this is from the AMA on reddit with the xbox one dev. he pretty much answered the same question you are asking. here is the question and answer
- Question : Couldn't you include it in the box and not require it to be hooked up? It seems like the 2 issues are not mutually exclusive, and people uncomfortable/uninterested with the Kinect could just throw it in a closet while it's still in every box at the same time.
Answer : The number of features on the Xbox One that uses the Kinect is almost too many to count. I can't imagine using the console without it. To me, I see two ways to deal with this.
1) Not require the Kinect to be always plugged in and have all these features turned off by default.
2) Enable these features by default and turn them off if people choose to turn off the Kinect.
The first choice would undermine our guarantee to game developers.
- This is one of those things they don't tell us until everyone else knows. But I have heard a wired headset will be included.
