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[TheExecutive]

So all in all this is good news. However, it is still $100 more for a product that they have still yet to prove is a mass market device...

Kinect is completely irrelevant to playing games and does not provide the input that gamers or mass casuals enjoy. Especially at $499. MS is trying to squeeze into a market that doesnt exist. End of story. Anyone want to refute me?

 

[madmackem]

Just sell the damn machine without one then, i have zero interest in kinect, my room is too small even for this new lens and i wont ever ever ever be interested in any kinect game ever. Let me buy your system without it please ms.

 

[Biker19]

As soon as MS unbundles Kinect the Xbox One will officially be a PS4-lite and there will be practically no reason to buy it other than a handful of exclusive 1st party games (which mainstream consumers don't care about).

What is the point in trying to copy PS4 so closely? Really shows Microsoft has no confidence in the platform they envisioned or they feel the price war is going to compel them to unbundle Kinect eventually. Can't win by being a follower.

Too bad the Xbox team that made broadband and HDD standards on consoles isn't still around. This Xbox team has lost it's backbone and now follows Sony around like a lost puppy.

How does a company literally backtrack on nearly everything, to diminish their vision for the future in matter of weeks. What kind of market leader are they? Sure, I'm glad they listened but they shouldn't have been doing those practices in the first place.

It is strange that Sony's strong showing has not caused MS to innovate more or provide more value. It has only caused them to gimp their own vision one step at a time. It's like the reorganization has caused their entire console vision to crumble away.

Microsoft's desperate, that's why. They're playing "Follow the Leader."

 

[RedAssedApe]

Just saying...throw people a few bones and they easily forget past sins. Some of my friends who have pre-ordered both consoles who previously favored ps4 (before all the 180s) are inching closer and closer to indecisiveness (mainly 360 owners this gen).

 

[dino1980]

So they are supposed to put a PCI-e card...on a mobo that doesn't utilize PCI-e and the gpu will have no way to communicate with the RAM or CPU which is part of an APU sitting on a different die...

Logic ftw

Im sorry I should have included the words "have the power of a 7870 or higher" so that it didnt lead to a response like this. But it is just wishful thinking, way to late for this now.

 

[MogCakes]

Sony straight. They don't answer other MS, they answer to gamers with games. They don't need to dig themselves out or try to appeal to anyone too much. Let MS have the floor.

Pretty much. MS is having to do major PR repairs right now. Sony doesn't have to do a thing atm. They should be focusing on Gamescom.

Just sell the damn machine without one then, i have zero interest in kinect, my room is too small even for this new lens and i wont ever ever ever be interested in any kinect game ever. Let me buy your system without it please ms.

Given this turn of events, it's a likely possibility if sales are not up to their expectations, no matter how hard they insist on it verbally.

 

[Krakn3Dfx]

MS definitely making it interesting.

Curious that Sony has been pretty quiet and has pretty much just allowed MS to dominate the headlines with their announcements, 180s, etc. that paint them in a slightly more positive light.

People have short memories. Hopefully Gamescom doesn't disappoint. People can easily be swayed to do their own 180s.

Sony hasn't had the need to dig themselves out of a giant hole of shit PR and poor policy decisions. seems to me that's still the best position to be in rather than trying to inform the world that what they heard on Jimmy Fallon and MSNBC has been taken back so please buy our thing now.

 

[Dlacy13g]

Awesome fucking news.

Now watch them drop Kinect like a hot rock with a 399$ kinect-less model after a few months of getting stomped in sales.

Might actually buy one, gamers win!

Gamers win? So you want to pay $400 for a kinectless model....why not just buy a PS4 at $400 now? Its the kinectless model already. I think gamers actually lose in your scenario. I would rather see them drop $50 and keep kinect in the box.

 

[lionkitten]

Not really.

The original kinect sold so poorly that you couldn't expect companies to support it and make creative uses of-

.

You're crazy. They shipped 24 million units of Kinect by the end of 2012. For 70 million consoles.

So a better than 1 in 3 attach rate. If that's selling poorly, you have REALLY unrealistic standards.

 

[JAYSIMPLE]

I swear when I buy my xbox one in november, if Microsoft releases a version without kinect later, they can go jump. My only faith with kinect 2, is if it is in every box and developers can use it. If i pay a premium to have it then they take it out. negating it's possabilities in games. I will be annoyed.

 

[Finalizer]

Curious that Sony has been pretty quiet and has pretty much just allowed MS to dominate the headlines with their announcements, 180s, etc. that paint them in a slightly more positive light.

People have short memories. Hopefully Gamescom doesn't disappoint. People can easily be swayed to do their own 180s.

Sony doesn't really need to do anything about the headlines. They've already built themselves a strong public image for the PS4, and all accounts point to it doing quite well in preorders. They've no reason to be sweating over MS picking up the pieces of their Xbox brand image. It doesn't really make a whole lot of sense for Sony to bother trying to hog the headlines by this point, especially when Gamescom is right around the corner and will be giving them far greater visibility than a bunch of headlines anyway. That said, they do need to bring their A game with MS having done all these 180s and ridding themselves of all that baggage that weighed them down at E3.

Color me hyped.

 

[Papercuts]

Sony's fine. People have already preordered.

Online preorders are a no risk thing to do, and even the ones with money dropped in can easily be switched over.

Not to say PS4 isn't in a very favorable position still.

 

[BruiserBear]

I'm convinced that each and every policy shift we've seen since E3 is a direct response to pre-order numbers. It was blatantly obvious with the DRM decision, but I also believe the headset being inluded, indie self publishing, and no required Kinect are continued responses to continued soft pre-order numbers.

If you just look at Amazon's charts on a daily basis it's pretty clear Sony is winning handily, and this is in Microsoft's best territory. I imagine this is an "all hands on deck" situation in Redmind right now. Unfortunately for them I genuinely believe the only decision that's truly going to level the playing field in consumer's eyes is price parity, which is likely going to mean a sku without Kinect. Maybe not at launch, but early in 2014 I see it happening if sales are really not where they want them to be.

 

[Lupin3]

This is what I've been waiting for! The Xbone is now my main choice! And I have seen Titanfall.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Panic mode MS is pretty much the only good MS. They are still stuck with a hardware design which is much weaker than the PS4 and the additional hardware and software needed to support TV and SPORTS is a boondoggle. But maybe they can still make it work, the way Sony ultimately did with the PS3.

I'm surprised they aren't in panic mode with Windows Phone, but maybe the death of BlackBerry is actually making them think they are making headway. Which they aren't.

If they actually sell a 180 for $400 without Kinect, then they'll actually be able to compete with Sony based on brand recognition.

 

[Krilekk]

Gamers win? So you want to pay $400 for a kinectless model....why not just buy a PS4 at $400 now? Its the kinectless model already. I think gamers actually lose in your scenario. I would rather see them drop $50 and keep kinect in the box.

According to a MS employee the Kinect makes up about 1/2 of the BOM for X1. That means by selling a Kinect-less SKU X1 will cost $299, maybe even $249. But we won't see that until mid 2014, first they will try to work with 499 and Kinect. And that will sell out at least in the US. But they need a different strategy for Europe.

 

[Quadraphonic]

Best be careful...because Kinect is the IR Blaster...without it you can't control your cable box...

Second from the right.

What's that say?

That's right.

 

[JAYSIMPLE]

Online preorders are a no risk thing to do, and even the ones with money dropped in can easily be switched over.

Not to say PS4 isn't in a very favorable position still.

I am genuinly shocked at how much the ps4 pre orders seemed to be front loaded, while the xbox one was really slow but now things are picking up.

In the uk anyway. the xbox one is deffo clawing back pre orders

 

[Papercuts]

Panic mode MS is pretty much the only good MS. They are still stuck with a hardware design which is much weaker than the PS4 and the additional hardware and software needed to support TV and SPORTS is a boondoggle. But maybe they can still make it work, the way Sony ultimately did with the PS3.

I'm surprised they aren't in panic mode with Windows Phone, but maybe the death of BlackBerry is actually making them think they are making headway. Which they aren't.

If they actually sell a 180 for $400 without Kinect, then they'll actually be able to compete with Sony based on brand recognition.

If it happens and they ever drop Kinect, they're straight up undercut Sony. I don't see them ever making a move to parity, I see $50 under them.

 

[medze]

WHITTEN: "Any functionality that relies on voice, video, gesture or more won’t work. We still support using it for IR blasting in this mode."

Any idea what Whitten means by "or more"? Which other features require Kinect to be plugged in besides voice, gesture, or video?

Albert Penello: "There is no “gotcha”, but obviously, if there is a game that REQUIRES Kinect (like Rivals), or something where Kinect IS the experience (like Skype), those won’t work."

So can Skype be used with just the headset or only with Kinect? Since Skype is the means of voice chat on the XB1, i would hope it wouldn't require Kinect to be plugged in for just a voice call. It seems we should be able to use the headset but I always read into Microsoft's statements as they've been quite cryptic in the past.

Sorry if these questions have been answered. Didn't have the time to read through 27 pages.

 

[R-User!]

Wow... wtf, lol!

 

[Alx]

According to a MS employee the Kinect makes up about 1/2 of the BOM for X1.

The same MS employee later clarified that he wasn't talking about BOM but R&D costs.
http://www.reddit.com/r/xboxone/com...ill_reintroduce_the_xbox_one_at_press/cbdjtlx

That bit about the cost of Kinect also created some confusion, but I did mean total R&D costs.

 

[Phire Phox]

Any idea what Whitten means by "or more"? Which other features require Kinect to be plugged in besides voice, gesture, or video?

Facial recognition

 

[rjcc]

If you just look at Amazon's charts on a daily basis it's pretty clear Sony is winning handily, and this is in Microsoft's best territory.

There is never, ever anything to be gleaned from Amazon's charts in terms of actual sales or preorder numbers. Windows Phone fans have been trumpeting Amazon sales chart positioning for the last year, it doesn't mean anything because there's no number attached to it.

 

[Hoo-doo]

Gamers win? So you want to pay $400 for a kinectless model....why not just buy a PS4 at $400 now? Its the kinectless model already. I think gamers actually lose in your scenario. I would rather see them drop $50 and keep kinect in the box.

I am dropping 400 on a PS4. I'd like to get some of the Xbone exclusives for cheap though, if possible.

I just think Kinect is a complete waste of money. I mean, does it even support my native language? The thing has been out for three years.

 

[nailbombxx]

Thanks Sony!

 

[Albert Penello]

This thread got very interesting.

I expected some commentary on this, but the direction it went surprised me.

The part that surprised me the most is the belief that we've somehow "lost our vision" or that we are "radically different" from what we announced.

Are we listening and adjusting the plans? We are. Are we making some concessions in areas where people have strong feelings? We are.

Are we altering our vision or losing faith? No.

We made one policy decision that was a major reversal around digital rights vs. physical media. It was the only time major features were changed, like family sharing, and some of the online check-in stuff that was related to it. It was the right call.

If you go back to the Unveil and E3 conferences, today's announcement doesn't change or diminish what we've said we were doing at all. All we said today is that we weren't going to brick the box if Kinect was unplugged. People making a leap thinking that means we've completely disconnected Kinect from the system would be wrong.

Once you guys experience the console, some of the criticisms may be valid, and many won't. The controller will not be the best way to navigate the dash - things like instant switching, snap mode, sign-in, and search are going to be vastly superior with Kinect. There is no controller UI that will beat "Xbox, Snap Skype", or "Xbox, Go to Killer Instinct".

The idea that the controller is the best way to navigate makes sense in reference to Xbox 360, but it's not true in Xbox One. You can completely control the dash with a controller, but many cases are deprecated versions of how it will work with voice.

If we were to remove Kinect from the bundle, then THAT would be a 180... but it's not going to happen. This was a very minor policy change, for people who had privacy concerns or repair issues. As someone earlier stated, my guess is that very few people will take advantage of the feature. But knowing it's there as an option is important.

Anyway, that's all my commentary on this. Bowing out for the evening.

 

[Dlacy13g]

Any idea what Whitten means by "or more"? Which other features require Kinect to be plugged in besides voice, gesture, or video?



So can Skype be used with just the headset or only with Kinect? Since Skype is the means of voice chat on the XB1, i would hope it wouldn't require Kinect to be plugged in for just a voice call. It seems we should be able to use the headset but I always read into Microsoft's statements as they've been quite cryptic in the past.

Sorry if these questions have been answered. Didn't have the time to read through 27 pages.

I haven't seen an answer but guessing that many features of skype won't work like video chat and screen sharing. I don't think they would have included a headset if we still were required to use kinect for voice chat.

 

[Finalizer]

Second from the right.

What's that say?

That's right.

I'm assuming he's referring to the Xbone's TV Guide capabilities or whatever that stuff is. Basically, without Kinect, you can use the HDMI-in, but you can't actually use the Xbone to interface with your cable box.

...If I'm understanding correctly, anyway.

EDIT: Or maybe I just fail at reading comprehension. Herp derp.

If you just look at Amazon's charts on a daily basis it's pretty clear Sony is winning handily, and this is in Microsoft's best territory. I imagine this is an "all hands on deck" situation in Redmind right now. Unfortunately for them I genuinely believe the only decision that's truly going to level the playing field in consumer's eyes is price parity, which is likely going to mean a sku without Kinect. Maybe not at launch, but early in 2014 I see it happening if sales are really not where they want them to be.

If the rumors about the internal unrest within MS are to be believed, then I hope everything that's happened has convinced MS to listen to those engineers more, heh.

I think MS is probably more willing to just sell Xbones at a loss and keep Kinect in the package than to forego Kinect altogether. I'd think it'd take a few years of proving that the thing just won't take off with the multimedia crowd for MS to bother with removing it altogether, when they can prove it's only weighing down gamer adoption of the Xbone and doing nothing else for them.

 

[Metfanant]

Second from the right.

What's that say?

That's right.

So you now have to go buy another accessory to make an advertised feature of the box work...

Congrats to MS for brainwashing you

 

[Traitor]

I am genuinly shocked at how much the ps4 pre orders seemed to be front loaded, while the xbox one was really slow but now things are picking up.

In the uk anyway. the xbox one is deffo clawing back pre orders

Why? i would imagine that a lot of those preorders for the ps4 were from Xbox loyal customers for the policies that Microsoft tried I even preordered the ps4 but with alot of the negatives gone i wouldn't be shocked if fans came back.

 

[Dlacy13g]

So you now have to go buy another accessory to make an advertised feature of the box work...

Congrats to MS for brainwashing you

No...kinect is an ir blaster but they also have an additional port for another ir blaster if you need it.

 

[rjcc]

So you now have to go buy another accessory to make an advertised feature of the box work...

Congrats to MS for brainwashing you

so they give you a way to make the feature work, you decide not to use it, then you're mad because you now need something else to make it work. I assume you're not buying it anyway, but you don't have to pretend this is the straw that made it unworkable.

 

[Metfanant]

This thread got very interesting.

I expected some commentary on this, but the direction it went surprised me.

The part that surprised me the most is the belief that we've somehow "lost our vision" or that we are "radically different" from what we announced.

Are we listening and adjusting the plans? We are. Are we making some concessions in areas where people have strong feelings? We are.

Are we altering are vision or losing faith? No.

We made one policy decision that was a major reversal around digital rights vs. physical media. It was the only time major features were changed, like family sharing, and some of the online check-in stuff that was related to it. It was the right call.

If you go back to the Unveil and E3 conferences, today's announcement doesn't change or diminish what we've said we were doing at all. All we said today is that we weren't going to brick the box if Kinect was unplugged. People making a leap thinking that means we've completely disconnected Kinect from the system would be wrong.

Once you guys experience the console, some of the criticisms may be valid, and many won't. The controller will not be the best way to navigate the dash - things like instant switching, snap mode, sign-in, and search are going to be vastly superior with Kinect. There is no controller UI that will beat "Xbox, Snap Skype", or "Xbox, Go to Killer Instinct".

The idea that the controller is the best way to navigate makes sense in reference to Xbox 360, but it's not true in Xbox One. You can completely control the dash with a controller, but many cases are deprecated versions of how it will work with voice.

If we were to remove Kinect from the bundle, then THAT would be a 180... but it's not going to happen. This was a very minor policy change, for people who had privacy concerns or repair issues. As someone earlier stated, my guess is that very few people will take advantage of the feature. But knowing it's there as an option is important.

Anyway, that's all my commentary on this. Bowing out for the evening.

Albert, if still up and around how does disconnecting Kinect (pun intended? No? Idk lol) effect the TV functionality? My assumption is that a 3rd party ir blaster would be required?

 

[Elrina]

So you now have to go buy another accessory to make an advertised feature of the box work...

Congrats to MS for brainwashing you

Pretty sure there is already a separate IR blaster in the box for that port. It may or may not work as well as the Kinect's, but it's still there.

Edit: Actually, never mind, thought I remembered it from the unboxing. Apparently I was misremembering this quote:

IR Blaster. Kinect has and IR blaster array built in. Can turn on your TV, Cable Box, etc. so when you say “Xbox On” it will actually power your equipment, switch inputs, etc. (I know, TV TV TV but when you get to see it, you’ll understand.). As someone pointed out, if for some reason your setup doesn’t work with Kinect IR blasting, you can get a cable and connect to the port in the back.

 

[fruiteater]

great that microsoft is using comon sense now, i mean what would happened if the thing broke? you cant play on your xbone?.

Now, if you announce a 379 usd Xbone, or a 400 dollar console plus game bundle i might look the other way from the fact you stopped support 360 with games several years ago,MAYBY.

 

[BruiserBear]

There is never, ever anything to be gleaned from Amazon's charts in terms of actual sales or preorder numbers. Windows Phone fans have been trumpeting Amazon sales chart positioning for the last year, it doesn't mean anything because there's no number attached to it.

Of course they're not true sales figures, but they absolutely give an impression of momentum and general popularity.

Once you guys experience the console, some of the criticisms may be valid, and many won't. The controller will not be the best way to navigate the dash - things like instant switching, snap mode, sign-in, and search are going to be vastly superior with Kinect. There is no controller UI that will beat "Xbox, Snap Skype", or "Xbox, Go to Killer Instinct".

The idea that the controller is the best way to navigate makes sense in reference to Xbox 360, but it's not true in Xbox One. You can completely control the dash with a controller, but many cases are deprecated versions of how it will work with voice.

You've definitely got a point there.

 

[SpartanN92]

So all in all this is good news. However, it is still $100 more for a product that they have still yet to prove is a mass market device...

Kinect is completely irrelevant to playing games and does not provide the input that gamers or mass casuals enjoy. Especially at $499. MS is trying to squeeze into a market that doesnt exist. End of story. Anyone want to refute me?

Um it is actually quite a mass appeal device. Kinect 1 sold roughly 24 million units as of february this year http://www.gamespot.com/news/kinect-sales-reach-24-million-6403766.

You only say that kinect is irrelevant to playing games because we have yet to see it properly utilized. It has potential, and it is narrow minded people such as yourself that do not allow such things to flourish. Do not take that as an insult. As a consumer you are well within your rights to dis like a product and not purchase it. However I choose to believe that there is a future for Kinect, the trick is finding it.

As Henry Ford once said on product innovation "If I had asked the consumer what they wanted they would have said faster horses."

I think this is an apt metaphor. But I suppose we are just two different people. You would vehemently argue the merits of innovating vis-à-vis customer feedback; I argue that true innovation is created by singularly gifted visionaries who ignore customer input and instead manufacture innovation based solely on their prophetic vision for a better future.


I'm not saying Kinect is gonna be the greatest thing ever, but I think it should be given a chance.

 

[Spira]

Might as well call it the Xbox one80

 

[rjcc]

Of course they're not true sales figures, but they absolutely give an impression of momentum and general popularity.

They really don't, you have no idea if the numbers are 10x higher one day than another. This has been tried and it doesn't work. I don't disagree with your overall idea that Microsoft has to be responding to preorder #s with some of the changes, but you're better off using a dowsing rod than trying to back up any point w/ Amazon sales charts.

 

[Traitor]

I'm okay with the Kinect being bundled but in the end i want it to feel like it wasn't money wasted. If Snap works as advertised with Twitch and a game all will be gucci

 

[Albert Penello]

Albert, if still up and around how does disconnecting Kinect (pun intended? No? Idk lol) effect the TV functionality? My assumption is that a 3rd party ir blaster would be required?

It would still work, but you loose a lot of cool features. You could still do HDMI pass-through, you'd just need to use your old remote instead. You'd loose the IR blasting (unless you got an external one), and you'd loose the ability to just say TV stations and have it tune (Xbox, go to Discovery Channel). The One Guide for TV wouldn't be very useful, so favorite channels stuff would be gone. You'd loose "Xbox On". Essentially it would turn the Xbox into a very expensive HDMI switcher.

Again to my point - the box will function without Kinect, but a lot of the stuff that's unique and cool about the system wouldn't be there.

 

[MogCakes]

This thread got very interesting.

I expected some commentary on this, but the direction it went surprised me.

The part that surprised me the most is the belief that we've somehow "lost our vision" or that we are "radically different" from what we announced.

Are we listening and adjusting the plans? We are. Are we making some concessions in areas where people have strong feelings? We are.

Are we altering are vision or losing faith? No.

We made one policy decision that was a major reversal around digital rights vs. physical media. It was the only time major features were changed, like family sharing, and some of the online check-in stuff that was related to it. It was the right call.

If you go back to the Unveil and E3 conferences, today's announcement doesn't change or diminish what we've said we were doing at all. All we said today is that we weren't going to brick the box if Kinect was unplugged. People making a leap thinking that means we've completely disconnected Kinect from the system would be wrong.

Once you guys experience the console, some of the criticisms may be valid, and many won't. The controller will not be the best way to navigate the dash - things like instant switching, snap mode, sign-in, and search are going to be vastly superior with Kinect. There is no controller UI that will beat "Xbox, Snap Skype", or "Xbox, Go to Killer Instinct".

The idea that the controller is the best way to navigate makes sense in reference to Xbox 360, but it's not true in Xbox One. You can completely control the dash with a controller, but many cases are deprecated versions of how it will work with voice.

If we were to remove Kinect from the bundle, then THAT would be a 180... but it's not going to happen. This was a very minor policy change, for people who had privacy concerns or repair issues. As someone earlier stated, my guess is that very few people will take advantage of the feature. But knowing it's there as an option is important.

Anyway, that's all my commentary on this. Bowing out for the evening.

Does this mean that the majority of features on Xbox One will require Kinect?

 

[JrBaconCheeseburger]

. The controller will not be the best way to navigate the dash

My question is how exactly is the controller not the best way to navigate xbox one menus?

Still great news and i look forward to trying it out on day one, now if only my controller did not have that stupid "Day one edition" right on it.

 

[freddy]

This was a very minor policy change, for people who had privacy concerns or repair issues. As someone earlier stated, my guess is that very few people will take advantage of the feature. But knowing it's there as an option is important.

Yep, well done. That's all people were asking for really, as far as privacy is concerned.

 

[Metfanant]

No...kinect is an ir blaster but they also have an additional port for another ir blaster if you need it.

Correct...

so they give you a way to make the feature work, you decide not to use it, then you're mad because you now need something else to make it work. I assume you're not buying it anyway, but you don't have to pretend this is the straw that made it unworkable.

Completely missing my point...I was making the comments towards the "Yay! No required Kinect I'm getting a Xbone and tossing Kinect!" Crowd...

I'm not sure they realize that by doing so they are disabling a pretty popular feature...

Do I plan on getting an Xbone? Absolutely... At launch? Not unless I can stumble on a crazy deal...$900 is a little steep for just hardware (before games/extra controllers) IMO and I feel the PS4 is the better fit for me right now...

But there are MS exclusives I just can't go too long without (mainly Forza and Halo) its gonna hurt not getting Forza 5 at launch...but I'm POSITIVE I'll own an Xbone by the time Forza 6 or Halo 5 is released...whichever comes first...

I actually don't mind Kinect being required...if the NSA wants to waste their time watching me play video games then more power to them, it won't be a pretty sight...

 

[Rvaisse]

Thank you Microsoft for giving the option to not use it.
Now i wait for the thread when they announce that Kinect has a new look, it's so ugly.

 

[Black Republican]

This thread got very interesting.

I expected some commentary on this, but the direction it went surprised me.

The part that surprised me the most is the belief that we've somehow "lost our vision" or that we are "radically different" from what we announced.

Are we listening and adjusting the plans? We are. Are we making some concessions in areas where people have strong feelings? We are.

Are we altering are vision or losing faith? No.

We made one policy decision that was a major reversal around digital rights vs. physical media. It was the only time major features were changed, like family sharing, and some of the online check-in stuff that was related to it. It was the right call.

If you go back to the Unveil and E3 conferences, today's announcement doesn't change or diminish what we've said we were doing at all. All we said today is that we weren't going to brick the box if Kinect was unplugged. People making a leap thinking that means we've completely disconnected Kinect from the system would be wrong.

Once you guys experience the console, some of the criticisms may be valid, and many won't. The controller will not be the best way to navigate the dash - things like instant switching, snap mode, sign-in, and search are going to be vastly superior with Kinect. There is no controller UI that will beat "Xbox, Snap Skype", or "Xbox, Go to Killer Instinct".

The idea that the controller is the best way to navigate makes sense in reference to Xbox 360, but it's not true in Xbox One. You can completely control the dash with a controller, but many cases are deprecated versions of how it will work with voice.

If we were to remove Kinect from the bundle, then THAT would be a 180... but it's not going to happen. This was a very minor policy change, for people who had privacy concerns or repair issues. As someone earlier stated, my guess is that very few people will take advantage of the feature. But knowing it's there as an option is important.

Anyway, that's all my commentary on this. Bowing out for the evening.

There was a rumor about a $299 subsidized XB1, was MS thinking about doing that?

 

[Metfanant]

It would still work, but you loose a lot of cool features. You could still do HDMI pass-through, you'd just need to use your old remote instead. You'd loose the IR blasting (unless you got an external one), and you'd loose the ability to just say TV stations and have it tune (Xbox, go to Discovery Channel). The One Guide for TV wouldn't be very useful, so favorite channels stuff would be gone. You'd loose "Xbox On". Essentially it would turn the Xbox into a very expensive HDMI switcher.

Again to my point - the box will function without Kinect, but a lot of the stuff that's unique and cool about the system wouldn't be there.

Honest, complete answer...thank you

 

[Pseudo judo]

This thread got very interesting.

I expected some commentary on this, but the direction it went surprised me.

The part that surprised me the most is the belief that we've somehow "lost our vision" or that we are "radically different" from what we announced.

Are we listening and adjusting the plans? We are. Are we making some concessions in areas where people have strong feelings? We are.

Are we altering are vision or losing faith? No.

We made one policy decision that was a major reversal around digital rights vs. physical media. It was the only time major features were changed, like family sharing, and some of the online check-in stuff that was related to it. It was the right call.

If you go back to the Unveil and E3 conferences, today's announcement doesn't change or diminish what we've said we were doing at all. All we said today is that we weren't going to brick the box if Kinect was unplugged. People making a leap thinking that means we've completely disconnected Kinect from the system would be wrong.

Once you guys experience the console, some of the criticisms may be valid, and many won't. The controller will not be the best way to navigate the dash - things like instant switching, snap mode, sign-in, and search are going to be vastly superior with Kinect. There is no controller UI that will beat "Xbox, Snap Skype", or "Xbox, Go to Killer Instinct".

The idea that the controller is the best way to navigate makes sense in reference to Xbox 360, but it's not true in Xbox One. You can completely control the dash with a controller, but many cases are deprecated versions of how it will work with voice.

If we were to remove Kinect from the bundle, then THAT would be a 180... but it's not going to happen. This was a very minor policy change, for people who had privacy concerns or repair issues. As someone earlier stated, my guess is that very few people will take advantage of the feature. But knowing it's there as an option is important.

Anyway, that's all my commentary on this. Bowing out for the evening.

The one that want Kinect removed don't share your vision,for the console and still see it's developmental and technical limitations based on the old Kinect. They can go buy a PS4. Sony has decided to put no stake or faith into their camera and it will show in software diversity and sales.

My personal feeling is that to offer increased value for the $499 price, MS should offer one year of live gold free as well as a free digital copy of any single 1st party Xbox One game through to January 1st, 2015. That'll change the nature of things pretty quickly.