Recently Microsoft announced that they would be releasing an Xbox One bundle that would come without the Kinect included. This meant that the price of the console was knocked down to $399, putting it on par with the Sony PlayStation 4. This is good news for gamers who want to save money, but at the same time, what does this mean for Microsoft? Have they admitted defeat with the Kinect?
Well thankfully that is far from the case, according to Microsoft’s Larry “Major Nelson” Hyrb, who recently took to Reddit to reassure gamers that the Kinect is alive and well and is still part of Microsoft’s vision. According to Hyrb, he wrote, “Of course we’ll still work to improve Kinect.” He also added that he wanted to thank everyone for their continuous support for the Xbox One.
“While I am in no way caught up on all the threads/comments of the news oft the past few days, I wanted to take a moment and say thank you. Everyone at Xbox appreciates the continued support of Xbox One. We really do. From you awesome Day One folks to those who just joined the fold, we are committed Xbox One and making Xbox One the best next gen console gaming platform.”
So what will Microsoft do without the presence of the Kinect? Well according to an earlier report, Microsoft mentioned that they would be exploring the idea of possible processor gains. As it stands, the Xbox One dedicates about 10% of their processing power to system processes, such as Snap mode and the Kinect, so without the Kinect in the picture, that 10% could potentially be freed up to do other things instead.