Last week we saw an influx of rumors regarding the future plans Microsoft had for the Xbox One. They included a white model, a 1TB hard drive, console bundles with Forza, Sunset Overrive, and Titanfall, and even a $399 model.
The $100 extra an Xbox One currently costs compared to the PS4 is by far the biggest hurdle Microsoft has to overcome at retail. Reducing the price of the machine to match that of its competitor is highly desirable for both the company and consumers. But the rumor a $399 console is coming, at the cost of the Blu-ray drive rather than Kinect sensor, is just a rumor.
Aaron Greenberg, chief of staff for the Devices and Studios Group at Microsoft, has confirmed via his Twitter account that a cheaper Xbox One isn’t happening. He points out that you shouldn’t believe everything you read on the Internet, which is true, but this is one rumor I’m sure a lot of people at Microsoft’s gaming division would actually hurry up and become true.
There is no compelling reason right now to spend an extra $100 for the Xbox One. That may change once a few more exclusive games appear for the console, but Kinect certainly isn’t worth the investment right now. As discussed earlier today, Microsoft needs to put its resources behind a number of indie devs if it wants Kinect to be the success it had hoped for.
There’s no doubt that somewhere inside Microsoft work is being done to allow the Xbox One to be sold with a bigger profit margin attached. Be that through supplier changes, redesigning internal parts, or considering the removal of certain features. And inevitably a price reduction is expected several times throughout the console’s lifetime. It just doesn’t look like the first of those is going to happen as soon as everyone would like it to.
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