Cortana to Support Headsets on Xbox One?

Microsoft first revealed Cortana for Xbox One earlier this year at E3. In a promotional video demonstrating a new dashboard, Microsoft went on to state: “Kinect required for Cortana speech recognition,” Whilst Microsoft at the time refused to comment further on potential headset support, it now appears  that Cortana on Xbox One headsets will be supported.

In an interview with Polygon, chief marketing officer Mike Nichols has revealed you’ll be able to use Cortana with a headset and microphone or by typing out a search Microsoft currently plan to roll out Cortana to Xbox One preview members by the end of the year, with a final release being to all Xbox One owners next year. Chief marketing officer Mike Nichols went on to state the following:

“What that means to gamers is that with the rollout of the major new user-interface redesign they’ll see mostly a de-emphasis on Kinect controls.” “Gesture controls on the menus, for instance, have been completely removed.”

“That when Cortana comes to the Xbox One the voice or text search AI is scheduled for a preview sometime this year, it will include Kinect support.” “You’ll also be able to use it with a headset and microphone or by typing in your search”

When Microsoft first released the Kinect with the Xbox One it was predominantly optimised for gestures and simple phases, so I’d imagine getting Cortana to function correctly is no small accomplishment. This does mean Microsoft has to let something give to refocus their resources, that being gestures. Microsoft seems to be doing a complete U-turn to what they were focusing on when the Xbox One was first demonstrated to the world.

What do you think about Microsoft removing some gesture support from the Xbox One interface in favour for Cortana?