Despite Microsoft’s heavy push of Kinect and its claims that it is integral to the Xbox One experience, many feel that removing the hardware from Xbox One bundles, thus enabling Microsoft to lower the price of the expensive console, would be beneficial for the company as the system’s sales lag behind that of Sony’s PS4.
However, Microsoft has said that it believes the Kinect has a great deal of importance and bolsters the Xbox One’s appeal, with Xbox UK marketing chief Harvey Eagle, speaking to Eurogamer, saying: “[A Kinect-less Xbox One] is not in our plans at all. As we’ve said from the very beginning, we believe Kinect is an absolutely integral part of the Xbox One experience.”
He continued: “Look at all the thousands and thousands of game clips that have been posted by gamers to Upload Studio, of their gaming highlights, captured by speaking the words ‘Xbox record that’, which has already become part of Xbox vocabulary. It’s a really great example of how Kinect makes the experience on Xbox One even better.”
Personally, while the Kinect certainly does a good job of recognising my voice and allowing me to quickly swap between menus, at this juncture it’s not something I’d really recommend as a huge selling point for the console for potential new buyers. Perhaps Microsoft has more tricks up its sleeve when it comes to its implementation of the device, though, so we’ll just have to wait and see.
