New XBox One SKU without Kinect

[Brad]

Assuming they made a profit on every Kinect the original was a huge success for them. Their mistake was as SF pointed out, not quitting while they were ahead.

[djtickle]

Sad but I guess this Kinect will be the last we will see. I like my Kinect and this decision only means it will get less and less support through the consoles life span. Cheaper consoles = More sales? Guess we will see.

Shame really they should have stood by it a little longer, but I guess if Devs are not doing anything then better to drop it sooner rather than later.

['Press Start']

Oh and XBots how does the humble pie taste?

Pretty similar to pointless taunting pie I'd imagine.

C'mon man grow up.

[charlesr]

Seems a lost opportunity to ditch it completely. I've said it before but why not just have a mic in the base unit and make the kinect optional. Voice commands are what 99% of people will use it for. "Xbox record that". "Xbox pause" etc.

[Brad]

Seems a lost opportunity to ditch it completely. I've said it before but why not just have a mic in the base unit and make the kinect optional. Voice commands are what 99% of people will use it for. "Xbox record that". "Xbox pause" etc.

I'm sure they'll do this, or at least support voice input via regular mics.

[gambit6613]

One thing I'm thinking is now Kinect is no longer mandatory will this enable developers to make more use of the hardware without having the restriction of system resources that Kinect required, i.e squeeze more power from the console?

[VR46]

Sure they can patch in a bit of code to check if Kinect is present, but then it's not that simple is it? can't just have one version of the game running at say 1080p without Kinect and 900p if Kinect is present can they?

[Brad]

No because there are at least 5 million people who have Kinect. Besides, the kinect overhead isn't going to bring PS4 parity so why bother? Too risky.

[charlesr]

There is ~10% set aside, so I'm sure that will be opened up. You'll have games that disable the kinect functions completely to get more umph. Then kinect will be enabled when going back to the dash.

[originalbadboy]

One thing I'm thinking is now Kinect is no longer mandatory will this enable developers to make more use of the hardware without having the restriction of system resources that Kinect required, i.e squeeze more power from the console?

No not going to happen otherwise the people with Kinect would be forced to unplug it.

Microsoft always said that devs would be able to turn off Kinect (or at least parts of it)if they want the extra 10% anyway. For example if a game is running you really only need the mic picking up voice so you can use things like GameDVR. The rest could be turned off (and should be in reality if its not being used).

[Lebowski]

I imagine lebowski walking around wearing a bluetooth headset at all times.
Cortana was recently announced for Windows Phone, it'll be a matter of time before they roll that out to Windows/Xbox.

lol i always make sure i get one that has extra flashy blue light so everyone knows that i'm into teh tech.

To be serious i have young kids so if i want decent sound when playing i always normally have a gaming headset on, i know having to wear a mic all the time to access voice features isn't ideal but then neither is paying ?80 for a device that has no decent games or use at the present time.

I'm glad they have leveled the playing field price-wise and got back to being all about games, i wonder if this is because very few people have used the pass through and TV integration tech (i haven't and neither have a lot of my friends). The reversal on kinect could also be because a lot people haven't bothered to plug in the new kinect, i saw that a few forum members on here hadn't, I'm sure Microsoft will have something in place to collect data on who is using what and have acted accordingly.

[Team Andromeda]

Seems a lost opportunity to ditch it completely.

Why I can't think of one game that makes any good use of it on either the 360 or XBox One ( and I remember voice commands being in games like Rainbow Six on the old XBox ) . It Just a waste of everyone time and money . All Kinect done is to kill off the likes of *Rare , ruin franchises like Steel Battalion, Fable and seen MS wasted millions down the train instead of green lighting sequels to real games like Kameo, Blue Dragoon , Alan Wake , PGR 4 and so on .

With luck this will mean the of bullcrap motion controls and tools like Kudo Tsunoda having a say on MS games




*Comments may be slightly exaggerated

[wakka]

The HDMI pass through will be the next thing to go. Xbox One Slim/Lite/v2 won't have it, and it might disappear even sooner. I really can't see the majority of people using that feature. It's cool for tech enthusiasts but it's just pointlessly overcomplicating the Sky box for 99% of people.

[Brad]

There is ~10% set aside, so I'm sure that will be opened up. You'll have games that disable the kinect functions completely to get more umph. Then kinect will be enabled when going back to the dash.

Presumably this is 10% of the CPU, which is already faster than the PS4 so little point IMO.

This doesn't mean anything for the console except it'll be cheaper to buy and time and effort previously wasted on Kinect can be better used elsewhere. That might include optimising the SDK and tools, more time optimising game engines etc. but no one should get any ideas that this will magically allow graphical parity with the PS4. Sony haven't stopped optimising stuff themselves I'm sure. The focus should be on exclusive, compelling titles!

[Team Andromeda]

The HDMI pass through will be the next thing to go. Xbox One Slim/Lite/v2 won't have it, and it might disappear even sooner. I really can't see the majority of people using that feature. It's cool for tech enthusiasts but it's just pointlessly overcomplicating the Sky box for 99% of people.

Not so sure about that one. Its a nice feature just need a update so even the XBox One is on stand by you can view SKY/Digital Box. That's the biggest pain with that feature