Do you like kinect? Well since you're on a gaming forum the answer is no. Also since you're on a gaming forum you will be early adopters of the 720. What would you do if you had a pointless kinect sitting around? SELL IT!!!

According to rumors the 720 requires Kinect or else it won't even turn on. I, mighty JoeTheBro, have realized that this is to force early adopters to stick with the accessory instead of selling it for cheap to PC users and cutting into Microsoft's profits or ditching it entirely cause they can. This isn't because of some silly reason like the menus don't work with a controller.

*and to spy on you.

Doesn't the next Xbox use an upgraded Kinect sensor? If that's true I'd be surprised if the original Kinect is usable with it.

it comes with it.

one of the things about always on this gives a chance to fire up the xbox without the controller

one of the things people tried to do when kinect first came out was say xbox on.

how is voice control pointless?  and ive never underestood what "gamers"  have against games of all nature.  a game is a game. 

It makes sense to me even if I'm not a fan of motion controls. MS wants developers to utilize Kinect 2. The original Kinect didn't get full support from devs because devs knew only a small percent of Xbox 360s had them. But if ALL Nextbox consoles don't just come with it, but only work with one connected, then devs can count on it and integrate it into their games. That might mean voice control or motion or some hybrid with a controller.

The Wii U ships with the GamePad for the same reason. If it was an accessory sold seperatly most devs would ignore it and just makes games with standard controls.

I'm still not convinced if this rumor is true. It's a very expensive accessory to be made as a mandatory purchase that only receive a luke-warm (if borderline hostile) reception from the core. And that's when it was an optional purchase.

One thing about having a Kinect 2 as mandatory: It makes sense if they're going to push the multimedia aspects. Everything on the UI will be voice-activated. Netflix, Hulu, Music, and so on. Without it, you'd get a diminished experience.

This. 

This reason is much more logical. It appears they want to make everything standardized so all games can be fully optimized.

A game is a game, but some games take honed skills and talent to beat and/or master (Ikaruga, 100% Meatboy etc.) while others take absolutely none (Farmville).

Both of your examples are legitimate forms of entertainment as well as clearly games.