Were you waiting to buy an Xbox One, perhaps in the hope that Microsoft would drop the price of the console by removing the Kinect from the bundle? Well, you could be waiting a very long time--or more likely, forever.
Microsoft has stated it has no intention of removing the Kinect from any Xbox One console sold, now or in the future. Some people feel they may not want nor need the voice and motion sensing peripheral to enjoy their console, which is largely responsible for the $100 difference in cost with the PlayStation 4.
Microsoft disagrees, and thinks the Kinect is essential to what it's trying to do with its new console. Speaking to Eurogamer, Xbox UK marketing chief Harvey Eagle said that the Kinect is a crucial part of the Xbox One.
"[A Kinect-less Xbox One] is not in our plans at all," Eagle stated. "As we've said from the very beginning, we believe Kinect is an absolutely integral part of the Xbox One experience."
It's good that they're sticking to their decision about Kinect, since they've made it part of the core operations of the console. Menus, apps and games are all made to be navigated with voice commands or motion gestures, though they can of course still be used with a controller.
What's disappointing though given Microsoft's stress on Kinect is that there really aren't any games so far that make great use of it. Ryse: Son of Rome has some Kinect voice functionality, and only two games (Kinect: Rare's Kinect Sports Rivals, and Xbox Fitness) require its use to play.
Eagles stresses that E3 will be the time to talk about this type of software stating, "Obviously E3 is a key moment in time where we'll make a bunch of announcements about what's coming up in the months ahead of E3, and particularly for Christmas," he said. "So expect to hear much more from us at E3."
If you like Kinect, that should mean some great titles coming up in the future. If you're not sold on it, or hate the idea, you might do best to get used to it and hope some good software makes use of the motion and voice capabilities-it sounds like Kinect will be around for the long haul.
