbox and beyond.