Xbox One Xbox One will work without the Kinect; more questions answered!

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ozadin

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This weeks questions were a bit better than last weeks on IGN. It has been confirmed that the Kinect does not have to be plugged in in order for the Xbox One to function. You'll just be missing out on the features or experiences that uses the sensor. This clears up a lot of questions if the Kinect will have the camera on 24/7 for government and NSA purposes, but no longer will we have to worry about that! You can check out a few other questions and answers presented in this Q&A from Microsoft. Some more questions are clarified, some were answered a few days ago, while some questions were answered today.

Can you organize your now-expanded Friends List into categories? i.e. “College buddies,” “Friends from work,” etc.?
- More will be added in the future, but yes, you have the ability to mark favorites, and most likely categories.

Is there cross-console Party Chat? i.e. since it’s all “Xbox Live,” can people on Xbox 360s Party Chat with their friends on Xbox One?
- No (darn) because of technical reasons. You can still send and receive text messages on both systems.

OK, so we can't chat across systems. But can I at least see what my friends are doing on either console?
- Yes.

Since Kinect must be plugged in for the Xbox One to function, what happens if your Kinect breaks? Like if it falls off the top of your TV onto a hardwood floor or something? Will the console cease to function?
- A bit is mentioned above, but Kinect is designed for the Xbox One. Voice activated, Smartglass, get to your homescreen, pick up and play depending on which controller you're using, and a lot more.

How “off” can Kinect be when the system is in use?
- You have the choice to turn the censor on and off in the settings.

Is there a chat headset included in the Xbox One box or not?
- As shown in the unboxing video, yes.

...and here's where everything came from! IGN
 
That is good news indeed. I was wondering about that. My grandson loves using the Kinnect, but I myself do not. Glad about them including a headset as I am having fun on Xbox live and if I buy new system do not want to have to add all the accessories at once, I like what I prefer to just be included.
 
Yeah, another thing Microsoft has backed off on, and I think again it's a for the better. I know there are at least a few of people out there that aren't interested in the Kinect, I myself being one. It seems like more of a kids-gaming item to me (no offense to anyone). It just seems like more serious gamers will be using the controllers and not wanting to fool with a Kinect much. I know some people were spooked too with the NSA stuff coming to light at the same time Microsoft is saying, hey let's put an always-on camera in your house. I'm not quite a conspiracy theorist to that level, but it is a tad creepy I suppose. I'm glad Microsoft is allowing people to make their own decisions on this.
 
Fantastic news. I was hesitant to see them actually go this far, but they've actually done it. We all know what a huge mess E3 was and over the last couple of months they have been getting better and better by undoing some of their bad decisions. Now that this is no longer the case, the Xbox One , is very much a worthy competitor to the PS4. Previously it seemed like you were getting the short end of the stick, but now they are very much equal. I can't wait to see what they will reveal at Gamescom. I think that it will be something huge that will blow us all away.
 
Hell yeah, son! Screw the Kinect, motion gaming is lame as hell until there's good games to prove me otherwise. I mean, sure, Wii has good games with motion controls but for 99% of them you think "whoa, this game could totally work without motion controls... hell, might be even better without them!" instead of "motion gaming is so great!". And that's the Wii, that's build all around motion gaming, unlike the Xbox systems. Kinect is just an afterthought and there's no great games for it, IMO.

So yeah, excellent news.
 
Now that they have retired and flipped one more time, I wonder what they are going to change next time around. I mean, Microsof has overtly reversed some of it's policies in favor of gaming communities in last couple of weeks. It's really awesome news.
 
Ok, great for a lot of things, but can i use my old Kinect for this? Do i really have to use the new one? If i want to keep both consoles, will i have to put one Kinect in the top of the screen and the other under it?
 
Thanks for posting this, as even though I heard about the Kinect no longer being a requirement, It's still nice to have a thread where all the questions we have can all be answered. Like others have said, This is definitely great news and another step in the right direction for Microsoft and the Xbox One as well. Good to see them making changes for the better.
 
BlackSolaris said:
Ok, great for a lot of things, but can i use my old Kinect for this? Do i really have to use the new one? If i want to keep both consoles, will i have to put one Kinect in the top of the screen and the other under it?
Click to expand...

No, you can'rt use your old Kinect with this console. Why would you want to use it anyway when you are going to buy a new Kinect? They have not announced a kinect less version and probably never will.
 
Claptrap said:
Hell yeah, son! Screw the Kinect, motion gaming is lame as hell until there's good games to prove me otherwise. I mean, sure, Wii has good games with motion controls but for 99% of them you think "whoa, this game could totally work without motion controls... hell, might be even better without them!" instead of "motion gaming is so great!". And that's the Wii, that's build all around motion gaming, unlike the Xbox systems. Kinect is just an afterthought and there's no great games for it, IMO.

So yeah, excellent news.
Click to expand...
a
their wont be good kinect games with people who dont us the kinect. it needs the data to back up its limitations with people not useing it their is no data..
 
wowtgp said:
No, you can'rt use your old Kinect with this console. Why would you want to use it anyway when you are going to buy a new Kinect? They have not announced a kinect less version and probably never will.
Click to expand...

I don't know about that...I might as well. I mean, why else would they announce it?

This will definitely open new avenues for them to try and sell the console for cheaper and give PS4 some competition. Of course they might not do this right away but I can certainly see this happening in the future.
 
This is good news in more than one way. It's going to stop all the stupid fanboys calling out Microsoft on "spying" on them via Kinect, and it also might give way to a cheaper priced XB1 without the Kinect bundled in. If you think about it, the Kinect 2.0 inclusion is the main reason the XB1 is coming out at $499.99 in the US. If they release a non-Kinect bundle at $399.99 very close to launch, we'll see sales drastically improve.
 
*checks the thread to see that nobody else has made the joke yet*

Hehe. They really did an Xbox One-Eighty on those policies, didn't they?

Glad to see consumers getting treated a little more leniently. I'm not a paranoid nutter or anything, but what with all the NSA stuff, even if the Kinect wasn't gonna spy on me, I'd still be a bit leery keeping the thing plugged in 24/7.
 
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