| VGKing said: Not really. Leaked specs but PS4s graphics roughly 50% better on paper. I don't see Microsoft just giving Kinect away. It will bring up the cost no matter how you look at it. The money Microsoft spend on Kinect R&D could have been used to make a more powerful console or just to make sure they are price below the PS4. I'm done here. I've made my point and I'm not going to repeat myself over and over. |
Yes, but what you don't see in those specs are the performance benefits of the Move engines.
Except for the fact that Kinect actually offers a feature that no other company can duplicate to the Xbox's feature set. It offers a controller-less means of interfacing with the user interface. It offers a means for consumers/gamers to use voice activation and it offers a means for consumers/gamers to use motion controls. Neither Sony nor Nintendo have that capability. With either you have to have some controller to interact with the UI. This capability, along with the future capabilities that Microsoft are working on will give the next Xbox an advantage over the next PlayStation and Wii U.
The companies Microsoft bought are were long paid for. The expenses long recovered. The cost of the original Kinect already recovered.
The cost of the actual parts for Kinect were estimated to be $50. Kinect initially sold for $150, but then dropped to $100. So if Microsoft sold 24 million units at $50 profit, then it means Microsoft made $1.2 billion dollars in profit. Depending on how many of the 24m units were sold with $100 profit that would have obviously only increased the amount Microsoft made.
1.2B - $35m (3DV acquisition) - $70m (Canesta acquisition) = $15m
Clearly, the cost of Kinect has been long paid for.
The cost of Kinect 2 is hardly significant. The technology was bought when Microsoft bought the two companies. Likewise, Microsoft is a company that engages in research and design. The fact that Kinect 2 had any cost of development was a cost of doing business. It would have been budgeted in long before it began. The costs for Kinect were born in the purchase of the two companies Microsoft bought and in development of the Kinect itself. Kinect 2 doesn't have those expenses. That dramatically alters the cost of the product.
So no, I don't think Microsoft's price nor the hardware capabilities of the next Xbox will be impacted by Kinect 2.
