Xbox One, without Kinect, available for pre-order

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Jerome36

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Even though we started talking about this in the other tread, involving NetFlix and Hulu no longer requiring an Xbox Live Gold account, I figured this particular topic deserved its own thread, for anybody who would miss it otherwise.

Anyway, Microsoft has announced that starting June 9th you'll be able to buy an Xbox One, without Kinect, for $399. Pre-orders are already up on both Amazon and the Microsoft Store. I know a few people on here said they'd pick one up whenever this happened.
 
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I haven't looked at the other thread yet, but I'm pretty sure a lot of this has to do with Phil Spencer becoming head of Xbox. It's great to see someone with actual experience in the video game business and an understanding of what gamers want heading up this division. The very fact that he was put there made me finally make the decision to purchase an XBONE... well that and the update that finally added bitstreaming over optical TOSLINK.
 
About the god damn time. The kinect, and the cost it adds on top of the XBones otherwise inferior hardware (compared to PS4), was a total joke and final nail to the consoles botched release. 500$ system with forced device that nobody wants was a retarded idea right from the start. Good they finally grew some brains.
 
So now both systems are the same price except one has far inferior hardware lol.

Kind of a slap in the face for anyone mid development under the impression all consoles had kinnect.

It took Microsoft this long to realize the kind of hit their wallets would take? I still don't think it will help that much as PS4 is still the superior system
 
xbox one has been on sale before for $399 and $450, and that was with the kinect and usually titanfall or that racing game.

Not sure why people would be rushing to buy it now without the kinect.

Also, microsoft said they would NEVER NEVER EVER sell an xbox one w/o a kinect. I think that was the last thing they could possibly reverse (along with drm, online, etc) since its announcement.
 
DF-1 said:
xbox one has been on sale before for $399 and $450, and that was with the kinect and usually titanfall or that racing game.

Not sure why people would be rushing to buy it now without the kinect.

Also, microsoft said they would NEVER NEVER EVER sell an xbox one w/o a kinect. I think that was the last thing they could possibly reverse (along with drm, online, etc) since its announcement.
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The cheaper $399 XONE without Kinect would likely be marketed with this one line (in very fine print):
To use expanded features of the voice command and gesture controls, a Kinect is required which is not included.

(And, they'll likely sell the Kinect separately for $99.99.)
​
 
SeymourGore said:
Great news, and smart maneuvering on MS' part.
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More like dragged away kicking and screaming. "Smart maneuvering" would've been making it optional from day one to maintain price parity with PS4, while quietly working on creating killer games and use cases via their own studios to show prospective customers and third party developers how capable they believed the Kinect to be and why it's something they'd want to develop for. They didn't bother.

Doing it now is purely reactionary after getting their asses handed by Sony, and Titanfall failing to "save" the console.
 
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RaZoRbLaDeD said:
Kind of a slap in the face for anyone mid development under the impression all consoles had kinnect.
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Fortunately that's probably no one. Third party developers recognized it for the worthless gimmick that it was, and it is more than evident in the lack of current titles that bother with any deep Kinect integration.
 
Funny to see how much quicker microsoft reacts when they have a actual competitor. Mean while we are still waiting for that start menu in windows 8.

Also great news that maybe motion control gimmicks are finally on their way out of the picture completely.
 
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Finally Microsoft is starting to accept that the majority of people don't want or need kinect. I'll still won't buy until they get a slim version out and even then I'm not sure. The only thing that would tempt me to buy one is for the next Gears of War game... Then again if they make a PC port for that I'll pass on the xbox version.
 
Wendig0 said:
Finally Microsoft is starting to accept that the majority of people don't want or need kinect. I'll still won't buy until they get a slim version out and even then I'm not sure. The only thing that would tempt me to buy one is for the next Gears of War game... Then again if they make a PC port for that I'll pass on the xbox version.
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A new Gears of War game that is actually good might tempt me to get one too. I doubt it would ever be ported to the PC now that Microsoft owns the franchise and Black Tusk is developing it.
 
This addresses one of my issues with the xbone, but does nothing to change the fact that there is still not enough quality content.
 
arr4ws said:
the xbox one is now cheaper than the ps4 in canada :eek:
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Is that confirmed or is it 449.99 just like ps4?

Also the xbone fanboys must be raging that Microsoft admitted they were losing. I highly doubt the 10% boost is really going to help. Whatever though I benefit by owning both.
 
DPI said:
Fortunately that's probably no one. Third party developers recognized it for the worthless gimmick that it was, and it is more than evident in the lack of current titles that bother with any deep Kinect integration.
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There are a few devs that aren't happy about it.
 
This subforum is turning into a joke. I find it funny that the same shills that participate down here posting the same anti-microsoft or anti-xbox bullshit finally pop their heads into the news section when the same topic was posted up there. Like they have absolutely no opinion about anything tech related besides the consoles, shows you what level of knowledge they really have
 
I'm kinda surprised that MS didn't hold off on these announcements until E3, hopefully this is a sign that they're going to have some exciting news at E3 (or perhaps they just wanted a level playing ground going into this year's E3).
 
SeymourGore said:
I'm kinda surprised that MS didn't hold off on these announcements until E3, hopefully this is a sign that they're going to have some exciting news at E3 (or perhaps they just wanted a level playing ground going into this year's E3).
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Likely the latter. If they feel their sales are already way behind, not much sense dragging out the poor sales any longer than they have to. Securing pre-orders now should also give them a rough idea how well the $399 SKU is going to do. Then they can use E3 for another sales boost.
 
DPI said:
More like dragged away kicking and screaming. "Smart maneuvering" would've been making it optional from day one to maintain price parity with PS4, while quietly working on creating killer games and use cases via their own studios to show prospective customers and third party developers how capable they believed the Kinect to be and why it's something they'd want to develop for. They didn't bother.

Doing it now is purely reactionary after getting their asses handed by Sony, and Titanfall failing to "save" the console.
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Rofl this exactly. People seem to think Microsoft had been making all these "smart / strategic business moves" etc when in fact they've just been losing so hard lately they have no choice but to continuously change their plans around in order to start making a little money. :)
 
Xbox one is going to SELL LIKE HOTCAKES in Canada because they are selling it at 399.99 pre-order while a PS4 cost 449.99!
 
VladDracule said:
This subforum is turning into a joke. I find it funny that the same shills that participate down here posting the same anti-microsoft or anti-xbox bullshit finally pop their heads into the news section when the same topic was posted up there. Like they have absolutely no opinion about anything tech related besides the consoles, shows you what level of knowledge they really have
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Finally? We've been posting in those threads along with many other threads for years now.

We called it, we were right yet again. It's not even so much tech related so much as it's market related. It doesn't take a highly intelligent person to conclude Microsoft was going to do this. Not to mention the fact that with these announcements they have given in to market demands and the absolutely vast amount of consumer demands and that's a good thing.

I know I gave him praise before in another thread but putting Phil Spencer in charge was what they should have done 2 years ago. He probably could have avoided this all together.

There is nothing in Microsofts original vision that is still in place. They have good sales numbers, but the best that they can hope for is to win back their base on North America, and I honestly don't see that happening.

Don Mattrick fucked everything up.

Edit: and tbh there was a tweet from a fake Kaz account saying

"Xbox One = PlayStation 4 w/ Titanfall and weaker hardware"

Which is essentially true without Kinect and price parity. Both platforms are going to live and die by their exclusives and that doesn't give me much faith in Microsoft at all. At least in historical perspective.
 
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next-Jin said:
Finally? We've been posting in those threads along with many other threads for years now.

We called it, we were right yet again. It's not even so much tech related so much as it's market related. It doesn't take a highly intelligent person to conclude Microsoft was going to do this. Not to mention the fact that with these announcements they have given in to market demands and the absolutely vast amount of consumer demands and that's a good thing.

I know I gave him praise before in another thread but putting Phil Spencer in charge was what they should have done 2 years ago. He probably could have avoided this all together.

There is nothing in Microsofts original vision that is still in place. They have good sales numbers, but the best that they can hope for is to win back their base on North America, and I honestly don't see that happening.

Don Mattrick fucked everything up.

Edit: and tbh there was a tweet from a fake Kaz account saying

"Xbox One = PlayStation 4 w/ Titanfall and weaker hardware"

Which is essentially true without Kinect and price parity. Both platforms are going to live and die by their exclusives and that doesn't give me much faith in Microsoft at all. At least in historical perspective.
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I agree with everything you said but you really should delete this post as this guy is basically fishing for an argument... Don't give the baby his bottle.
 
RaZoRbLaDeD said:
I agree with everything you said but you really should delete this post as this guy is basically fishing for an argument... Don't give the baby his bottle.
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Me and Vlad go way back, for me it's quality entertainment while I wait for my flight back to DC. Everyone loves Vlad, he brings smiles and laughter to people all across the [H] landscape sitting at home or at work.
 
RaZoRbLaDeD said:
I agree with everything you said but you really should delete this post as this guy is basically fishing for an argument... Don't give the baby his bottle.
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It is extremely easy to tell the real level of knowledge people have on these boards. The users im talking about ONLY post in the console gaming section, and ONLY do so in one manner. One other user is just looking for a way to say how horrible of a company microsoft is in every single related thread, including trying to defend how fantastic SteamOS is going to be and like its the second coming of Christ and Microsoft is soooo worried about it.

Its easy to tell based on the content of the posts that these people have absolutely 0 technical knowledge, have absolutely 0 real marketing experience, and are just self-proclaimed know it alls based off of reading boards like this.

Notice how these posters seem to think everything sony does is absolutely brilliant without acknowledging the fact that the company will be absolutely lucky to exist in 5 years. Every segmant of Sony is operating at a loss, including the PS side.

They also speak as though the PS4 is some brilliant feet of engineering and marketing when it reality 100% of its advantage is due to luck. Initial marketing had the PS4 needing to have GDDR5 ram with no specification on its amount. Initial design documents show it as having 4 GBs. The only reason the move to 8 was made was due to the price of memory dropping to a level that they could increase it.

Microsofts requirement on the other hand was specific about the amount not the type. And because of initial costs the slower memory was chosen. Sony was lucky to have fallen into the advantage they now have, it was not engineering or marketing brilliance.
 
VladDracule said:
Every segmant of Sony is operating at a loss, including the PS side.
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Psst

Sony’s Game segment – the part of the company responsible for the PlayStation business – recorded a 64 percent increase in sales during the third quarter to $4.2 billion.

Operating income skyrocketed almost 300 percent to $172 million compared to the same period last year.
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http://www.videogamer.com/news/ps4_sales_help_sonys_game_division_to_172_million_profit_for_christmas_quarter.html
 
ocellaris said:
Why preorder anything? Because they want that $399 XBox One.
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So it is worth $399 without a Kinect, but not $449 with the Kinect and a game?

Since they already sold the console for $399 and $449 with 2 games. This definitely won't get me to pull the trigger. I am still thinking of the PS4 for UFC.
 
brennok said:
So it is worth $399 without a Kinect, but not $449 with the Kinect and a game?

Since they already sold the console for $399 and $449 with 2 games. This definitely won't get me to pull the trigger. I am still thinking of the PS4 for UFC.
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$449 with a Kinect and a game is arguably a better deal, however people have issues paying "more" for things they don't want like a bundled Kinect.
 
I wonder how good that Kinect is. I heard the Kinect 1 for PC was way better than the XBO 360. So if it's the same kind of situation, then meh.
 
Certainly can't fault Microsoft for reacting to market and (potential) customer feedback. Phil Spencer is off to a good start.
 
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