Xbox One Update and News: Microsoft Announces Kinect-Free Console Coming in June for $100 Less
Microsoft just announced they will be launching the Xbox One without the Kinect on June 9, which would put to rest rumors surrounding the add-on.
Getting rid of the Kinect will make the console $100 cheaper and give it the same price tag as the PS4, $399. This may allow the Xbox One to gain some ground on their competition.
The Kinect has been criticized and run through the ringer as far as its importance and whether it was even necessary or essential to the console. To make matters worse, Microsoft was heralding the image and voice sensor as the new wave of gaming, yet they failed to capitalize on it and even create games that needed it.
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The gaming company also announced they will be dropping the $60 subscription fee that users pay if they wanted access to Netflix, Hulu, and YouTube. Now a standard account can reach these functions.
Just last week a report suggesting the Xbox One should part ways with the Kinect if they wanted to affect Sony, came out.
"The presumed unbundling of Kinect and Xbox One, which should facilitate rough price parity between it and the PS4, should lead to a spike in Xbox One sales," International Data Corporation said in a report. "Assuming the console and sensor are unbundled in 2015, IDC expects Xbox One to recover and emerge with the largest installed base of any console in North America by the end of 2016."
Microsoft sales have been helped due to the release of the Titanfall Xbox One bundle, and now are sure to go up even further.
"I was surprised that the PS4 outsold the Xbox One in March, a month where Titanfall led overall software sales. I thought such a strong and highly marketed game, coupled with price cuts on the Titanfall Xbox One bundle from many retailers to $450, would net Microsoft a victory. But that didn't happen. Still, it is far too early to say Microsoft is in trouble," said Eddie Makuch in a GamePro magazine report.
