Marc Whitten, of the Xbox One team, has been telling IGN that the Kinect is not needed for the Xbox One to be used to its full.
“That said, like online, the console will still function if Kinect isn’t plugged in, although you won’t be able to use any feature or experience that explicitly uses the sensor.” stated Marc Whitten.
When asked to elaborate on what he meant by such a statement he went on to state that:
“You 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.”
So this is good news for all hardcore “console” gamers. In the most part we already knew this news but essentially this confirms that you can just put your Kinect in a box and not use it if you don’t want to. Of course if you do want to use it then you can do but it will only be necessary for using games that have Kinect support or if you want to use voice and gesture controls.
Image courtesy of Microsoft
But why should I HAVE to buy it if I’m just going to leave it in the box?
I’ve never hard of a ‘hardcore console gamer’. Any self respecting hardcore gamer uses the proper platform and leaves the consoles to the kids.