After losing the battle in sales up to this point Microsoft have now announced that there will be an Xbox One model available that does not include a Kinect, the piece of tech widely seen as the reason for the initial price differential in Microsoft and Sony's consoles, starting June 9th.
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| Picture this, minus the top part. |
The voices of consumers have been heard according to the announcement which said:
"We’ve heard that you want more choices from Xbox One. You want a wide variety of options in your games and entertainment experiences and you also want options in your hardware selection."
The announcement also said Microsoft still see the Kinect as an important aspect of what they are trying to do and that standalone sensors will be available in the fall and the company will still have the Kinect-included version available.
This should give a boost to the Xbox One's sales numbers, but it is also another example of Microsoft fixing a mistake, something they have being doing a lot of the past year.
There is something to be said for fixing and adapting, and the responses Microsoft has made to things not going how they planned thus far have been quick.
But it would be nice to see things like not needing an Xbox Live Gold membership to watch Netflix, having the option to buy a Kinect-free console, not needing to always be online, or being able to play used games be the initial stance and options presented by Microsoft.
The sad fact is these have all come from bad press and consumer pressure. Maybe that can change one day too.
The obvious lesson for the consumer in this is not spending your dollars can say as much as spending them.
The announcement is available here: http://news.xbox.com/2014/05/xbox-delivering-more-choices
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