With the PS4 camera rising in price to $70, today's sale on Xbox One made it about $130 cheaper than a comparable PS4 bundle with camera and March's big game, Infamous. ($399 ps + $69 cam + $59 game)

Did anyone bite? According to slick deals the sale is already over. A huge deal. But it made me realize that because of Spyware with the Kinect and frame rate issues in games and apps behind the gold pay wall that the $500 price wasn't really the detractor.

Why do people think Kinect has Spyware in it??? really?!?!?! the only thing you need to "spy" on people is the web searches and smartphone to track & hear/see what their up too or just look up their social network page and hear it from the person themself..... the NSA does not need Kinect to know your eating Doritos and drinking Mt Dew while playing (insert your favorite game here)

I'll give you hint: One kind of intrusion that has been particularly nasty is someone loading stuff that allows external source to control the camera and microphone. The laptop sitting on your desk can see and listen to you come in and out and do whatever it is you do when you think you are alone. This isn't "fantasy cyberpunk" but happening today.

So it isn't a question of whether or not people trust Microsoft or even a government but that having the hardware to spy on you means someone can activate it without your permission and spy on you.

Throwaway your phone now and move into a hut in the woods because let me tell you about these consumer electronics we use every day..

I'm not sure I'd compare Titanfall and inFamous.

This is a real thing. http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2014/02/28/uk-spies-considered-using-kinect-microsoft-concerned/

Also that "deal" Microsoft had has already been pulled due to a coupon code that wasn't supposed to be active. Wonder if MS is going to honor those sales.

#NSA

Kinectless SKU or give me an internet Magna Carta

Hey now I didn't say I believe it but I am just answering the "Why do people believe it is spyware?!" I think it is particularly useful to have the cell phone company know exactly where me and my cell phone are at right now.

As a tangent, this has perpetually bothered me. People get angsty about "gubermnt trackn me" but fail to remember that it was private company that built the tech to do that in the first place. For whatever reason these people are fixated on public entities tracking their every move but failed to recognize private entities have been tracking them for almost 20 years. And like in the post I'm eager to point out it isn't a problem with trusting vendors (that can be an issue but that is another thread) but really a problem with hackers they should be wringing their hands over.

I always found it very strange how the very same people that were paranoid about the Kinect, probably use a variety of other electronics, possibly laptops, that can just as easily observe your every move. Even more hilarious is this idea that it's the NSA behind it - like the NSA is particularly interested in gathering the largest database of middle aged men in their underwear, swearing and/or cheering at their TV's. I completely agree that it's hackers that one must be mindful of. At the end of the day though, some of this stuff is out of your hands and you just shouldn't worry about it. No matter what precautions everyone took, it was Sony's servers that got hacked and users were powerless in that loss of private information. Sometimes you just gotta roll the dice and wave your arms around in front of a TV without worrying that an NSA analyst is secretly scoring your every move.

If Microsoft released a model without the camera and a price cheaper or equal to the PS4 I'd go buy one that day.

so is anyone going to ask the posters question?? or are you going to find a way to change the subject and talk about sexism as well.

Wrong. Microsoft doesn't sell the Xbox One at all. At least in Switzerland (and lots of other places). That's what's most detrimental to me.

@ajamafalous: There equally March's big corporate exclusive system mover killer app type games. And the first major exclusives on each since launch.

Microsoft doesn't need more bad publicity not honoring those sales. Likely the coupon was meant to be a plain $100 of $500 the kind a clothing store would do on clothes already marked up from their $5 Indonesian true manufacturing and materials cost. But for a console already sold at a loss, a problem.

Anyway, the Xbox with that game is worth $560 as much as its worth $400 so long as their ecosystem is what you're looking for. But if you really really wanted One and to play Titan, today was your lucky day perhaps

In terms of the part where the audiences are likely going to be playing them for drastically different lengths of time.

@caesius6: I do care about freedom and privacy, but I'm a realist as to living in a world with modern tech for modern conveniences which can be exploited for private gain... Stop and Frisk is more of a danger to freedom & privacy then a camera tech toy ie. Kinect/Sony Eye hooked up to a game system.... To me the freedom to not but able to walk into any store you want and browse the wares of that store without being treated as a criminal is far more intrusive to my freedoms then what meta data or camera pics of me holding a controller watching a tv will ever will...

So if you want the Ultimate private life you need to shed yourself of all modern inventions, no cans or strings for your robinson crusoe style telephones, carve out a cave made for solid stone and don't talk or socialize with anyone or anything because they could be plotting to take your freedom....

@ajamafalous: what you just said could be either a did at Infamous (no potential years of ever evolving online play blah blah) or a dig at Titan (no campaign or story mode, play each map once and you've seen everything blah blah)

So yeah, they're totally comparable ;-)

How is that freedom? Don't you see the irony in having to give up every modern convenience as being the only way to be free? Also I'd like to point out that metadata and camera pics from a kinect or webcam are being collected in your home and not on business property. I find that completely more intrusive than a store protecting their wares.

I guess I'll be in no rush to pay full price anytime soon. If these keep coming I'll get on it when there's a game I really need.

I am with you. Fuck people that seem so shorted sighted and want to rush to call the Kinect a spy camera are retarded. They are better off just turning on your phone to listen to you than watch me naked in front of the kinect playing Titanfall.

That article is more accurate than I expected, because it clearly states that this is not "a real thing." The Kinect is no more susceptible to external tampering (in this case, we're talking about a UK spy agency run by the government) than your smartphone. The Kinect has no "spyware." National security agencies can intercept Kinect data as easily or difficultly as they can any of your network data. In fact, a smartphone is more of a security hazard since most people transmit private and critical information through cellular transmission.

See, what you're saying seems short sighted to me. You're saying that they'll use your phone to listen to you but you somehow think it's stupid to say they're doing the same thing with another camera/microphone because...they're already spying on you. Your whole post just seems like a smear.

It wasn't a sale, it was some dumb-ass at the Microsoft store not realizing that a 20% any item promo code means 20% off ANY item. It lasted for about an hour.

I use a phone with a microphone in it, because it's a phone. It's kind of the point. I wouldn't use a game console that FORCED me to use a fucking camera that I didn't want, anymore than I would use a toaster that did the same thing.

@humanity: or just put tape over your laptop webcam like I do!

@maddman60620: Just to let you know the NSA was spying on peoples Kinects. It was called operation Optic Nerve. They spied on peoples webcams, Kinect, etc. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/27/gchq-nsa-webcam-images-internet-yahoo

http://www.cinemablend.com/games/Xbox-Kinect-NSA-Spying-Was-Done-Consent-Claims-Microsoft-60970.html

They were also found out that they have been trying to gain control as admins on different sites to control the dissemination of information throughout the web.

@core1065: You should read the article. They said that they WANTED to use it, not that they did use it.

@maddman60620: I damn near pissed on myself man Doritos and mt dew!!!

But if I wasn't a day one xbox one buyer I would have bit. Titanfall is a really good game as well. I do disagree with MS "paywall" to get to apps like Netflix but meh I have had xbox live since halo 2 days so it never bothered me.

I really want Titanfall but with inFamous.... I'd rather do the layway with gamestop as I play that game.

It really rubs me the wrong way that people are mad at Microsoft for selling an evil spy device instead of being mad at the agencies that are spying on us. People, every activity involving the use of any phone or online device can be tracked and monitored under the bullshit surveillance state we live in nowadays. Call your local representatives, join a protest, start a petition. Whatever. Do something more constructive than using concerns over the infringement of our privacy as ammunition in your idiotic console war.