At this point in time there is no way MS could compete with Sony on price without taking a huge loss or gimping the console.
According to IHS it cost them $471 do build.
Pulling out the BD drive would only allow them to drop the price by $50 max without taking a financial hit and would alienate a huge chunk of the market who won't or can't go fully digital.
Removing Kinect would allow them to compete on price but would leave people with a system designed around a piece of hardware they don't have. On top of that it would likely crush any chance that people who do have the kinect to see more in game functionality.
I could see a $450 Xbox One by the end of the year. That leaves MS with a fairly small loss and allows them to keep the console intact. It all depends on whether MS wants Xbox to have marketshare or if they want to make a profit. As of right now they can't have both. Personally I don't even think dropping the price would give them the piece of the market they want.
Bet with Adamblaziken:
I bet that on launch the Nintendo Switch will have no built in in-game voice chat. He bets that it will. The winner gets six months of avatar control over the other user.
