Xbox One's Kinect Can Turn Off, Microsoft Says, Noting Privacy Worries

The state of confusion around the new Xbox One console is such that we're delighted to bring you the news that Microsoft's next console has a power button. What's more: its watchful new Kinect sensor that must be plugged in for the console to run can be turned off.

Oh brother, big brother! Maybe this new Xbox won't be spying on everyone after all.

"It is not always watching or always listening," a rep for Microsoft told me over e-mail while I was trying to nail down some facts for a story about next-gen consoles that ran in yesterday's New York Times.

In the Times article, I reported that Microsoft says the Kinect can be turned off. The entire console can be powered down. This might seem obvious to anyone familiar with how consumer electronics work, but... let's face facts...the Xbox One has seemed, for the past week, to be a tad different than the average piece of consumer electronics.

"Yes, you can turn the system completely off," the Microsoft rep said. "This would use no power and turn everything off. We’ll share more details about how it all works later." I believe this powering off involves the aforementioned power button.

Last week, Microsoft did not present a vision of an Xbox One that can or should be turned off. Rather, the company showcased a console that could be "always-on" and managed to freak out enough people who started envisioning an Xbox One that seemed capable of spying on its users.

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Microsoft: "We are designing the new Kinect with simple, easy methods to customize privacy settings."

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The spying concern wasn't groundless. The new Kinect can see in the dark, pick out human voices in a noisy living room and read your heartrate just by looking at your face. It was unveiled by Microsoft last week as a fixture of the fall-releasing Xbox One. The thing has to be plugged in for the console to work, and is in some way already checking out what's going on in the room it's in.

Even when ostensibly not functioning, the Xbox One can run in a low-powered state, ready to be snapped on at a moment's notice. That's something Microsoft was showing off last week as an asset. The only on-switch Microsoft showed for waking the machine from its low-power state was a voice command... "Xbox On." The Xbox One could only hear that if the Kinect was already, always listening. The idea that the Kinect might always be listening got people reaching for their tin foil or vowing to not let an Xbox One into their home.

Microsoft is now seeking to calm concerns that the new Kinect might spy. "We are designing the new Kinect with simple, easy methods to customize privacy settings, provide clear notifications and meaningful privacy choices for how data will be used, stored and shared," the Microsoft rep told me.

"We know our customers want and expect strong privacy protections to be built into our products, devices and services, and for companies to be responsible stewards of their data. Microsoft has more than ten years of experience making privacy a top priority. Kinect for Xbox 360 was designed and built with strong privacy protections in place and the new Kinect will continue this commitment. We’ll share more details later."

Answers about the Xbox One beget more questions. Blame our endless curiosity, Microsoft's confusing messaging or just the complex nature of the new console.

It's useful to know that Xbox One users can turn off the console and its sensor all at once without having to, say, unplug the machine. But it's still hard to tell how watchful the Kinect will be during gaming and other uses of the console.

The Xbox 360's Kinect was easy to baffle or block. Players had a leg up on it and could easily maintain their privacy. The sensor didn't have to be plugged in for the console to work. When it was plugged in, it didn't have to face the player. Most games didn't even require it. Xbox 360 users could leave the Kinect unplugged or even block the device's visual sensors if they just wanted to use its microphone for voice commands.

The new Kinect seems like it will be trickier to foil technologically, making Microsoft's promised privacy settings all the more relevant and essential. The new Kinect's vastly-improved sensors can identify its users in the dark and even track which controller they hold in their hands. The new sensor can tell when a user smiles or turns away from the TV and can react. It's unclear if the new Kinect must see a player in its view during their play session or if it can handle being obscured. This is partially a policy decision by Microsoft, which will get to decide whether to require persistent Kinect-based facial recognition to log a player in or, a la Xbox 360, will settle for button prompts.

Microsoft is promising more information about all things Xbox One at E3, the big gaming show that is now just two weeks away.

To contact the author of this post, write to stephentotilo@kotaku.com or find him on Twitter @stephentotilo

Kotaku

Microsoft Thinking About Giving You Achievements For Watching TV

Achievements are changing on the new Xbox One. They might be changing even more than we realise, though, if a Microsoft patent application for TV achievements ever actually comes to fruition.

Yes, according to a report on GI.biz, last November Microsoft applied for a patent aimed at giving you achievements for watching TV.

"Television viewing tends to be a passive experience for a viewer, without many opportunities for the viewer to engage or have interactive experiences with the presented content," the application's description reads. "To increase interactive viewing and encourage a user to watch one or more particular items of video content, awards and achievements may be tied to those items of video content."

That last sentence is the kicker, Microsoft obviously hoping to use achievements as a carrot, with sponsored content the stick.

Some other rewards beyond just a score are mentioned, such as "new clothes and props for an avatar, virtual money for a game, or even physical rewards."

Microsoft applies for patent on TV achievements [GI.biz].

Kotaku

Microsoft Doesn't Own XboxOne.com, Files Dispute Against Guy Who Does

Though it may seem ridiculous that Microsoft would name its new console without already owning the domain name for it, there are a couple of mitigating factors here. One is that the guy who owns XboxOne.com registered the name almost two years ago. That's some good guessing!

Fusible reports that Microsoft has filed a complaint with the National Arbitration Forum over the domain name to thwart the lucky cybersquatter, whom records say is a resident of the U.K. and registered the name in December 2011. XboxOne.net also is covered in the same complaint, indicating it is owned by the same person, Fusible notes.

Domain registrations are public (indeed, Fusible sniffs out all of them for clues on upcoming games, movies and whatnot). Worse, to have entered into a legal dispute over ownership of a domain name for which no product or service currently existed, would have tipped off everyone what Microsoft was going to call its next console. So the company probably figured it just had to suck it up and battle this thing out after they announced the device. Microsoft seems to have done well in these disputes anyway.

Microsoft files dispute over XboxOne.com and XboxOne.net domain names [Fusible]

Kotaku

Microsoft Plotting a New, Friendlier Xbox Live for Xbox One

Microsoft is taking steps to elevate the reputation of its popular but notorious online service, Xbox Live, for its third console, this fall's Xbox One. If they pull this off, the more positive gamers of the world might enjoy their online gaming sessions a little more.

A chief change involves a new, improved reputation system that will influence who plays together on the Xbox One's online service. "There is a new system in what we call Live 3.0 internally that totally remaps the matchmaking, and there is a reputational element to it as well," Phil Harrison, one of Microsoft's corporate vice president for games, told Kotaku at yesterday's big Xbox One event in Redmond, Washington.

"We want the best gaming citizens of Xbox Live to be mapped together and joined together and I think that’s a really positive movement for the community," Harrison said.

The reputation system would presumably involve some sort of scoring of Xbox Live users, possibly by each other, though it is not clear how this would work, how visible it would be, nor how significantly it would differ from rep systems attempted on the current Xbox Live.

Harrison promised more details will come later.

The Xbox One will also increase the number of friends an Xbox Live user can have to 1,000. Some gamers (including the person typing these words) can't remember who their Xbox Live friends all are. The Gamertags they use obscure their identities. Just who is ClownCarXX85 again? Asked whether users would be able to identify their friends with their real names, Harrison said, "I think you will see a general movement toward more real identity on Xbox One and on Live in general." Real identity is another way of saying "real names."

Xbox Live is available to all users of the Xbox 360, but to play multiplayer games and use special apps like Netflix, users have to pay a subscription that costs $ 60 a year. While Microsoft heavily touted features like Skype for Xbox One yesterday, they did not say whether they would require a paid Live account or if such a distinction is even relevant. A live-action Halo TV show was described as "premium."

Harrison didn't divulge any pricing details for the new Xbox Live, but did say that Xbox Live subscribers on Xbox 360 could use their subs for Xbox One.

And what of online multiplayer, which has always required a paid Xbox Live subscription on Xbox 360 even though online multiplayer is free on rival Sony and Nintendo platforms? "We will announce exactly all the features of Xbox Live at a later date," Harrison said.

Microsoft tells Polygon that the great dev studio Rare will be bringing back one of its old series f

Microsoft tells Polygon that the great dev studio Rare will be bringing back one of its old series for Xbox One and will show it at E3. For the love of god, let it be Blast Corps! (It most likely won't be Blast Corps.)