Is it just me or is it smart business offering this as launch bundle? the first weeks/months/year will be supply constrained anyway so why not offer it as bundle and when sales start to slow down drop the kinect out of the package which will result in a lower price which can be seen as pricecut. On top of that this also gives the benefit that the kinect will not be viewed as just a gimmick eventho its been dropped from the "arcade pack"

 morally decent: yes or no?

It is an option, and one that even I think would do wonders after the initial launch period.

However, MS themselves have been sticking to their guns on Kinect more so than any other policy change. They are adamant that the Xbox One will never be sold without the Kinect. I think what would be more likely is they introduce the subsidized plan of $300 with 2 year Xbox Live contract or they do a price cut of $50-100 or both. $200 with 2 year Xbox Live contract would be a big influence and it would help them make back some of the costs of a price cut since the end costs would be $560. That's only $40 more than a $400 console with 2 years of full priced Xbox Live.

So I think they have tons of options other than dropping the Kinect in order to stay competitive in price. They definitely don't need to drop the price before launch, as many people are trying to say, because they will have no problem selling out of all those to the hardcore fans regardless.

MS can't be that smart.. Can they?

its basicly a free $100 pricecut which will look like a gamechanger for the "non hardcore"-consumer

i dont see a kinect less XB1 for $400 in the near future (from what MS has stated and i personally dont believe kinect is actually adding $100 to the price) and it wont really be a game changer since Sonys console is also $400. MS will always be playing catch up to Sony with there price just like how it was this gen for Sony

kinect has rumored to be more then $100 even the old one has been selling for more stand alone

If the Kinect isn't adding $100, then how much do you think it is adding?  Why else charge $500 for the XB1?  No reason to charge more for a theorized weaker console.

i dont know the exact amount but if you look at this gen why is the 360 slim with a 250gb HDD $100 more than the non HDD console, that HDD alone cant still be costing MS $100 and why is a 360 with a HDD still $299 after all these years? the only difference being HDD size, a in comparison PS3 stared life more expensive than the 360 but since last year finally PS3 with a HDD managed to be priced cheaper than 360 with a HDD

i believe MS charges an above than average/normal for there stuff HW, HDDs, online fees, controllers ect in general, i believe what MS wanted to charge for the XB1 alone w/o kinect would of been higher than Sonys so instead they bundled it with kinect to make it seem like the deal is the same as the PS4 but with the added kinect

thats what im thinking when they remove the kinect out of the package, and drop the price to the ps4 level.

people will experience it as a massive pricedrop and possibly will view it as more value because of the fact that it felt more expensive before

I could not resist