They will eventually. When the sales numbers come in they will want to drop the price to compete with PS4 as soon as possible.
I could see it happening as early as E3 2014 (only 8 months away). MS will drop Kinect and price the re-branded Xbox One at $399 to compete with PS4.
Mandatory Kinect was a mistake from the start. It caused the price of X1 to go up to $500. $100 more than PS4 which is the stronger console. It's the first time in gaming history that the more expensive console is significantly weaker, and it's all because of Kinect and Don Mattricks horrible vision for Xbox. MS put so much stock into Kinect, yet at the end of the day.... there are no games for Kinect.
Sure it does voice commands and gesture commands. Big deal. PS4 camera even does voice commands. This is not new technology. It was around in the early 90s with clap-on/clap-off, and to most people it certainly isnt worth paying an extra $100 for.
So what happens to all the early Xbox One adopters who get the system with Kinect? IMO They will get left behind. For most of this generation, Kinect will be no longer be mandatory... support will die off even more than it already is, and early X1 adopters will be left with a camera that never gets used for gaming.
