New XBox One SKU without Kinect

[EDDIE M0NS00N]

*sigh*

It makes me sad as I love my 360 and its online experience and would've loved to have jumped in with the One, but somebody in Microsoft thought all the ideas in the original E3 presentation were great ones.


If everything they'd u-turned on was in the original E3 announcement, or taken as read that you'd not have to be online all the time etc., I'd have a One sat under my telly now.

I too love my 360 & would have jumped straight on the Xone had they not made all these bone head decisions from the get go. Even tho some of those decisions were dropped due to public outcry I think it still left me doubting the console in some way.

Tbh i hope they shelve the kinect for now & just concentrate on the GAMES.
Would be nice to see a games only Xone in the future, which i think will happen eventually (hopefully!!)

[djtickle]

Surely they could put a cheap mic into the pad for the voice command stuff that (some) people like?

I expect that freeing up the Kinect resources won't include voice commands and just the skeletal tracking as mentioned above. I don't think speaking through the headset will happen as its not something you always have plugged in. The whole Xbox go to... etc was a big thing when MS was advertising I don't expect that to vanish just because of a Kinect Free version.

[wakka]

As someone mentioned, putting a mic in the pad seems a bit counterproductive as they you still have to use the pad to switch the Xbox on, then hold it while speaking. Maybe a microphone that can sit under your TV like the Wii Speak that shipped with Animal Crossing City Folk.

[Brad]

If they do free up some more GPU for some games then maybe we'll see this on some game boxes:

[dataDave]

Build it into the face of the console for maximum discretion.

[EDDIE M0NS00N]

Yeah exactly. After all, the Kinect has its mic discreetly placed on it, so why not on the face of the console itself?

[originalbadboy]

Yeah exactly. After all, the Kinect has its mic discreetly placed on it, so why not on the face of the console itself?

Noise and vibration from the console might be an issue, and also some people might have it in an enclosed cabinet.

[charlesr]

Hmmm. Forgot about cabinet people. Looks like the only solution to suit everyone would be a small mic that directly replaces the kinect. Why is the kinect so enormous by the way?

[gambit6613]

I do hope they try and find a way to make voice commands work with just a headset. I must admit this is the only part of Kinect i did find rather useful, whilst not always accurate i certainly found it helpful when playing games, the best example is making Fifa14 substitutions on the fly without having to pause the game.

[wakka]

I'm sure they will gambit. All that is required is any kind of basic microphone that you can buy for 2p, no special hardware. All of the voice recognition is done by the Xbox's software.

[Lebowski]

As someone mentioned, putting a mic in the pad seems a bit counterproductive as they you still have to use the pad to switch the Xbox on, then hold it while speaking. Maybe a microphone that can sit under your TV like the Wii Speak that shipped with Animal Crossing City Folk.

This seems to be the only option to keep all voice functionality without problems. With a wiispeak type unit under the tv, you don't have to wear a headset like a yuppie nob/call center reject. You don't have to worry about noise and vibration or units shut in cupboards, and you don't have the expense of all the other stuff in the kinect. You would still need the 4 microphone array with this solution though, but i bet a few cheap mics and a USB cable don't cost much.

Hmmm. Forgot about cabinet people. Looks like the only solution to suit everyone would be a small mic that directly replaces the kinect. Why is the kinect so enormous by the way?

http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Xbox+One+Kinect+Teardown/19725

It's own ram, Two Cameras, heat sinks fans ect its like a mini computer in a box.

[Uli]

• Full One (Kinect, Pass through, Drive)
• Kinectless
• Kinectless & Passthrough removed
• 1TB HDD model with drive
• 1TB HDD model without drive

passthrough? what's that supposed to be? if you mean HDMI-passthrough for TV that's not working anyway, so no real loss i guess.

[capcom_suicide]

A strong and consumer focused Xbox is essential for competition, innovation and balance in the market. I'm still really chuffed that MS has taken this step, it shows real balls to do a U turn on DRM and Kinect. I feel MS deserves some gamer love for these moves.

[gambit6613]

If the clock could be turned back a year and MS didn't make all these cock ups with the announcement of Xbox One and the amount of back tracking the company has made, just how much closer the sales of Xbone/PS4 would be?

[CMcK]

It's still too early to see just how much an effect last years PR fiascos has really has on the Xbox One's chance of success. We're still in the early adopter / purchase justifier phase for the new systems. Give it another year, a price cut and this years E3 announcements then look again. I think whatever MS show at E3 has to be games that will all ship this year. None of the two years out target render b*ll*cks PR peeps are so keen on these days.

Another thing both platform holders need to figure is why a thirty something gamer with reasonable amounts of disposable income like me has almost zero interest in the new systems. None of my friends have upgraded yet and only one is thinking about it. Kind of. A bit.