Xbox One Drops Bundled Kinect

Microsoft also opens up Netflix and other apps to all users.

By Andy, Posted 13 May 2014

In an amazing change of course, Phil Spencer announced this morning that beginning on June 9, 2014, there will be a version of the Xbox One sold without the Kinect, starting at $399.99. While that is extremely newsworthy in itself, the Xbox head was not done as it was further announced that applications (Netflix in particular) which were previously held behind the Xbox Live Gold pay wall would be available to everyone with an Xbox 360 or Xbox One regardless of their Gold status. While the Xbox One will begin being sold to fans without Kinect in June, the sensor itself will not be available as a stand alone unit until this fall. And so the Xbox One story writes another strange chapter in its already strange life.

Xbox One,Bundle,Kinect,Xbox Live Gold

For Microsoft to make this sort of drastic announcement, it is clear that the Xbox One is being thoroughly trounced by the PS4, which is counter to everything the Xbox One has stood for concerning the Kinect. There were already multiple discounts on the system which coincided with the release of the savior game Titanfall, yet now this announcement has been made outside of the E3 window in which Microsoft would receive the most coverage on it.

As fluid as the Xbox One situation has been with pricing and bundles over the past few months, along with this latest announcement which is set to be in effect directly before E3 kicks off; I have to believe that Microsoft is going to have a few more surprises to announce in an attempt to move units.

Andy (@workgamesleep), NoobFeed

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General Information

Xbox One

/100

Platform(s): Xbox 360
Publisher(s): Microsoft
Developer(s): Microsoft
Genres: Console
Themes: N/A
Release Date: 2013-11-22

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