It’s a whole new day for Microsoft and the Xbox One. The company announced that it would be selling the console without the Kinect yesterday, in a submissive but ultimately necessary move that brings it to price parity with Sony’s smash-hit PS4 at $399.
Fans had been requesting either a lower price, an optional Kinect, or preferably both for a while now, and as part of a “customer-centric” philosophy, Microsoft obliged.
With Microsoft’s announcement of a Kinect-less Xbox One, the console that everyone loved to hate last summer is basically gone. There’s still no game that truly defines it as must-have hardware, similar to what Wii Sports did for Nintendo .
Without it, the Xbox One has less claim on the nebulous concept of a broader market console, but at $499 it was never going to accomplish that anyway.
It’s surely a tough move for all those Microsoft execs that repeatedly said how Kinect was the future of gaming and entertainment. The move will hopefully spur sales of the console, which so far have lagged behind the PS4.
