Microsoft made the big announcement within this last week that the Xbox One would be sold without a Kinect sensor for $399 starting in June. The news was met with good praise from most of the online forums we frequented that week but was oddly chastised by the press. From the beginning, Microsoft were trying to play the long game with Xbox One and its media and interface advantages that it would have over the PlayStation 4 and Wii U. The Kinect was a big part of that strategy but unfortunately with the Xbox One’s hardware setup as much as 10% of the consoles resources, much of that GPU-based, were sacrificed to make the console perform better when games don’t use the Kinect fully or at all. Since most games aren’t using gesture control it made sense to deactivate the gesture sensing while playing a game that can’t use it. But now Microsoft has gone a step further and just eliminated the accessory from its base package, much like how the Xbox 360 did when the Kinect was introduced on that platform.
At $399 Microsoft can directly compete with Sony for console sales. $100 more is a bit to throw toward a toy or media box when a competing device appears to offer much of what you’re looking for, especially if you’re just buying a console for games. The PlayStation 4 has outsold the Xbox One worldwide by roughly 2 million consoles. That could be more or less depending on up-to-date sales figures, but it’s clear that Sony has found a way to propel their console to the top and since Microsoft has more exclusive games (and more higher-quality games) than the PlayStation 4, we have to assume that the reason for the PlayStation 4’s lead is simple because it’s being offered for less. Sony is taking a hit on every PlayStation 4 that is sold, which will hurt the company’s ability to reinvest dollars in the short term until the console can be manufactured for cheaper. Microsoft is breaking even, but their Xbox One console lacks the immediate graphical edge and games are being downgraded in visual quality, at least in resolution, more than PlayStation 4 games are. There is the hardware breakdown that shows the PS4 is easier to make games on right now because it’s a simpler device, but the Xbox One is only barely behind the PS4 for overall power. In fact, the Xbox One is more powerful in the CPU area and carries more advanced hardware to help alleviate heavy multitasking, freeing up some resources to keep pushing the envelope in certain aspects of a game even if the graphics are tapped out. Again, since these consoles are so similar when all is said and done, the price has to be the problem. Will a $100 price cut help boost sales? If so, at what cost does it come to the Xbox team’s vision for a Kinect accessory that will no longer carry a 100% adoption rate?
The adoption of Kinect being 100% makes it more enticing for game developers to put out games that use the voice and motion controls. Games like Kinect Sports or Dance Central make mostly good use of the Kinect but won’t draw in all gamers. We’re still waiting for that killer app to hit the Xbox One that screams “gotta have it” when referring to the Kinect. To that end, it won’t kill gamers to go without a Kinect right now. In the long run, there is a potential issue that will surface. If the adoption rate drop to even 50%, you have no guarantee that the potentially interested buyers of your game will have a Kinect which could force them to skip. This is not ideal when you’re considering putting together any kind of game or media that requires peripherals to work with.
Microsoft still thinks that we’re all going to end up buying a Kinect, and they might be right. The Kinect on the Xbox One is good. Not perfect, but good. When I purchased my Xbox One on launch day I didn’t think I’d heavily use the Kinect but I knew I’d try it out. Now, I prefer to audibly control my Xbox One when watching Netflix, snapping the party app, launching Internet Explorer, or turning on/off my Xbox One. It’s so addicting when it works and most of the time it does work (especially with the latest Xbox One software update). There is still some ground to cover to make this accessory a consistent and dependable piece of hardware but it’s far superior to anything else in its market right now. Plus, Microsoft already have 4-5 million of these things in the living rooms of gamers so developers know that, at least for the time being, their games and technology are going to be accessible for most.
Microsoft’s biggest challenge now that they’ll be pulling the Kinect out of the box won’t be to catch up to Sony’s PS4 console. That is likely to happen much more naturally with an even playing field for price, expanding availability for the Xbox One in September, and more interesting and high-profile exclusives primed for 2014 and 2015. Sony is actually hurting for exclusives and are depending on rehashes of their previous winners to keep the system enticing by eventually re-launching games like The Last of Us for the PS4. Microsoft will likely do some of that with the leaked info that Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, Halo 3 and Halo 4 will all eventually roll out with remakes that will have drastically improved over their original counterparts. Even the more recent Halo 4 will benefit from better graphical power since it looked so good for its time with only 720p support. But Microsoft also have Halo 5, Gears of War, Fable, Forza Horizon, Sunset Overdrive, Quantum Break on top of some new exclusives that we haven’t actually seen (or at least know we’ve seen) that are allegedly set to be unveiled at E3 in June. No, Microsoft’s biggest challenge won’t be catching up to Sony’s in this regard. The challenge will be building those must-have experiences that make the Kinect that accessory that you have the option to buy, but really you must buy it. When friends start saying “no, you gotta get the Kinect for this one (or two) game(s)” is when Microsoft will know they’re successful and will see the Kinect bundles see the greatest sales. Until then, the $399 SKU that will be available starting June 9 will more than likely see heavy adoption in comparison, which will hopefully address the sales gap and rally more praise and support for the Xbox One console (that is, if you’re rooting for the Xbox One to be the lead dog).
If you’re in the market for a new Xbox One console and you live near a Micro Center then take a good hard look at the following statement: you can buy an Xbox One console with a Kinect for $399 right now. You read that right. For a limited time the national computer supply chain is liquidating their stock and are allowing customers to come into their store and pick one up for $100 off the normal $499 price tag. We believe this is due to the $399 Xbox One SKU being launched next month that doesn’t include the Kinect. We’ve talked plenty about this in recent articles so feel free to go back through our recent news history and you’ll get your fill on that subject and what it could possibly mean for Microsoft’s games and entertainment console. But if you’re at least curious to use the Kinect or, like us, have somehow been spoiled by its capabilities (even if its speech recognition capabilities aren’t 100% yet) then here’s your chance to cash in on the best deal any retailer has offered since the console launched in November of last year.
Xbox One Game Source 