Xbox One Price Set Without Kinect, Netflix No Longer Behind Paywall
The Xbox One price has been a major deterrent for newcomers of the latest generation of consoles. Initially, it was set at $100 more than the PS4, and Microsoft’s console has been suffering ever since. Apparently, they are realizing they’re making the same mistakes that Sony made with the PlayStation 3, and there is only one way they can drop the price to a competitive level.
The Xbox One Kinect is being taken out of the box, and Microsoft is selling the console at the same price as the PS4 ($399) as of June 9. This means that the obvious solution that gamers saw from the start is finally happening in spite of Microsoft’s initial statement that the Xbox One would never sell without the Kinect.
The Kinect, though amazing in its implications, is really just a more complex PS4 camera, and Sony didn’t force anyone to buy theirs with the new console. Aside from the ease of logging in without the need for passwords and such, the Kinect is little more than a peripheral for games that rarely ever succeed.
Literally, none of the games made for the Kinect have made it to most gamers’ must-play list, so dropping it from the price of the Xbox One could be one of the smartest decisions Microsoft has made yet.
Another feature of the Xbox One promoted since its pre-launch days was the ability to watch TV and internet video. However, it was all stuck behind the Xbox Live paywall, meaning you had to have a subscription to Xbox Live Gold to even access the content. Microsoft is about to change that, taking all of their Xbox Live video streaming apps and giving gamers access to them for free. You’ll still need a subscription to Netflix and other video streaming services, but the Xbox One and 360 price is getting taken out of the equation.
Microsoft Said To Be Dropping Xbox Live As A Requirement For Netflix, Hulu http://t.co/7AoQMbFa5g by @grg
— TechCrunch (@TechCrunch) May 13, 2014
You’ll still need the Xbox Live Gold subscription to play games with friends, but now you can watch online content from Netflix, Hulu, and the rest without it. This change will come to both the Xbox One and the Xbox 360, so even if you haven’t yet upgraded to the latest generation, you’ll still finally be able to enjoy your console with nothing more than a steady WiFi signal.
Microsoft may be attempting to win some favor back, considering the recent developer statement that the PlayStation 4 code is much easier to work with, as previously reported by The Inquisitr.
Do you think the Xbox One price drop will bring the console enough sales to match the PS4? Will selling without the Kinect and taking Nextflix and other video streaming services out from behind the paywall be enough?
[image via business insider]
