Phil Spencer On Kinect: We Won’t Force It On People

The Kinect was one of the big reasons why the Xbox One was priced $100 more than the PlayStation 4. Back in 2013 Microsoft decided to compulsorily bundle the Kinect with the Xbox One which pushed the price of the console to $499. However in a matter of months, Microsoft decided to decouple Kinect from the console due to negative reception and slow sales.

In other words, Microsoft’s priorities changed and they started to focus on games and left the Kinect behind. And it seems this will continue to be so in the future. In an interview with Gamespot, Xbox boss Phil Spencer explained that they will still support Kinect where it makes sense. For example, the Xbox One S does not have a Kinect port although users can buy an additional adapter if they are interested in using the device. And then there is the upcoming Cortana support for the Xbox One which will be dependent on Kinect. However Microsoft does not plan to make it a requirement, at least for the time being.

“It’s kind of like any technology in our ecosystem–its success and popularity will come from how people use it. And I like what Kinect brought to the 360, I like some of the games that have come to the Xbox One. We’re going to continue to focus on making sure it’s a supported part of the platform, but we also won’t force it on people and say that we’re somehow going to make it something that’s a required part of the platform,” he stated in the interview.

Well, I guess it more or less means that Kinect is no longer the priority for team am Xbox, and that in my opinion is the right call, specially given Microsoft’s recent initiatives such as the Play Anywhere feature.

Are you disappointed by the lack of Kinect support on the Xbox One?

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