Following the reveal of a Kinect-less Xbox One package (which comes with a price cut to boot), Microsoft is now in discussions with various publishers and developers about increasing the graphical performance of the company’s Xbox One console now that it no longer has the peripheral as a mandatory bundle requirement.
As reported by Polygon, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of marketing and strategy Yusuf Mehdi explained that the decision to remove the Kinect from the Xbox One came about after a couple months of serious discussion. Microsoft officials then spoke to both publishers and developers alike over the past few weeks to update them of the change to the console.
“We have been working with our developers and game publisher partners for awhile trying to balance two goals,” Mehdi explained to Polygon. “One is the accessibility of the Kinect and the other is the desire for customers to onboard to Xbox One. They want both, a large audience of users and the best features. We feel this vision is balance the best of those goals.“
Despite the announcement of a Kinect-less Xbox One, which will be shipping on Monday, June 9 for $100 less compared to its Kinect-included counterpart, Mehdi has assured that Microsoft’s support for the peripheral itself hasn’t changed.
“We remain deeply committed to the Kinect as a core component of a next-generation console,” he said. “We think that the bio-metric sign-in, voice controls of the menu, ability to say ‘record that’ and capture a moment of gameplay are all critical to the experience. We have never wavered from that since the launch.“
Mehdi continued on to say that the change was being driven by consumer feedback, as well as driven in part that there are still a lot of people who have yet to buy an Xbox One.
“The decision we’re announcing today [Tuesday, May 13] is offering a choice to people that would allow people to buy an Xbox One and then ramp up to Kinect when they can afford to,” he said. “We have over 80 million people who have yet to buy Xbox One,” he added.
Polygon’s full interview with Yusuf Mehdi can be found via the source link below.
[ Polygon ]