'Xbox One reversal made us rethink Kinect,' says The Crew lead designer

Microsoft might be pushing Kinect to the forefront of the Xbox One experience, but its decision to change the console so it no longer needs Kinect to be plugged in to run made us wonder just how much faith people will have in the peripheral.

In particular, we wondered whether it meant developers would treat it as less essential to the experience after the U-turn.

And speaking to Serkan Hassan, lead designer of Ubisoft's upcoming open-world driving title The Crew, we might have been right.

"Maybe to a degree the decision Microsoft has now taken has sort of made us think that these things are less important in the bigger picture," he told TechRadar.

"But then we do know that every console ships with a Kinect. So yes, people can turn it off but yes people can also use it because everyone's got one."

Welcome to the circus of values

Right now, The Crew isn't embracing Kinect or the PS4's Eye, but Hassan said that the team might look at doing something if it's truly worthwhile.

"I mean it's something we need to consider and need to see if we can do something that's really going to add value," added Hassan.

"I see a lot of voice stuff. I'm still a little confused why people are saying that has to be done with a Kinect or a PS Eye and can't be done with a headset, quite frankly.

"A mic and a headset is just as good as picking up a microphone that's at the other end of the living room," he said.

"I'm still a little bit on the fence but it's something we're still looking at as a group."

• Meanwhile, Watch Dogs creative director tells us the game is a tech "wake up call". Yipes!