To compete on price, Microsoft offers Xbox without Kinect sensor
SEATTLE — A few months ago, Microsoft talked about Kinect, the motionand voice-controlled sensor for the Xbox, as an integral part of the company’s videogame plans.
The sensor has just become a lot less essential. On Tuesday, Microsoft said it would introduce a new entry-level Xbox One console without the Kinect, at $100 less than the current version that includes the sensor.
The less-expensive console, to be released in June for $399, will match the price of Sony’s PlayStation 4, which has been beating the Xbox One in sales since the two devices came out in November.
The move appears to be an acknowledgment by Microsoft that its original vision for Xbox One was too ambitious for many gamers. With Kinect, Microsoft could boast that dance games on its system could be controlled with footwork and a swishing of the hips. A microphone in the sensor let people change television channels with voice commands.
Many gamers deemed those features superfluous, though, especially at a $100 premium over Sony’s system. The vast majority of games are played with the more-conventional controller that also comes with the Xbox One.
In a telephone interview, Yusuf Mehdi, corporate vice president for marketing, strategy and business for Xbox, said Microsoft wanted to give people more options when buying an Xbox One. He said Kinect would still be sold with a moreexpensive Xbox One, becoming part of a “premium experience” for the console and available as a stand-alone accessory.
The company said more than 80 percent of its Xbox One customers were actively using Kinect, using an average of 120 voice commands every month to operate each console.
Even without Kinect, Mehdi said, the Xbox One would still have a technological edge over the PlayStation in many regards. People can still plug a cable television box into the console so that the Xbox One can be used to control a television. Rather than voice commands, people without Kinect will have to use the joysticks and buttons on their Xbox One controllers, or a remote sold separately.
Sony says it has sold more than 7 million PlayStation 4s to consumers. Microsoft says it has sold 5 million Xbox Ones into retail channels, though not all of those necessarily have been sold to consumers.
By making Kinect an option, rather than a core part of its system, Microsoft will most likely diminish developers’ incentive to create products that exploit the sensor’s capabilities. That could make the sensor less appealing to customers overall.
While game developers are often drawn to products that push technological boundaries, a more-important consideration for many is that their games are available to the widest possible audience. For them, a cheaper Xbox One could be worth the loss of Kinect if it improves Microsoft’s sales numbers.
Mehdi said Microsoft had no regrets about how it released its latest console.
“I feel like we were appropriately ambitious,” he said. “Sure, I’d love to be the market leader, but it’s early in the cycle and, more importantly, our customers are delighted and telling their friends about Xbox One. On all those metrics, we’re delighted.”