An official Xbox One developer did a Q&A session on Reddit talking more about the console and of course the Kinect.
Many gamers have been asking why the Kinect is mandatory for the Xbox One console. People would rather have it as an optional piece of hardware much like the current Xbox 360 model.
Here’s the main reason why the console needs the Kinect according to this developer:
The number of features on the Xbox One that uses the Kinect is almost too many to count. I can’t imagine using the console without it. To me, I see two ways to deal with this.
1) Not require the Kinect to be always plugged in and have all these features turned off by default.
2) Enable these features by default and turn them off if people choose to turn off the Kinect.
The first choice would undermine our guarantee to game developers.
Basically he’s saying lots of Xbox One games/apps utilize Kinect features that it wouldn’t have been possible to release the console without it. People do have the option to turn off the Kinect, but at this stage, every console comes shipped with the hardware whether you like it or not. This means the console will stay priced at $499 for a while…
tom
July 14, 2013 at 8:49 PMJesus would we stop posting articles on BS. That so called developer was about as credible as those paste bin documents that were posted. Dont say an Xbox One Developer when its most likely A PS4 Fanboy saying hes an Xbox One Developer. If MS wanted to do a Q&A they would certainly advertise something for it they would give a name of the developer or they would use Major Nelson. Thats why this Reddit (sorry sub-Reddit) Q&A is total BS.
oldtaku
July 15, 2013 at 10:14 PMI’m going with 3) Don’t buy an XBox One