Super Chief
Banned
I don't understand all this talk of a 'Kinect free' Xbone SKU. The Kinect is at the heart of the Xbone's philosophy. Much like the WiiU and it's Gamepad I don't understand why people think that MS will abandon this at the drop of a hat.
If they dump Kinect and start trying to slash away at the price to make it comparable to even cheaper than the PS4 it just leaves MS with an under powered console compared to it's direct rival.
The Kinect (love it or loathe it) gives the Xbone a unique selling point and gives the consumer a real alternate to the cheaper and more powerful PS4. If I were MS I'd have done more to lure the family crowd.
"Hey kids lets all gather round the Xbox One and Skype Grandma..., or something"
By now people still talking shit about Kinect simply haven't used it and are talking out of their ass and/or simply have no intention to buy an XB1 to begin with. Generally speaking anyway. The device definitely is at the heart of the console, not that that excuses the inferior hardware.
I think these sales have far less to do with anything else other than price points. The economy isn't favourable. At $500 and only available in 13 country the consumer is more likely to go with the cheaper, more widely available competitor. Unfortunately familiar names here are simply fuelling their posts with console war bullshit to interpret that as some wide sweeping resistance towards Microsoft or whatever the fuck.
What's funny about this though is that both consoles are driven by desperation and one just happened to get it right. Xbox is desperate to be profitable to stay open. Sony is desperate for any kind of profit so, even with their crushing debts and whatever else, they managed to create a stronger console with a cheaper price tag, probably because they were willing to sacrifice the peripheral, much like a wolf biting off its own limb to get out of a trap and save itself.