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[iceatcs]

The games aren't exactly shaping up into shit you know. It's looking very promising. What's wrong with positive policy chances? They obviously had different things in mind but hey here we are.

It's cool but I think it make the price policy got worse at this stage. It's $100 more because of kinect that not required to connect.

Hopefully we will see kinect-less in someday future.

 

[orioto]

So remove it and save me $100 please.

There is zero reason they don't do that.

 

[Quicksilver4648]

Aside from the fact that Kinect is still bundled with every box, Microsoft has seemingly done a 180 on nearly every (major) complaint people had when it was first shown at E3. On one hand it is great that Microsoft is listening to feedback, despite some people saying the complaints are "unfair." But, on the other hand I can't believe Microsoft would have attempted so many of these things in the first place.

 

[Satchel]

A 399 SKU with Kinect would be a far bigger deal than 399 without.

If Microsoft can take the $100 hit and keep Kinect in there, then I believe that's a serious game changing decision.

A 399 Kinectless SKU is just a weaker, bigger PS4 at the same price.

 

[smurfx]

man all that's left is the price. lower it by 50 and sony will be sweating bullets.

 

[Kabuki Quantum Lover]

Good news, but this is hilarious.

 

[Lunzio]

If I do, in fact, get one eventually, I might as well keep it plugged in since I bought the damn thing. I have no interest in using it for anything other than voice commands, and even then... we'll see.

 

[KoopaTheCasual]

Ok, time for a little speculation. What do you think the chances are of a $499 Xbox One, being bundled with a 2 year Live subscription? Which would technically put at the same price as PS4 with PS+ after 2 years. Any chance of that happening?

 

[CassidyIzABeast]

And they made some changes to self-publishing as well, right?

Overall they just seem to go back to Xbox 360 model

Indeed. Nintendo had a better indie policy for Pete's sake.

 

[rawd]

Optional Kinect?? Pre order cancelled

 

[oSoLucky]

There is zero reason they don't do that.

I guess zero and plenty can have the same meaning sometimes.

 

[RoKKeR]

Ok, time for a little speculation. What do you think the chances are of a $499 Xbox One, being bundled with a 2 year Live subscription? Which would technically put at the same price as PS4 with PS+ after 2 years. Any chance of that happening?

No.

 

[Corto]

So remove it and save me $100 please.

They won't, but I feel they are starting to think of footing the bill themselves and lower the price.

 

[shinobi602]

So they basically reversed everything. Good moves but it makes them look very weak, imo. They more or less admit that they're a bitch now.

There is no 'weakness' in business. Money talks, and Microsoft listened to consumers. Any sane company would do what they did.

 

[Deadbeat]

This is a good thing. They will allow people to avoid kinect but they will still have it. Then if some good kinect games come along (lets not laugh too hard at this though), instead of people going "ill play that but im not buying a kinect for it" people will go "ill play that I guess ill install the stupid thing". Then when its installed people are lazy bastards and wont uninstall it and thus it will go from there.

 

[NullPointer]

Good moves but it makes them look very weak, imo. They more or less admit that they're a bitch now.

Well there goes their street cred I guess.

 

[soul creator]

So kinect is still needed for the majority of the system. I don't know why you guys get so hyped about this, we've known about settings to turn off the kinect during games. But then you won't be able to use skype or whatever else is needed for kinect. I still believe Kinect is the system. Until they give us the option to completely not need kinect for anything, I'm out still.

"Until Sony gives us the option to not need the blu-ray drive for anything on PS3, I'm out!"

"Until Apple gives us the option to never use the retina screen for anything, I'm out!"

Of course, it's perfectly fine for a consumer to not feel a company's product is worth the money, but there seems to be a few folks that seem to operate as if MS just has Kinect bundled for shits and giggles, and not because they feel like it's a worthwhile part of their product. (just using your post as a jumping off point)

The only thing this specific announcement addresses is:

1) edge case (but valid) situations where the Kinect breaks, or if it's at a fighting game tournament with non-Kinect games.
2) People who are paranoid about Kinect watching/listening to them

It's the same thing with the 24hr check being removed. Removing that doesn't mean they're going to ignore Xbox Live and now design everything around people who play offline JRPG's all day (not that there's anything wrong with that! heh)

 

[BleachAndPepsi]

Stop with those Stevie Wonder jokes asap. He's a cool guy and his music rocks. People shouldn't make fun of his disability!

When did I make fun of him for being blind? My aunt is blind, and you're right, it's not funny. But it's a fact that handing her or Stevie a compass would be pointless and lead to wandering off in directions other than where they originally intended to go. Like Microsoft with their new console.

 

[Mik_Pad]

They don't accept trade ins for controllers?

That's different you can have more than one controller on a single system, not saying they won't take the Kinect but imo they shouldn't.

 

[farisr]

The only way we'll ever see a Kinect-less sku is if all these things happen:

- consumers base doesn't think well of it
- devs don't put any effort into creating games for it (the game output is slow)
- ps4 is completely dominating the xbox one in sales (and I mean outselling it by 100% or something like that)

So yeah, a while off and not guaranteed. No way it's happening before launch.

 

[Majanew]

Well there goes their street cred I guess.

lol

 

[Neuromancer]

iam good tahnk u. !!

if knincdt.less SKU apears, then calm eout. enjoy!

Hmm ok.

 

[SwiftDeath]

This is rich.

To be fair it does appear that MS has lost a lot of confidence in their policies as envisioned

That being said there are perfectly fine reasons to want the X1

Especially now after all the policy reversals

 

[rawd]

Someone needs to make a comparison chart... PS4 features, Xbone before E3 , XBone post E3..

 

[KoopaTheCasual]

No.

Aww... ok. A man can dream can't he?

A 399 SKU with Kinect would be a far bigger deal than 399 without.

If Microsoft can take the $100 hit and keep Kinect in there, then I believe that's a serious game changing decision.

A 399 Kinectless SKU is just a weaker, bigger PS4 at the same price.

Yes to all of this. But, I think the people who are calling for $399 Kinectless SKU have already accepted that a $399 Kinect bundle is next to impossible. I don't see MS realistically eating that much of a loss up front.

 

[ToyBroker]

If people want all these Kinect features implemented by developers (since it's bundled) that means Kinect is going to pretty much need to be plugged in to function with these games.

 

[Slayer-33]

Well there goes their street cred I guess.

LOL

 

[Ecotic]

Geeze, it's like MS has no faith at all in their original vision for Xbox One at all. New week, new backtrack. Yeah it's probably for the best since their original vision was has been so rejected, but it's amazing how off they were on reading the sentiment out there.

 

[Alebrije]

How many changes has been done to Xbone since E3 ? how many to PS4?

 

[rawd]

How many changes has been done to Xbone since E3 ? how many to PS4?

That's what I want to see in a neat colourful chart

 

[KaiserBecks]

If people want all these Kinect features implemented by developers (since it's bundled) that means Kinect is going to pretty much need to be plugged in to function with these games.

Wait a minute! You mean if I want to use it, I have to plug it back in?

 

[x-Lundz-x]

Now we are getting somewhere MS. You might just get a purchase from me yet.

 

[Wonderllama]

I still think the Kinect has the potential to be truly great... but I guess I wouldn't mind the option of getting XB1 without it. You could always buy the Kinect separately afterwards

You know, sometimes it seems like all people want is XB1 to be a mirror copy of the PS4

 

[CassidyIzABeast]

So they basically reversed everything. Good moves but it makes them look very weak, imo. They more or less admit that they're a bitch now.

I'm sure they'd much rather make these changes before launch instead of spending the next 2-3 years "sticking to their guns" and losing all the marketshare they gained.

 

[ToyBroker]

Wait a minute! You mean if I want to use it, I have to plug it back in?

My point being is if the games invest heavily into the features you have no CHOICE to use it.

 

[TIMtationX]

Nice try, but I do not buy the piracy argument one bit. This is more about MS going down the list of every major complaint about the system and systematically reversing them. Period.

If XBox One had been getting good press, and preorders were on par or higher than PS4, the Kinect would still be mandatory.

 

[Mr.Wreckless]

If they sell a version without Kinect I will cancel my preorder and not look back. At that point it's nothing but a PS4 with worse specs.

 

[CadetMahoney]

It makes them look very weak, imo. They more or less admit that they're a bitch now.

There is no 'weakness' in business. Money talks, and Microsoft listened to consumers. Any sane company would do what they did.

The irony is the ppl complaining who desperately want it to fail in the first place are the ones who helped change all these silly features/policies. Now they're saying it makes MS look weak and a "bitch". The way I see it is it's a good thing a company reverses these things before it's released.

 

[Estocolmo]

Microsoft removing Kinect as a bundle is never going to happen. It would be like Nintendo removing the gamepad from their Wii U bundle.

 

[eznark]

Nice. Now I'm in. Hopefully there is a market for kinects.

 

[brandonh83]

edit: nvm

 

[DAREALGUMMY]

IM IN.










Just can't afford one this year so maybe next year MS

 

[dragonelite]

My point being is if the games invest heavily into the features you have no CHOICE to use it.

But because every gamer has a mandatory kinect doesn't mean they will buy your kinect filled games...

If the software is good it will sell kinect it has always been so for hardware.

 

[Air Zombie Meat]

Microsoft is banking on Kinect. The fact that they've sacrificed specs and price to include it should tell you that. They aren't going to let it go the way of an optional peripheral.

 

[Kabuki Quantum Lover]

Nice try, but I do not buy the piracy argument one bit. This is more about MS going down the list of every major complaint about the system and systematically reversing them. Period.

If XBox One had been getting good press, and preorders were on par or higher than PS4, the Kinect would still be mandatory.

Kinect and much much more.

 

[BruiserBear]

Clearly a late-game decision on Microsoft's part, but a smart one regardless.

Don't expect to see a Kinectless SKU though. Microsoft wants one in every household in America - that's the only way they're going to get software support for the thing. Brute fucking force.

and I think that's where people are making a poor assumption. Kinect has already been on the market for a few years. This is just an improved version. We didn't see developers lining up to with amazing ideas for Kinect 1.0, so I see few reasons to believe Kinect 2.0 is going to be a completely different story.

Oh sure, we'll have a few cool games for it, and Fantasia already looks good (and it works on Kinect 1.0), but in the end I expect Kinect 2.0 to be quite similar to the first one in terms of it's genuine usefulness.

 

[Dlacy13g]

A 399 SKU with Kinect would be a far bigger deal than 399 without.

If Microsoft can take the $100 hit and keep Kinect in there, then I believe that's a serious game changing decision.

A 399 Kinectless SKU is just a weaker, bigger PS4 at the same price.

^^ this is nail on the head!

 

[Racer1977]

Kinect is a development black hole with no perceivable benefits for the consumer, it's become a fancy TV remote that's slower and clumsier than button presses.

Whats more, these motion control features are being built as standard into new, high end TV's, but again, it's another gimmick that will soon fade.

 

[vg260]

If they sell a version without Kinect I will cancel my preorder and not look back. At that point it's nothing but a PS4 with worse specs.

I gotta agree. Kinect 2 should be a pack-in or support for it is doa. It's too late to do a 180 on specs, unfortunately.

I would have been fine w/ a 360v2 matching or upping PS4 in specs, but that ship has sailed.

 

[statham]

Nice. Now I'm in. Hopefully there is a market for kinects.

The PC crowd will want it to hack.