Gamers didn't like the idea of requiring a console to be connected online just so they could play games off a disc they already bought, or that they couldn't share a game with friends, or sell it back to a retailer without jumping through hoops. Microsoft listened, and changed its policy. Gamers didn't like the idea of not getting a headset with their shiny next-gen console. Microsoft listened, changed its mind, and gave them one. Indie developers didn't like that they couldn't self publish games on the Xbox One. Microsoft listened, and changed its policy. It seems like the company has been bending over backwards to win back the crowd after initially disappointing them, and the company is at it again. More recently, gamers didn't like the idea of an always listening, ever ready Kinect that couldn't be disabled. Once again, Microsoft has listened, and changed its policy.
Despite the company's formal announcement that the Kinect would always be there, and that the Xbox One even couldn't function without it, the company had gone back on its word in light of so many complaints.
Xbox Corporate Vice President Marc Whitten revealed the latest switch during an "Ask Microsoft Anything" Q&A via IGN, saying that players "have the ability to completely turn the sensor off in your settings. When in this mode, the sensor is not collecting any information. Any functionality that relies on voice, video, gesture or more won't work. We still support using it for IR blasting in this mode. You can turn the sensor back on at any time through settings, and if you enter into a required Kinect experience (like Kinect Sports Rivals for instance), you'll get a message asking if you want to turn the sensor back on in order to continue."
So, in essence, you'll still need the Kinect for certain games, and once off, you won't be able to use the various features, but yes, you can game on just fine without it.
Head of planning for Kinect and Xbox One, Albert Penello posted on NeoGAF to clarify the issue, that while they are giving players the option to use the Xbox One without Kinect, the company is far from abandoning the feature:
"We still believe in Kinect. We aren't interested in splitting the development base. The more demos I've seen, the more I've used it - the more impressed I am. The team feels strongly about Kinect, and I hope we're able to prove that when you use it. We also have a ton of privacy settings to allow people to turn off the camera, or microphones, or put it in a state just for "Xbox On" and IR blasting - there will be a lot of user control for that. The thing we all understood, and hence this change, is that there are some scenarios where people just may not be comfortable. We wanted people to be 100% comfortable, so we allow the sensor to be unplugged. And clearly the "it dropped" scenario is possible. The most obvious thing is watching a DVD/BD, or streaming a movie, or HDMI pass-through, your experience isn't impacted (except you miss voice and IR blasting). There is no "gotcha", but obviously, if there is a game that REQUIRES Kinect (like Rivals), or something where Kinect IS the experience (like Skype), those won't work. That said, for people who have privacy concerns there are user control settings, which we believe are great."
THIS is the console Microsoft should've presented at the official reveal so many months ago. It's nice to know that the company is indeed listening, though had Microsoft bothered to do so in the first place, it could've saved itself from all this trouble.