Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Xbox One: Kinect No Longer Needed

As many of you have probably already heard, the Xbox One will no longer REQUIRE the Kinect to be used for games, which bring good and bad with it. It all depends on who you are and your usage, I suppose. I, for one, will not make use of Skype or any other form of video chat, the most I'll do is give it orders and of course, play Kinect games (and games that use Kinect).

Why should you care though? There's a big divide among fans, some are glad it won't be needed, while some see this as a side step, or even a step backwards for the console (much like the DRM reversal).

I am personally on the fence, if they still INCLUDE it with The One I'm fine with that, because then it's more like a Cellphone camera, there if you need it but you don't HAVE to use it. Devs will be able to do so much more if they know that everyone will have it from the get go, instead of looking at sales and basing what their next game is or has on that.

Let's look at some of the good and bad.

+ If a non-Kinect version is released, it'll likely be around $400
+ If it breaks (the Kinect), you can just go buy a new one
+ People can take the tinfoil off their heads
- Limits what devs will (likely) do if it's not bundled (why focus on something only part of the community has?)
- It's not ADVANCING what games are capable of, this makes it a updated Xbox 360
- People lose out on hilarious YouTube videos

Okay I admit, some of those were half-assed examples, some are more of a summarization, but you get the point. All in all, there's more to lose than there is to gain if they decide NOT to at least include Kinect with the console.... Or at least that's what I believe.