Devs Need To Code To Optimize Kinect-Free Xbox One

Major Nelson has had to make a huge clarification on the Xbox One update sans Kinect.

As we know, Microsoft is now selling a new Xbox One SKU without the motion control device, and is subsequently setting up the infrastructure so that developers can make use of the extra resources that were freed up.

Dear Media: The GPU change was developer facing. Unplugging Kinect does not get you more HP. Devs have to code to the new specs.

— Larry Hryb (@majornelson) June 5, 2014

However, unplugging the Kinect will not magically free those resources up. Developers will have to code their games to make use of the tweaked specs to make full use of those resources.

Of course, this opens up the question, should developers code for both Kinect enabled and Kinect free Xbox Ones then? Won’t this create fragmentation among Xbox One users? As of right now, it seems that this is an inevitability.