Microsoft Surrenders, Promises Xbox One Will Work Without Kinect

Posted on the 16 August 2013 by Nrjperera @nrjperera

Microsoft’s Xbox One was unveiled as a revolutionary device that brought a few strict restrictions upon its’ users. However, shortly after a bombardment of criticism and petitions from fans, Microsoft came to its’senses and removed all those policies which they implemented earlier to be innovative. While this came as great news for gamers, analysts and gaming experts claimed this to be a big mistake. However, now the company has completely surrendered to its’ customers by agreeing to separate Xbox One and Kinect.

“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.” Chief Xbox One Platform Architect Marc Whitten stated during a “AMA” liveblog event at IGN. Prior to this, Kinect was required to start the Xbox One. Without the motion sensing device, gamers didn’t have a chance of using Xbox One.

Here’s Whitten’s answer to a viewer question about what would happen to Xbox One if Kinect broke down.

“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. 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 (likeKinect Sports Rivals for instance), you’ll get a message asking if you want to turn the sensor back on in order to continue.”

Even though they didn’t admit, Microsoft have changed the Kinect requirement after users’ negative response. But, instead of announcing this with a statement, the company has used this live-blog event to reveal the news in low profile.

[Via: Microsoft now says Kinect turns off completely; Xbox One can work without it Ars Technica]
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Roshan Jerad Perera