Didn't find a thread on this one yet.

Sounds like MS is trying to fall more in line with the competition. The XBox One Kinect requirement is being dropped, and I guess 360 owners won't have to pay just to watch Netflix (which was always a bad idea.)

http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/13/tech/gaming-gadgets/microsoft-xbox-price/
http://www.theverge.com/2014/5/13/5714362/without-kinect-xbox-is-just-a-console

The Verge writer sounds kinda bent out of shape out the change, but considering it wasn't working, it seems like the smart move.

This effect anyone's desire to own one?

in a way its a shame. Kinect has potential and if used well it could be a huge thing. especially for things like webbrowsing or netflix but even in games... (it would be awesome if it could read hand signals. you give it a finger and it shuts down)


and boy. did they mess stuff up over there in xbox department. their vision was butchered step by step. they just couldn't sale it.

Let me just say that Microsoft has been a major source of entertainment for 2013-2014. It's so funny watching them seriously proclaim certain things, only to completely retract them later.

I wonder if this is going to lead up to MS releasing games that absolutely require Kinect & MS inflating the price to buy it as an add-on

It was bound to happen, Peter Molyneux may be a douchebag, but he knows the industry and gave us some of the best video games ever (Dungeon Keeper, Theme Hospital, Syndicate...), so I kind of never lost my respect for the man, and he always said the Kinect would be dropped, as much as Microsoft tried making it an integral and mandatory part of the Xbox One experience.

These measures won't make me buy an Xbox because a) we don't have Netflix in Portugal, b) Microsoft consoles have little to no support, over here, I don't know a single person who owns an Xbox console, no matter the generation, everyone has Sony consoles, Microsoft's presence, in terms of consoles, in our country, is laughable, and c) I don't have the money.

Like I said, even if I had the money -- and this measure serves as a means to drop production costs, so I'm guessing the Xbone will be more in line with the PS4, price-wise --, there would be no point in buying an Xbox One, as all the features people advertise for it don't work in here, the online is a mess, you don't have most of the products available digitally, the indie store is non-existent... plus, no one here cares about Kinect, and having to pay more for a console just because it comes bundled with that crap harms the sales of the 20 or 30 Xboxes that are going to be sold in Portugal.

Good for them, but it won't change the state of the Xbox in this country. Actually, I don't even know if it was already released in here, I didn't see anything in stores or on the TV, I know we and Poland were going to be one of the last to get it, but I can't honestly say whether it was already released or not.

This changes how I view the console quite a bit. I was never going to buy the Xbone previously because of the required Kinect. Yes, I knew you could unplug it but why spend money on something I will never use?

About a year and a half ago I looked at my 360 for Netflix and went out and got a Roku instead. The navigation isn't as sexy, but it was a one time cost, uses only 4 watts and doesn't sound like a plane idling in my living room.

Making people pay what amounts a toll for using Netflix and Hulu when just about anything that runs on electricity will do it for free just seems stupid. I guess they figured they might as well charge a few suckers, but I'm surprised they kept getting away with it for so long, because it just seems like prick logic.

It physically hurts me that there's people who consider this a letdown. It doesn't even take half a brain to understand that there was no reason to enforce Kinect in the first place. If the technology and vision were as great as MS made it seem they could have been selling both parts separately all along and people still would have bought them both. Even people who had (as it turns out perfectly legitimate) doubts about the new Kinect would have been more likely to just buy the - this way slightly cheaper - XBone and jumped on the Kinect train later on. The whole original move was based on perfectly faulty logic.

The technology sucks, the vision is stupid, MS simply screwed up and people who don't understand that are morons.

I for one am more likely to buy an XBone now (although I'm still favoring the PS4 and that's the next gen console I'm more likely to buy or first and if at all).

My blu ray player has all that stuff. I've never understood why people buy a Roku instead of a blu ray player, but to each his own.

A roku is cheaper?

Not in the US.

Can get a roku here for 30 bucks.

A used first generation one, I guess. On Amazon the current Roku is $89.99 new, a nice Sony blu ray player with all those apps is $79.99. So I guess it depends on what kind of comparison you want to make.

Was either a 2 or 3. Same one my cousin has, but i think it's a 2.