MS to offer Xbone without Kinect starting June 9, remove paywall for apps

[Tron1]

I agree w/ everyone's statements except "u know who". I wonder how this will affect the brand of Xbox down the road. It reminds me of how sega mishandled the sega cd and the the 32x.

I especially agree with your points Edward. Well said.

[Atarifever1]

[QUOTE=videogamecritic]Whoever is running the Xbox division at Microsoft has been running it into the ground since before launch!  Wow, what a total meltdown.  Had they been advised by a real gamer (like ME) they could have avoided all of this painful backtracking.
[/QUOTE]
That was Don Mattrick.  He left sometime after E3 last year.  Then it was nobody for a few months.  

Now it is Phil Spencer.  He just started a month or so ago.  Since he came on they removed the paywall for Netflix, Hulu, etc, removed Kinect, threw in a game with a bundle, announced free games with Gold is coming to Xbox One next month, and said their E3 conference was going to be all games.  For reference, Phil Spencer has previously been in charge of their, I believe, first party development studios.  That is, he worked for the games part of Xbox, not the other parts.  Putting him in charge of the division is a move me or you would have made back in, oh, 2012 or so.  At least he's there now.  

[JWK1]

"...Investors hope this change-- in addition to the myriad of other changes-- will further boost sales of the fledgling XBox One.

In related news, Microsoft has decided to re-brand their gaming division as 'MicroSony.'  Back to you, Chet..."

[Sut1]

I don't think any launch has been as awful as this one since the Sega Saturn. They've handed the PS4 a headstart on a platter which I can't see Sony giving up, they have probably given Nintendo a boost too.

[Segatarious1]

Well, do they even make software for Kinect?

MS really, really really dropped the ball on motion gaming, I wonder how many people they burned and turned off with their cheap rehashes and terrible controls? One factor is this is how awful Kinect One was on 360, how hyped it was by the game media, how many 'hardcore' (so called) gamers went and bought it, and how burned they were. On the other end, you are asking less invested people who  adopted Kinect on their 360 and were unimpressed by it, and MS saying - 'here, dump a pile of money on Kinect 2, and here is our software lineup........................'(crickets chirp)

It was a bad product from day one, I know I said so. It is dead now - who on earth will ever make games for it? One of the strangest and grandest failures in all of gaming history. Imagine the money MS has invested in Kinect all of these years, wow. And for what? Kinect Sports from Rare and a hand full of Dance Titles. Extreme failure.

[Verm1]

To be honest, I'm disappointed in MS offering a Kinect-less Xbox One.

I debate that it's a short term gain for a long term loss.

[Gentlegamer1]

Get a load of this guy: http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2014/05/13/microsofts-yusuf-mehdi-explains-the-xbox-ones-split-with-kinect-2/

Yusef Mehdi just oozes MS arrogance and spin. He's an example of why I'm currently "anti-Xbox," because of the suits MS has had running the gaming division.

Phil Spencer, your next task is to fire this clown. Then I may start to be able to listen to Xbone's offerings without feeling completely repulsed.

[Greisha1]

Now it's all about "Instant Game Collections" (read: Sega Channel) and premium memberships. Uck.

[ActRaiser1]

[QUOTE=Verm]To be honest, I'm disappointed in MS offering a Kinect-less Xbox One.

I debate that it's a short term gain for a long term loss.[/QUOTE]

This, I'd rather they stick to the original vision.

Here's the thing, at the same price point as the PS4, the PS4 wins everytime.  The PS4 is the more powerful console.  The PS4's sole function is to play games.  If you can play the same game at a higher resolution with a higher FPS, why would you buy a less powerful console for the same price?

With the voice controls (again only offered with the Kinect) the Xbox One provides differentiation between the PS4 games only approach.  Sure, IMHO the exclusive games on the Xbox One are better than the exclusives on the PS4 but that's just my opinion.  When you take that away MS seems to have lost sight of the long term goal, complete living room integration.

It will be interesting to see if this will help or hurt MS in the long run.

[Vexer1]

Eh, dosen't really sound like "arrogance" or "spin" to me.