Xbox One: Kinect-less bundle "not in our plans at all," says Eagle
Xbox One's RRP price includes a Kinect-flavoured mark up, and you're currently out of luck if you don't want to pay for one, but Microsoft's Harvey Eagle has made clear that there's no plans to release the console without it.
It follows confirmation that Xbox One Twitch streaming will launch on March 11.
Speaking with Eurogamer, Xbox UK marketing chief Eagle said, "[A Kinect-less Xbox One] is not in our plans at all. As we've said from the very beginning, we believe Kinect is an absolutely integral part of the Xbox One experience."
Eagle cited the Xbox One's Upload Studio video and image suite, which uses Kinect to record commentary and for other functions.
He stressed, "Look at all the thousands and thousands of game clips that have been posted by gamers to Upload Studio, of their gaming highlights, captured by speaking the words 'Xbox record that', which has already become part of Xbox vocabulary. It's a really great example of how Kinect makes the experience on Xbox One even better."
It's one feature that - while using Kinect as an integral cog - doesn't necessarily underline the device's importance to the overall Xbox One experience. We've noticed a few gamers out there echoing this sentiment, and Eagle was keen to make clear that games using Kinect more deeply are in the works, and due to be revealed around E3.
He explained, "Obviously E3 is a key moment in time where we'll make a bunch of announcements about what's coming up in the months ahead of E3, and particularly for Christmas. So expect to hear much more from us at E3.
"We've made announcements about games we're very excited about. Project Spark is going to be a very interesting game. I'd also mention Sunset Overdrive, which is looking very interesting. There's a very strong pipeline of games coming in the future. Titanfall is the one on the nearest horizon and everyone is rightly excited about that."
What do you make of Kinect? Are you not bothered, or are you excited to see how it develops.