A couple of months back, Microsoft announced that they would be offering a Kinect-less version of Xbox One for $399. The main objective behind this move was to increase sales of the console, which was already facing steep competiton from Sony’s PS4. “If Microsoft unbundles the Kinect sensor from the Xbox One console as we expect in 2015, this should lead to rough price parity with the PS4 and reset the sales dynamic at retail,” said Lewis Ward, Research Director, Gaming at IDC.
Looks like Microsoft’s plan has worked. Xbox Marketing Director Harvey Eagle, during a talk attended by TrustedReviews, stated that the company was “really happy” with the results thus far. “Our momentum has really improved in the past weeks and months and we’re obviously really happy about that. And by momentum, I mean sales.”
There are also couple of factors that we believe led to this. One, Microsoft, along-with the price reduction, also started giving out monthly exclusive discounts and deals on Xbox One games, which could go up to 75 percent on certain titles, to its Xbox Live Gold members. Secondly, according to Microsoft, Xbox One without the Kinect performs at-least 10 percent faster/better. Eagle said, “Yes, the additional resources allow access to up to 10 percent additional GPU performance. We’re committed to giving developers new tools and flexibility to make their Xbox One games even better by giving them the option to use the GPU reserve in whatever way is best for them and their games.”
Although the Kinect-less option offers a boost in gaming performance if developers choose to utilize that extra 10 percent, Microsoft remains committed to the motion sensor.
Compared to Xbox One, Sony’s PS4 has been doing really well in terms of sales. But, as we have stated numerous times before, the war between the two consoles is still in its infancy and we have yet to see some solid sales numbers for both consoles. Now that the Xbox One is available for $399, do you think Microsoft has a chance to match, if not overcome, Sony’s PS4 in sales? Sound off in the comments below.
