MS announce Kinect-less Xbox One SKU + other stuff

[Sigma]

MS just announced that they're going to offer a Kinect-less Xbox One for $399.99 in the US. No doubt it will be available in other countries too, but they are yet to announce the price.

They are also removing apps from behind the Gold pay wall, so they will be available to all Xbox 360 and Xbox One owners, even if they have no Gold sub.

Further to that, they announced that Games With Gold is launching on Xbox One starting in June, with the first 2 games coming to the service being Max: The Curse of Brotherhood and Halo Spartan Assault. Unlike on the Xbox 360, where you get to keep the games even if you stop subscribing to Live Gold, on the Xbox One it will be subscription-based, so it will work like Playstation Plus.

Finally, the Games With Gold deal for Xbox 360 users is rather good for June - Dark Souls, Charlie Murder and Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition.

[ThaJim2]

Yeah not a fan of removing the Kinect. Or for that matter much of the management of the Xbox One. They are doing in public what should have been done in private and in focus groups.

[Sigma]

I'm not happy about them removing Kinect either, as it means it's less likely to get supported as time goes on. I didn't think they would do it, but money talks and removing it will get them more sales.

[Smooth Lou]

It's important to note that the new head of Microsoft is openly for spinning off the games division as it makes nary a blip of profit for the company. Maybe this is an attempt to actually pull off a profit this year and avoid looking bad enough that shareholders demand a spin off.

[Spartan]

Microsoft are attempting to turn the back-peddling into positive spin, but after reading this article it seems to translate as a big fuck you to early adopters that bought an Xbox One.

http://metro.co.uk/2014/05/14/ditching- ... t-4727583/

Ditching Kinect will give Xbox One power boost admits Microsoft

Microsoft has revealed that it’s in talks with publishers about giving the Xbox One a 10% power upgrade, as Kinect is further sidelined.

The news that Microsoft is to begin selling a version of the Xbox One console that doesn’t come with the Kinect motion sensor was a surprise yesterday, but it wasn’t necessarily clear whether Microsoft considered this a major new positioning for the console or just a minor new bundle aimed only at hardcore gamers.

But it seems as if it’s the former, as Microsoft has already started taking about reassigning some of the processing power ring-fenced for using Kinect and allowing publishers to use it on games.

‘We are in discussions with our game publishers about what we might do in this space and we will have more to talk about soon’, Microsoft exec Yusuf Mehdi told Polygon.

It’s generally understood that around 10 per cent of the Xbox’s processing time is currently reserved for running Kinect, which could be rerouted to speed up games and possibly even help to increase their resolution- an area where the Xbox One consistently falls behind the PlayStation 4.

The difference any of this makes is still likely to be small but it’s interesting that Microsoft is perfectly happy to sacrifice Kinect support in favour of even a mild improvement in game performance.

Mehdi also made it clear that early adopters would receive no compensation, not even a free game, for having bought the Xbox One for £80 more than it is soon to be sold at.

‘Our view is that the Xbox One with Kinect is the premium experience,’ he said. ‘The things you are able to do are pretty magical. I think that [early adopters] are hopefully delighted as well with their usage’.

[Tired & Broke]

For first day purchasers this is a smack in the face.....

For potential buyers (such as myself) this is fascinating news.

[360]

Shit like this usually happens. It's not a 'fuck you' to early adapters. Early adapters know what they're getting themselves into. In the tech world(especially games), first day buyers are basically paying to be gamma testers.

[ThaJim2]

I would have bought a Kinect included version no matter what. What pisses me off as an early adapter about this is now the promise of the Kinect always being there is no longer there. The first gen games had bits of the future with the Kinect and I think titles coming up would do a better job integrating features but now this is not necessarily going to happen.

[Balzac]

when i buy my xbox one i'm gonna still get the one with kinect. everyone who has one says its dope and has huge potential. its just an extra 100 dollars. but yeah now that its not a must have piece of hardware, i can't see developers pushing its limits and making it great like it would have been.

every move microsoft makes to appease the clueless public is ruining the xbox one.

[ThaJim2]

^Honestly hate when I have to use the controller in a media app instead of just using my voice.

[Sigma]

I wouldn't want to be without the Kinect now. When I first got it, I kept forgetting that I could use voice controls to do things. Now I'm used to it and sometimes I will turn the console on, use it, and turn it off again, all without ever picking up a controller.

[None]

My Kinect finally calibrated better and it is usable. It is good for capturing game footage, but that is all I use it for. If they had Twitch streaming at launch then I think the story of the Kinect would be different, but Sony captured people imagination's with camera streaming much more successfully (the PlayStation Eye was sold out forever and people willingly ponied up an additional 60 for it). It is a shame because the camera quality on Kinect is so much better. This is a smart move to try and move units, but a terrible move as they've essentially reversed every major initial selling point on the system.

[EMCEE DARTH MALEK]

does ditching the kinect save them that much in hardware costs? og business plan seems to have been: integrate motion/voice commands in a way other companies don't to get a long term edge when this stuff finally becomes integral. why not just lower the price and eat the cost of the hardware?

[360]

If the Kinect is compatible with the Oculus Rift, then I might be interested in it.

[ThaJim2]

does ditching the kinect save them that much in hardware costs? og business plan seems to have been: integrate motion/voice commands in a way other companies don't to get a long term edge when this stuff finally becomes integral. why not just lower the price and eat the cost of the hardware?

Apparently the Kinect 2 is pretty expensive to make I think it was 85 or so.