Outspoken 22 Cans founder and former Microsoft executive Peter Molyneux has told Edge that he believes the Kinect sensor for Xbox One feels "more and more like a joke."
Molyneux said that outside the US, Kinect is pretty much useless for TV control and claimed it would be "unthinkable" for Microsoft not remove the sensor as a requirement eventually:
“I actually wish Kinect wasn’t a requirement. It feels like an unnecessary add-on to me. Maybe it’s because we’re in England, and it doesn’t really use the TV stuff, but it feels more and more like a joke. My son and I sit there saying random things at it, and it doesn’t work. They could cost-reduce it [by removing Kinect]. I’m sure they’re going to release an Xbox One without Kinect. It would be unthinkable that they wouldn’t.”
However, Phil Spencer, who was recently appointed as head of Xbox, said removing Kinect isn't the number one request from users:
“I always want to make sure that we’re in tune with what current or potential customers are asking for from us. Right now, [dropping Kinect is] not the number one request from people. Usually it’s, ‘Where are the great games?’”
Microsoft's Phil Harrison has gone so far as to say that "Xbox One is Kinect."
He added that E3 will be a defining moment for the Xbox One with numerous important exclusives on show, the event will be “great… a real moment for us in this generation,” Spencer said. “I run firstparty studios, so I’m all about exclusives. When we talk to people, that exclusive content is the number one reason that gamers buy a given console,” the executive continued.
Finally, Spencer denied the continuing speculation that Microsoft might sell the Xbox division pointing to people who queued up outside game stores last November to buy the Xbox One – something he says does not happen with other Microsoft products, he added that gaming is "an asset that’s extremely valuable, and since our future ambition is to grow our consumer relevance, Xbox has to be at the centre of that.”
The full interviews with Molyneux and Spencer are included in the next issue of Edge which goes on sale this Thursday.
