We’ve been speculating that an Xbox One bundle would be released sans Kinect since before the Xbox One was released. Today we finally have word from from Microsoft that an Xbox One will soon be released at $399 USD without the Kinect unit.
There was always a risk forcing consumers into paying nearly $100 more for a next generation console with a peripheral that very few people wanted and even less developers intended on using.
Microsoft says that this new price and packaging is a result of listening to feedback from its user base, but if that were the case Microsoft would have had this bundle available from the consoles launch.
This is more a move to more directly compete with Sony’s Playstation 4 console that has been outselling the Xbox since the beginning of this console generation due to having its Playstaion Eye unit as a separate peripheral, making the unit a near $100 cheaper.
Microsoft has recently had a problem of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing, as just as recently as this February the company stated that no plans were in the works to have a Kinect free bundle with this statement from Xbox head Phil Spencer.
“Kinect remains an important part of our vision,” head of Xbox Phil Spencer said. “We will continue to innovate on Kinect, I think it’s an important differentiator for us.”
Can any of you remember just prior to launch when Microsoft made the claim that the Xbox one wouldn’t even function without the Kinect attached. I’m starting to feel that Microsoft either has no idea what it’s doing with the Xbox, or that the higher-ups just don;t care.
What are your thoughts on this new bundle, and will it get you off the fence and pick up a unit?
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