Microsoft has moved to clarify the impact of its decision to unlock the power of the Xbox One's graphics processing unit previously reserved for Kinect.
When Xbox One launched, 10 per cent of the console's GPU was reserved for use with the Kinect sensor. But this month Microsoft began selling the Xbox One without Kinect for a reduced price, and to coincide with that unlocked the 10 per cent reserve for developers to use as they see fit.
What Microsoft has done is create a flexible system where, according to Lobb, the Xbox One's GPU and RAM "can bounce".
"So if someone says, 'Xbox record that,' it will work on 100 per cent of the games, if you have a Kinect."
If you don't have a Kinect, "it's not like you have more RAM," Lobb clarified.
It's worth noting that if a developer creates a Kinect-free game, gesture controls and visual recognition features are suspended while the game is running. As soon as you minimise the game, however, all of the Kinect functionality returns.
How games use the extra horsepower will be up to developers, Lobb added. One, Bungie, has already been able to increase the resolution and frame-rate of its game, Destiny, on Xbox One, to hit 1080p30 - matching the PlayStation 4 version.
Other developers, however, might use it differently.
"You have more GPU, so go ahead and use it how you want," Lobb said. "It's more GPU plus more bandwidth to the GPU, so they both matter. So for some games it might be resolution, it might be frame-rate, or it might be, let's throw in more enemies."
The performance enhancements Microsoft has triggered in the Xbox One are all a part of "our platform improvement", Microsoft Studios Europe boss Phil Harrison told Eurogamer.
"The libraries developers get at the beginning of the life of a platform are radically different to the ones they will get five, eight and 10 years later," he said.
"Our job as a platform is to make sure we give fans the features that make their gaming experience better, and to give developers the tools to make the most of our chipset. We have to do both of those in balance."
This new set of libraries are available to developers right now, Harrison said. As mentioned, Destiny is already making use of it. But Harrison expects other games due out in time for Christmas will also benefit.
Lobb added that he thought the decision to sell Xbox One without Kinect was "super smart", but he remains a big fan of the sensor.
"So, I love Kinect," he said. "To me, it's not the thousand things it does. I record s*** all the time and I say, 'Xbox, on.' So for me, those two things, the hundred bucks doesn't matter for me. For a lot of people it does. And so we've got to give you an option to pick. Do you want to say, 'Xbox, on?' Do you want to say, 'Xbox, record that?' Do you want to dance? No? Then you don't need the device. I think that's super smart."
