While the internet took cover from the barrage of Xbox One announcement news yesterday, some pertinent details for us PC gamers slowly rose to the surface of the TV-TV-Sports-Dog news conference. Among them were the release date for Battlefield 4 , what the Xbox One might mean for PC gamers , and the hint that the Kinect 2.0 will eventually be available for Windows.
Via Polygon , Microsoft's Ben Kilgore confirmed that Kinect support will be released on Windows “at some point down the line.” Since the new Kinect sensor will be shipping as a part of the Xbox One retail unit, will there be a standalone Kinect offering? Or will we have to shell out for the full Xbox One to get access to a Kinect for Windows gameplay? We don't know.
The implications of a Windows-connected Kinect are intriguing, but not groundbreaking. Windows drivers were created independently not long after the first Kinect sensor released, and its usefulness is questionable—how will a desktop Kinect read players sitting about two feet away, as opposed to reading players sitting across the living room? Meanwhile, LeapMotion is working on desktop motion control that tracks hands in close proximity.
