Xbox Ones that are not attached to a Kinect camera could receive a performance boost.
Microsoft has previously detailed how a certain percentage of the system’s power is constantly reserved for a handful of OS-specific tasks such as Kinect usage and running multiple programs.
However, now that Microsoft has officially green lit a Kinect-free Xbox One, Microsoft’s corporate vice president for devices and studios Yusuf Mehdi has told Polygon that thoughts have turned to handing over the freed up processing power to developers.
"We are in discussions with our game publishers about what we might do in this space,” he said of the possibility. We will have more to talk about soon."
All of which could help Xbox One begin achieving resolution parity with PS4 – at the risk of fragmenting the userbase.