Microsoft Dropping Kinect Requirement From Xbox One

Of course!

Oh, wow.

WOW!

Wowowow

REALLY?!

Holy shit

Didn't think they'd do this! At least this soon. Good on them, bet it'll move some more units.

As expected, they aren't selling as well as the PS4 so in order to stay competitive they dropped the Kinect to make the price just that competitive.

I think they're trying to back-peddle so fast that they travel back in time to last generation when they were the market leader.

They must be getting crushed in the sales figures. Wasn't Jeff sure this would never happen in the last bombcast?

Happened a little sooner then I thought. Maybe they finally figured out that Kinect was junk and needed to be dropped. Still waiting on next gen until more games hit.

@Patrick

The $399 version isn't until June 9th.

... Yes.

In less than a year?!? Boy I bet this will make many early adopters angry, but that inevitably happens.

Wry smiles. I made my choice between PS4 and Xbone and purchased an Xbone last week... Grr, I could have got it without the weirdy kinect-box that I didn't really want, and for less... If only I'd waited a few more days!

dayum what will they do for E3?!??!

I really thought they wouldn't do this

lol

So here is the deal. Ok, now the price is the same without the Kinect. But hasn't Microsoft repeatedly tried to drive home the point that the Kinect is what makes them special? I mean, XB1 is still clearly a weaker system than the PS4 and that just isn't going to change.

They probably needed to make the change at some point, but this also alienates developers that bought in to the message Microsoft has been trying to push with Kinect. You have to feel for Harmonix.

My bad! You can buy it right now.

Hey that thing everybody predicted was going to happen happened.

Finally.

It's kind of disappointing that Microsoft utterly failed to make a case for the Kinect right out the gate because on paper I'm a big fan. That said, it's probably the right decision.

"Xbox! Coca-Cola Classic!"

Ok now I'm going to get Xbox 1.

Xbox 180 indeed.

Wow im really suprised they did this ! but this is gonna make this E3 and this Gen war even more interesting.

Listen to dat spin...

I didn't think they'd ever do this. Odds on Kinect surviving this generation? After this move, zero.

Game over man GAME OVER!!!

Hope this news is in time for this week's podcast then!

And there it is...

And really, how can anyone have faith in buying a system that has seen such radical changes from it's initial design to what we see now like 9 months later? What's next, a stronger XB1 that completely alienates first adopters?

I love PR videos so much

"You can get the Xbox you always wanted without the horrible Kinect but seriously you guys the Kinect is waaaay better now, just trust us, we know."- Microsoft

Wow! Oh shit this is crazy.

Well then, I guess the Sony lead was really sweating them.

Can't you return it to the store?

This is a pretty crazy thing to happen this early in the morning, I would of guess this would of happened this fall.

Can I use a Rockband microphone instead? SOMEONE CALL DRAKE

And the Kinect turns out to be completely useless again. It's kind of disappointing since if Kinect could ever work it would be a technology game changer. I guess Sony wins with the Move given all that tech is in the DS4.

Let's check in with Harmonix.

I'm having issues seeing the good news here...

"Free games on Xbox One are available to active Gold members only. Stop your Xbox Live Gold subscription and lose the free games you've downloaded."

So the Xbox 180 is now exactly the same as the PS4, only weaker from a hardware standpoint.

Unless MS undercuts the PS4's price point this is a worthless change.

Also RIP Harmonix. Floundering kickstarter and now no more Kinect in every box.

If Halo looks good at e3, I may jump on this train when the game launches.

Just like that the Xbox loses the only thing that could have differentiated it from PS4. Now just a box with less power, this is also another slap in the face to day one consumers after the free Titanfall bundle from a couple months ago.

More like Xbox One-Eighty, right guys!?!?!

Oh, everyone made that joke 1,000,000,000,000 times over when they retreated from the heavy DRM, huh?

I'll let myself out...

Hm, I expected this at E3. Maybe they wanted a head start on moving units.

So when do they kick off their ambassador program?

Totally. I was surprised that they didn't give that option from the start but I guess they had to go all in if this was to ever work at all.