Another day, another awkward u-turn from Microsoft as they announce that the Xbox One no longer requires the Kinect to be plugged in.
In a Q&A session with IGN yesterday, chief Xbox One platform architect Marc Whitten was asked what would happen to the console if the Kinect breaks, to which he replied: “Xbox One is designed to work with Kinect plugged in. It makes gaming better in many ways – from the ability to say “Xbox On” and get right to your personalized homescreen, to the ability to control your TV through voice, Smartglass and more. Kinect allows you to search for your content, instantly move between games and your personalized dash and more with just your voice.
“Kinect helps you pick up and play by automatically knowing which controller you have in your hands. No more need to interrupt your friends game or navigate through multiple UI screens to sign in and tell the system which controller you are holding. It will even bind the controller to the console if its currently unbound – no searching for special buttons! Of course – these are just a few of the system wide benefits of having Kinect. Games use Kinect in a variety of amazing ways from adding voice to control your squad mates to adding lean and other simple controls beyond the controller to full immersive gameplay.
“That said, like online, the console will still function if Kinect isn’t plugged in, although you won’t be able to use any feature or experience that explicitly uses the sensor.”
So this means that the future of the Kinect once again lies solely in the hands of developers. If the device is no longer required by the Xbox One in order for the console to work, you could be forgiven for thinking that, like its predecessor, the Kinect 2.0 will be doomed to a library comprised entirely of shovelware. It also means that we’ll probably see a cheaper Xbox One bundle in the future that doesn’t contain the Kinect, so those currently sitting on the fence about the console might be wise to wait it out for a few months.
