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The Kinect Is No Longer Mandatory For Xbox One Use

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The reversals just keep coming. After an overwhelmingly negative reception, Microsoft has kept busy over the last few months reversing nearly every bad decision they made with the Xbox One, essentially rebuilding the platform and its misguided policies from the ground up. The result has been a storm of policy changes, including less restrictive DRM, self-publishing for indie developers,shipping a headset with each console and dropping those god awful Microsoft Points.

Now, the Xbox One is more closely resembling the follow-up to the Xbox 360 I wanted to see back in May. More on their latest policy change after the jump.

In a Q&A session with IGN, Microsoft’s Marc Whitten confirmed the Kinect is not required to use the Xbox One, saying “like online, the console will still function if Kinect isn’t plugged in, although you won’t be able to use any feature or experience that explicitly uses the sensor.” Previously, the device needed to be connected to the console in order for it to function.

The idea of an always-listening camera that may or may not be connected to the Internet, lurking and waiting for you to talk to it didn’t sit well with a lot of people.

Microsoft did say the peripheral could be turned off in the settings prior to this latest change, but now that we can just turn the thing off I suspect many gamers will take that route. If you would rather keep the Kinect connected but switched off, the console will let you know when you’re trying to use a feature that requires the peripheral so you can reactivate it.

This is more good news, because it means we may see a cheaper, Kinect-free Xbox One bundle after the console launches this November. For me, the $499 price tag is the only serious barrier of entry left. How about you?

Have a question? Feel free to ever-so-gently toss Adam an email, or follow him on Twitter and Bloody Disgusting.

Gamer, writer, terrible dancer, longtime toast enthusiast. Legend has it Adam was born with a controller in one hand and the Kraken's left eye in the other. Legends are often wrong.

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One of Clive Barker’s Final Convention Appearances Will Be at New Jersey’s Monster Mania in August

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Clive Barker

We told you earlier this month that horror legend Clive Barker is leaving the convention scene behind to focus entirely on his writing, with various upcoming projects in the works.

A series of final appearances from Barker will begin at Days of the Dead Chicago this month, and we’ve learned Barker will also be coming to Monster Mania in New Jersey.

Clive Barker will be signing at Monster Mania 59 in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, which runs from August 2 – August 4, 2024. Stay tuned for more info from the convention.

Barker’s official statement earlier this month explained, “… it’s time to focus entirely on writing. I’m not stopping public events because I’ve lost delight in meeting you all over the years. I’m as passionate as ever about sharing my imagination with readers and moviegoers around the world. In the very room where I’m writing these words, I have the manuscripts for a very large number of projects (Thirty-one of them), some very close to completion, others still telling themselves. There are some wild projects in this collection of works, whether close to finished or done. There are also stories that you all knew I would be finishing.”

“Abarat IV and V are amongst the books at my feet,” he continued. “So is the Third and final book of The Art and the sequel to The Thief of Always. There are also return visits to characters and mythologies you may have thought I would never return to.

“I hope I am still able to surprise you in the decades ahead.”

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