Xbox One getting $399 version without Kinect in June
Microsoft is introducing an Xbox One without Kinect included. It will launch on June 9 for $399.
Update: Twitch is also among the apps that will be available without a Gold subscription.
Microsoft announced a new, cheaper retail option for Xbox One today, without Kinect included. It will launch June 9 for $399, putting it on-par with the price of the PlayStation 4. The company also confirmed reports that entertainment apps like Netflix, Hulu, and Twitch will be accessible without a Gold subscription starting in early June.
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Shacknews
replySteve Watts posted a new article, Xbox One getting $399 version without Kinect in June.
Microsoft is introducing an Xbox One without Kinect included. It will launch on June 9 for $399.-
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It's not like there was ever any pent up demand for it and most people just use it to command the cable box. It keeps getting hyped as the next big thing, but know one ever seems to come up with a satisfactory reason why. It's admittedly a cool piece of tech, but it's not really useful outside of a handful of games.
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I'm a little mad, and I don't even own an XBO.
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What they should have done was release the Kinect 2 for the pc way way before the X1's launch, allowing indie devs to do the hard work figuring out cool applications for it in advance of the systems launch.
Although i still feel they were pressured into releasing the X1 earlier than they wanted to, so that couldn't have happened. -
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less, you couldn't give less. Because i assume you give zero.
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well its a catch 22 since devs wont give a crap if people dont have the kinect. Microsoft just wanted to be the chicken/egg that came first to try to get the ball rolling.
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look, i like the kinect idea, it seems cool in a lot of ways, but evidently the audience doesn't care so much, and clearly devs aren't that into it or there'd be more pressure to keep it mandatory. i don't think there are revolutionary experiences down the pipe. even though i said it was forward-thinking and had a lot of potential the market doesn't seem to agree, so they are doing the only thing they can do as a company that wants to be profitable.
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It was worthless before they removed it out of the SKU. There wasn't been any meaningful reason or showcase to justify owning one. Had there been a killer app or must have game AAA utilizing it people would buy the accessory.
Also keep in mind that the Kinect doesn't necessarily work in every situation like small rooms or bedrooms. So why pay for something you can't use all that well.-
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I think there was enough outcry about it in the first place that no one wanted to make anything for it. They realized that no one really wanted to use it so they didn't bother.
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They should have kept bundling games in each system. That would have closed the price gap enough to make the Kinect seem like a cheaper add on
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how? They officially crippled any reason for a dev to integrate Kinect functionality because the install base is going to keep shrinking and they can't guarantee that everyone is going to have a Kinect. It's the dumbest move they could make in a long line of dumb decisions.
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called it!
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Lol for all the people who shack piled on those who wanted a kinectless xbone :(
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It's all strategy and marketing. Of course it could work without it but they had to make a decision and it turned out to be the bad one. Now it's all back peddling and damage control at this point. I think the only thing they can do at this point is focus on getting good games on the system and they need to do it sooner rather than later. I'm still holding out on buying a next gen console probably until the end of this year, early next. If history has taught me anything, it's that new console generations are generally rocky from the start.
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So dirty.
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such anger. i am glad i'm not HUGELY emotionally invested in these money making products created by massive corporations.
cheaper xbox and no gold req. for apps? cool!-
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i wonder what will be worse, the smug satisfaction of the people who "predicted" this a year ago, or the people who still hate microsoft for daring to release something that PERSONALLY offended their sensibilities and then WEAKLY changed their stance...?
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Ouch. Someone certainly is emotionally involved in this console race.
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I wonder how they'll translate the "record that" to a controller. I don't see how you could you catch a clip of Titanfall midgame without messing up your game by going into menus on a live match. Maybe they'll copy the the way the PS4 just records the last 25 minutes all the time.
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I guess, but I hate wearing the headset if I'm not explicitly using it to talk to someone, and then you'd also have teammates yelling into their mics "XBOX RECORD THAT SHIT. YEAH NIGGA YOU DUN GOT RAPED BITCH."
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That's not practical you silly bitch. They'll need to make it easy to use for a controller based setup. The PS4 already has solved that problem. I mean when it comes down to it, I don't give a shit really, I gots mine. It's just that it was one of the best Kinect features and the implementation for editing and sharing were better than the PS4 too.
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Wow. I didn't know that. Have they said why that is? Or is there no way other than Record That to make a clip?
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You can snap the DVR app in and record like 5 min or gameplay or something like that all with the controller. The DVR app and Upload Studio are two different apps and both need to be used to upload something to Onedrive.
The reason upload studio needs the Kinect is I guess if you want to add voice comments or something. It's so dumb though because I never used it even in there to upload clips because for that you don't actually have to use the kinect yet the app says you do, which is what it's annoying to me.
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Add a mic to the console.
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Bombcast should be fun this week.
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Yeah I hope they didn't record it yesterday.
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lol. Patrick and Alex are doing a live feed right now talking about it.
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Link?
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It's over. It'll probably get archived later today like their morning show. It was pretty short.
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Like immediately after I posted it did: http://www.giantbomb.com/videos/lets-talk-about-microsofts-big-xbox-news-today/2300-8877/
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thanks chaps.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffCEr327W44 I knew it, well lets be honest Kinect is pretty much useless for mainstream gaming it is a specialty device it should of always been optional.
No one talks about how fantastic Kinect is for gaming on the Xbox One(or the 360), so I have to give MS massive respect for doing this, the only shitty thing is that money could of been put into a better GPU initially and the XB1 could of been > PS4.
All well this is very good news for MS moving forward, I dig it its a good on them, no hate, you can not live in the past.-
Word, all these changes today are good for people who love playing games. We've seen the last two generations what happens when one company gets too dominant and comfortable. This is a great step to keeping that fight going.
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One thing to remember is that a lot of the executives who were responsible for the Xbox One's problems have either left or been purged. Now their replacements get to clean up the mess and what a mess it is.
Really most of the Xbox One's problems can be attributed to a small group of completely out of touch with reality executives who have their bad ideas praised by yes men. Meanwhile the employees who actually have a good head on their shoulders can do nothing but watch the train wreck knowing the executives will get off scott free, and still get a huge bonus too, while everyone else gets a pink slip.-
I think the problem is more that the execs were ahead of their time and were willing to be risky to innovate. The PS4 is what every console has been before it - a faster machine. There really is nothing new it brings to the table. That turned out to be a good strategy for them and I'm not saying they were wrong. But innovation is a good thing, and it was good to see Microsoft take a risk on real innovation.
The Kinect tech will eventually be there - some sort of voice command and motion sensing. Just like eventually games will only be sold online. But it apparently is not now.-
It really isn't all about kinect. That's just a part of it. The whole drm thing and the steps taken to prevent used games from being played. And I just didn't like their overall attitude when handling the criticism or questions from people. I'm sure there's some other stuff I'm forgetting since it's been almost a year. But it wasn't all about kinect hate. At least not for everyone.
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a large portion of the consumer base don't want to pay for hardware that isn't ready to meet their standard of quality. you can be as innovative as you want in R&D and concept designs, but when it comes to selling an actual product you're bound by the market... so you wait until the hardware is good enough.
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I totally disagree "the execs were ahead of their time and were willing to be risky to innovate" none of the things they wanted to do benefited the gamer/customer what so ever.
If the original vision of the Xbox One would have gone through I would of never got a Xbox One what so ever, if Sony or anyone else followed the same path I would go exclusive on the PC and ditch consoles.
I want no part of that gaming future it was more like gaming big brother max security we 100% control the gamers experience marketing machine dream, it was a terrible idea.
What was so great about the original vision? what don't we have now that was so great int he original plan?
I can not think of any benefit we missed out on.-
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They straight up didn't release a killer Kinect app for the Xbox One, and still haven't. That is their biggest mistake. You could argue that the Kinect was a cool innovation for gamers if they actually put out some impressive games, but they haven't.
I still don't understand your super negative stance on it, it had potential but they didn't do anything with it. If they released games and the games were fun, that would be all that matters to me.-
Exactly. I'll spend the $100 gladly for something of value. They have like 3 2 star at best games that are Kinect based now. They are arguably 1 star shovelware games honestly. I use the voice commands, but more because I already have the One, they aren't a killer app. They couldn't even make it work for the basic On command for many people in the real world. If they had some crazy ass implementation that was going to blow us away for the Kinect they should have that fucker ready at launch. MS's biggest problem this launch was their inability to convince people of their arguments. I mean Sony didn't do anything particularly innovative, they really did just pump out a powerful machine at a good price and fed games to it fairly regularly from launch. MS could have made the One something bananas awesome, but they tried radical changes with poor arguments behind them and then told game fans, some of the touchiest angriest people alive, to fuck off and hand over their money.
Today's changes, and all the changes they made so far are good changes for their sales and for continued competition. For all the LOLMS180LOLOL, they are listening to the audience and making adjustments, and hopefully at some point they get some execs capable of selling the vision they want to implement if they are going to try and get weird in the market space. They lost so much ground out the gate though that it will be years at least I'd imagine before they could possibly get back into a leader position. Sony has the advantage and momentum now and can dictate the playing field until MS comes out with a killer exclusive game or feature.
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I'll throw out a few:
Digital distribution: it was going to be steam for the consoles, which means we almost certainly would have gotten cheaper games later on. Everybody complained that they were removing the used game market. Which is true, but it would have been great. That market only exists so that people who wouldn't normally pay $60 a game will buy a game cheaper. The reason steam sells games so cheaply is because of economics - the cheaper the game the more people will buy it. You remove the used game market and the people willing to pay less for a game are still there. Tying a library to yourself, no matter where you go (or what Xbox you use) is obviously going to happen sooner or later as hard media go away. And it's good for the consumer - no disc to scratch or loose, no buying multiple copies.
Kinect: I've talked about this before, but gaming has reached a standstill in innovation. Simply put, all we can do is provide better graphics. Graphics are good, but they are not everything. The Kinect allows for entire new genres to be created. Granted it's only allows for - not guaranteed. But the PS4, as is, has almost no possibility for that - we've created all the basic ideas already. What would such a new genre look like? Here's one I thought of, and I'm not even a computer designer: a detective game where you have to interview people with voice commands, using tone, and facial expressions (remember the research valve did into facial expressions for HL2?), and also manipulate opbjects in your hands to find clues. Maybe place the gamer into a crime scene and have them move around their room (and having objects in the game reflect objects in your real room).
Let me reverse it to you: is there any benefit the PS4 gives you over your PC, outside of possible exclusive games?-
I regret my earlier stance on the digital games only thing. At the time I was concerned that Gamefly would shut down and fuck up the Shack, a totally selfish and short sighted opinion because in hindsight, Fuck Gamefly.
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I can't understand how the same people who praised steam hated that digital implementation. It was actually less restrictive than steam in some areas.
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Well there were still significant negatives. Kids often rent games from like a Redbox or something, especially in a household where their parents can't drop $60 every weekend for the new hot game. MS kind of told those kids to get fucked. Also, it's easy to forget how shit broadband is in large sections of the country or even unavailable shockingly. I know those are common issues to the PC gaming market, but frankly that has been the fringe of gaming for a long time now. It's not dying, or even really in bad shape, but the majority of people playing games do not do so on a PC.
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The rental market issue only is valid for new games. As games eventually get cheaper, it becomes more economically viable to buy a game for $10 and play it for a few weeks then to rent it for 2 weeks. Broadband was also not an issue - you could still buy a game in store and have the game data installed from the disc.
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Thing is most people buy their video game consoles to play video games and infrequently use the other added on features/functionality. The executives responsible for the Xbox One forgot/ignored this in favor of trying to create some magical anything and everything box that would be the center of people's digital lives.
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They just ran off the number data too strictly. Last generation people used the consoles a huge amount to watch netflix and such, way more time then to play games. MS just chased those numbers instead of factoring in that the games part was want sold people on that more so then buying a multimedia box that also plays game. They raw data numbers support the idea but reality doesn't.
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Who is that?
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One of the head Harmonix guys.
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Ouch.
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I was just thinking on Twitter that Fantasia is literally the only game I could think of that really heavily depends on Kinect.
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Do you expect ANY other title of that magnitude for Kinect down the road ?
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I just talked to him yesterday. Super nice guy and it's gotta kill him to see this. I feel really bad for the Harmonix crew, who are genuinely good people.
So I'd better take this time to remind you all that the Amplitude Kickstarter is still going.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/harmonix/amplitude-
Boooo, this makes me sad:
https://www.kicktraq.com/projects/harmonix/amplitude/
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now see, this is when i get annoyed at internet nerds. i understand why they dropped kinect but, this was probably going to be amazing.
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Devil's Advocate argument: Would this possibly make it easier to buy a refurbished Kinect a la carte at a discounted price somewhere like Gamestop or Best Buy? Could this make it easier for some people to grab a Kinect and try this Kinect-centered for themselves?
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The game is still coming out, but I mean this probably is and was always going to be the ONLY good Kinect game. Even Ryse dropped it almost completely and it debuted as a Kinect game.
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I was shocked at how bad Kinect Sports Rivals turned out to be. It's fussy, overly complicated, and the mechanics just aren't solid. I'm a fan of the genre, but Kinect always seemed to be in a distant third place in terms of motion controls. I figured the new hardware and a new game capitalizing on it would move the whole thing forward, but Rivals is kinda worse than the 06 Wii Sports.
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It's not like this decision retroactively destroys the millions of kinects already out there, or stops people from buying the kinect bundle new.
Fact is people who want a kinect-less Xbox wouldn't buy or play a game like Fantasia or Dance Central anyway. Things may not have turned out this way if a good example of what the kinect can do like that was actually available for the system do Microsoft and the developers could point to it and keep some faith, but it was pretty much dead on arrival. -
Why would you be mad a Internet nerds?
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Maybe MSFT can make it up by bundling their game with a Kinect or something since there's going to be that segment without one.
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I replied to the tweet with "BRACK FRIDAY BUNDURU!!!"
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I really wish Nintendo could muster up the courage to do the same thing with their gamepad. I would say the gamepad is even more pointless than the kinect.
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this is a wrong opinion
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Ok, I forgot about off TV play. That is pretty awesome.
But as far as gameplay, I haven't seen anything super-impressive, and it certainly doesn't make sense to force every customer to pay for it.-
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I preferred the Wiimote + Nunchuck for Mario 3D World. I think the Gamepad is comfortable, but not as much as a regular controller. I really think it should be an optional accessory. Optional accessories can still be really successful, like the Wii Fit board.
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That's crazy talk. It's the strongest feature. They have fucked up in almost every way, but the Gamepad is pretty awesome.
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Honestly, most of us could get by without either one. PC is more popular than it's been in years, and I think it's going to see most of the major realses, even more than the last generation.
The only way I see myself getting a PS4 is if they make a new Wipeout, or if The Last Guardian is game of the century.
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Such a huge terrible, terrible mistake on so many levels.
Kinect isn't the reason people don't buy the Xbox One... it's the MAIN reason people have bought the Xbox One, because all the marketing was about the Kinect. The Kinect should have been sold as the coolest bonus feature on a gaming console, not as the main feature of an expensive TV tuner.
And now that PS4 is winning the best-gaming-console contest (at least as far as sales are concerned), MS reacts impulsively (yet again) and does this... it's basically throwing away the only advantage it had over the PS4. All they needed to do was lose $100 per console for a year or so and they would have won this console gen IMO (and I'm saying this as a PS4 owner).
So many bad moves from MS on the Xbox One... as much as I dislike MS it's a bit of a shame to see.-
What makes you say they would have "won" this console gen? What compelling Kinect games on the horizon were going to really boost Xbox One sales numbers and help it start to outsell the PS4?
I say this as an Xbox One owner. The Kinect had potential to be a selling point for both apps and games, but they dropped the ball on the games part big time. -
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I agree, I'm just saying their ads focused most on Kinect-based features, such as voice commands. I don't think the problem with the Kinect and WiiU controller is that it's hard to find good uses for them... it's just that as a developer you don't WANT to, unless you're making a game that's exclusive to a single console, in which case your target market is a fraction of what it could be.
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Kinect has been around since 2010. Where are the games for motion control? It's a dancing and aerobics instruction accessory.
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lol. That is all.
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Hyperbole much?
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Nah... they just don't want to spend all the resources on using it, when they can't use that work/tech on other consoles or PC... developers would basically end up turning their games into Xbox One-exclusives, which is risky compared to releasing the same game on all the major consoles + PC and getting many more sales.
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Blehehe didn't even last a year.
"Dis-kinected" is probably the best pun headline I've seen today. -
one of the main problems with kinect was always going to be you needed a ton of people with PhD's in vision to decipher what the player was doing. To go from a button press boolean to figuring out what the hell this skeleton model is doing is insane for a game programmer. And hardcore gamers want 100% accuracy so it makes it even harder to cater to them.
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I wonder if this means the Xbox One will now be cheaper than the PS4 in Sweden. Seeing how they cost exactly the same today. Going to be weird.
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thing is, Sony is usually the one doing this. I was shocked by MS' overall approach on the Xbox One vs. the 360. it's almost as though they threw out everything about what works well [which they began to do with the 360 hardware by making it far less off-the-shelf compared to the Xbox] with their previous generations and assumed they would do well just because.
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No sub for the media stuff is really nice =)
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shoulda gone with integrated http://gizarosso.free.fr/images/18.jpg instead
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THIS is the right Move.
Kinect is useless and makes the console more expensive.
Well done MS ! -
"It's totally the 'You will get a second job so you can afford this!' of this generation. Don Mattrick is the new Ken Kutaragi." -- Brad Shoemaker, Giant Bombcast 06-18-2013, 1:52:08
Also, in July 2007, a year after the epic "FIVE HUNDRED AND NINETY NINE US DOLLARS!" announcement of E3 2006, Sony announced that the 60 GB PS3 was dropping to $499, and an 80 GB SKU was launching for $599. http://www.shacknews.com/article/47826/ps3-price-cut-confirmed-new
Now $599 was a huge price tag, even back then. But Sony's decision to launch at $399 really set the stage for this maneuver, as well as the Kinect's continued retreat back into a niche of voice command remotes and occasional motion control (which IMO is exactly where it fits best, and not as a primary game control device). -
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that game would be cool with kinect support tbh. ground and pound your pillows man
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Microsoft has reversed on everything. There's literally nothing left at this point. And I don't mean just the Xbox. They're even going to patch a Start Menu into Windows 8 later this year.
This is unprecedented. I've never seen a big company do so many major reversals in so short a time.-
IMO, they should have stood fast on some things, but you can't say they don't listen.
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So, all these changes are imaginary?
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That is probably more a reaction to sales than listening to any group of people.
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Isn't that what sales are? What would be the point of listening to people that won't buy your product?
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When people kicked and screamed about the DRM and they changed their plans that was listening, for better or worse. Changing plans when the sales indicate you can't move product off the shelf isn't what I call listening. Maybe you consider that listening but then I don't know what to tell you.
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I just can't... I don't... I think you are actually serious.
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Why else would they remove the kinect and drop the price by $100. The numbers are terrifying. They are in a panic.
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You are being insanely obtuse. Dropping the price because people are saying it's too high is the definition of listening to your customers.
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They're listening to dollars (low sales) because they didn't listen to their customers. If they had actually listened in the first place this wouldn't have happened. I'm speaking for Windows only here.
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What? How exactly were they supposed to listen to customers when they were working on a console launch which is akin to state secrets? I didn't see Sony broadcasting what the PS4 launch was going to be like before the announcement. They made some mistakes, some of them I believe they made because they did listen to idiots on the internet, and they are correcting course. What do you want, blood?
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"I'm speaking for Windows only here."
As for Kinect, I don't think it adds any real value and never wanted one, or to pay $100 extra for one. Obviously others feel differently, but really I don't care either way because I don't want an Xbone.-
Gotta say, having no Kinect actually makes it more likely I'd want to buy it.
I had no interest in the Kinect, or paying the extra money for one. Also, perhaps this is tinfoil-hatty of me, but I never was comfortable with the idea of a camera pointed at my living room connected to an always-on device connected to the internet. -
Then you aren't a customer and they shouldn't care about what you say.
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It's what happens when MS tries to be eccentric instead of the bog standard. They're a great bog standard company but don't have an ounce of likable eccentricity.
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Zune still around?
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Lol, nice 1 min response from Videogamer TV https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-y6PDHw5O-M
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