Microsoft Still Committed to Kinect, Hopes Devs Will Be Too

After a noticable absense of Kinect at Microsoft's Gamescom press conference, people are wondering whether this means the end of the motion-sensing camera as an essential piece of Microsoft's plan for the Xbox One.

Speaking to IGN, Microsoft's Phil Harrison says that the stunted showing isn't indicitive of the hardware being dropped.

"That wasn’t, in any way, to make any editorial statement about the future of Kinect," Harrison said. "It’s just that these were the games we wanted to highlight in our briefing. The games that we focused on in our briefing were the blockbusters and exclusives for this holiday, 2014."

"We let the developers choose [whether or not they will use Kinect]," Harrison explained. "It’s one of the tools that they have in their tool belt for taking advantage of the Xbox One, and we hope they continue to do so."

Microsoft made the announcement that it would be selling the Xbox One without a Kinect earlier this year. Dropping the accessory from the box put the system at equal pricing as the PlayStation 4. The announcement was widely considered to be Microsoft admitting defeat regarding the peripheral, which was often criticized for being a requirement to buy the system.