People have been complaining a lot about the XBox One. Their D.R.M policy, their focus on television rather than gaming, their “sucking is an under-statement” PR team; its been one dismal reveal. Another thing that has been bothering a lot of people, is the always on Kinect. Not only will the Kinect be coming as a mandatory accessory to every XBox One, it implements an always on functionality. Now Kinect wasn’t exactly the most loved name among gamers. Making it look like a compulsory/forced add-on, and technically allowing it to collect data on you even when its off, they just made it the most hated accessory ever (that’s including the Boomerang shaped PS controller).
While Microsoft clear the privacy issue debate. Lets for a moment, put aside the spying conspiracy theory and look at Kinect purely as a gaming accessory. Up until now, Kinect was an optional add on to a XBox 360, and it wasn’t exactly the most well recieved unit. What it meant to a publisher developing a game implementing Kinect was; that he was catering to a very specific set of gamers (ok, most of them children). Now imagine you are a AAA developer, you are putting in million of dollars to create a blockbuster of a game. Will you as a developer really put in their time and effort into something which is not even owned (let alone used) by a majority of gamers. It didnt make sense, and hence it didnt make good Kinect games.
Now Kinect is a sure thing with every XBox One. So when a new game is being made, you can safely assume that whatever Kinect functionality you put in, will reach every person who buys your games. Now it is as much a part of the console as the controller, and developers would be foolish if they don’t use it to its full potential. They would work harder, and make better games for Kinect, it would no longer be some last minute tacked on functionality.
Remember this is the next genration of console, and maybe just maybe Kinect is a part of that.
