Very doubtful. The $500 price tag is probably in place so M$ can still turn a profit on each unit sold, just like with the 360. However, I highly doubt that profit margin is $100+, and I sincerely doubt M$ would be willing to cut the price and lose a shit ton of money, just to make consumers happy at this point. Plus, given the seemingly much higher demand for PS4, M$ will have no choice but to try and turn as big of a profit as possible if they want to continue supporting the console into the future, and not end like Sony did for most of this past generation. It would be ironic though if the XBone was still being sold at a loss WITH the $500 price tag lol

Kinect2 is still bundled and I'm sure at $500 they are making a decent profit on each system. Like $15-30?

We wanted them to remove the restrictions not bleed money. Besides the price will go down in a couple of years. Its the nature of the console business.

I wonder if it will be like MGS4 or like putting the whole game on the hdd rendering the disc obsolete

The games won't have install progress screens... it will be in background... so while you play the first level PS4 is already installind the game into HDD... only the first time you play the game it needs a little longer time like 20-30 seconds to install the first files to run the game.

We had a chance to speak with Xbox Chief Product Officer Marc Whitten this evening, following the company's DRM policy changes on Xbox One, and figured if we're already talking about changes, how about that $499 price?

"We really believe deeply in the value that we're delivering. Not just for the first day of launch, which we think is going to be amazing, with amazing games and entertainment experiences, but what this architecture can deliver over the long term." said Whitten. "We feel good about our price."

What about changing the price by removing the Kinect?

"We still absolutely believe in Kinect. It's a core part of the architecture. Frankly, it's really critical that you build it as something that's always there, always part of the platform. So that game creators, experience creators can know they can rely on it. And you, the user, that there's always a consistent experience. That it's not just an accessory."

Consumers aren't the only ones happy with today's changes. Both GameStop and rental service GameFly have applauded Microsoft for today's Xbox One policy shift.

http://www.joystiq.com/2013/06/19/xbox-one-sticking-with-499-price-kinect-still-core-part-of-e/

Of COURSE they applauded the policy shift, they have a financially vested interest in used games.

If they introduce an SKU without Kinect for $100 less, I will pre-order it instantly.

Just throw in a game or some free gold time to entice buyers. I personally think killer instinct is the perfect choice. They already planned it as a free to play. Just offer a slightly scaled down gold version for free. It adds to the perceived value of the system and they could still make money on it using the free to play dlc model.

Also, Microsoft, while your at it can you please remove netflix from behind your paywall and let indis and app developers self publish on your system for christs sake!

No, I think it will be the same because of Kinect 2.0. and its manufacturing cost.