Microsoft Won’t Sell Xbox One Without Kinect
When Microsoft let casually slip that the Xbox One wouldn’t necessarily need the Kinect plugged in to function, it was without a doubt a surprise. After all, the company had for months been adamant in saying that the Kinect was going to be required for the Xbox One to function, that the console would not work without it being plugged in. That’s no longer the case, and many folks were hoping that that would mean that Microsoft might just release a version of the Xbox One without a Kinect.
That’s not going to be the case. Phil Harrison, an Xbox executive, told CVG that since the “Xbox One is Kinect”, they’re not going to release a version of the console without the Kinect. That’s not exactly a surprise, though slightly disappointing if your a Microsoft fan and yet the $500 console is a little too rich for you.
So why would Microsoft persist in packing a Kinect in with each Xbox One? It’s simple, really: standardization. If Microsoft and other developers can be sure that each Xbox One has a Kinect with it, then they can go ahead and make games that really incorporate the Kinect in a way that we haven’t seen before. Developers won’t have to resort to limiting the Kinect to merely gimmicks, but instead they can make the use of the Kinect an integral part of the game if they so choose. And that’s not necessarily a bad idea.
