Xbox One Updates & Features: New Xbox One Experience Brings Backwards Compatibility But Drops Support for Kinect Gestures

Microsoft is getting ready to roll out a new update dubbed as the New Xbox One Experience for owners of its first-gen gaming console.

Although the update is expected to come with the highly anticipated Backwards Compatibility support, it will also remove a key feature of the Xbox One.

Mike Yibarra, the head of the team working on the New Xbox One Experience, confirmed during an interview with Windows Central that the upcoming update will remove the support for Kinect gestures on the Xbox One's dashboard.

Without this feature, gamers will no longer be able to navigate through their Xbox One dashboards with their hands or activate and access certain functions through gestures.

According to Ybarra, they decided to scratch the feature due to the feedback of majority of Microsoft's supporters.

"On gestures, when we looked at the New Xbox One Experience we wanted to prioritize features that customers were asking for, plus areas of improvement from the existing Xbox One [user interface]," he told Windows Central.

"With gestures, the reality was the usage was very, very low," he continued. "So for now, we've cut that from the New Xbox One Experience. So when we launch on the 12^th, they won't be in the product. We'll continue to monitor and listen to feedback to see if people want them in."

Building up on Ybarra's statements, Microsoft said the Kinect gesture was removed in order to make way for new features that were requested by Xbox One users. According to the company, the addition of these features can help build a more social experience for the gamers.

Also, even through support for the Kinect gestures was removed, Microsoft noted that this will still be available in certain features.

"Gesture controls for navigating the dashboard were removed to focus on fan-requested features resulting in a faster and more social Xbox One experience," the spokesperson from Microsoft said in a statement according to Gamespot.

"Kinect motion detection continues to be available for Kinect-enabled games, biometric sign-in, and video calls with Skype for Xbox One," the company representative added.

As to what gamers can expect to see in the New Xbox One Experience, Microsoft said that it will feature a smoother user interface as well as backwards compatibility support for certain Xbox 360 games. Some of these include "Gears of Wars" and "Borderlands." IGN noted that more games will be included in the future such as "Halo," "Halo Wars," "Skate 3," "Black Ops" and the "BioShock" series.