Phil Harrison: Xbox One Will Never Come Without Kinect

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poklane said:

bananaking21 said:

bubblegamer said:
Everyone with half a brain knew this was going to happen, denying it never convinced anyone.

at some point i honestly believed it wasnt gonna happen. not that it wasnt the right thing to do, i just believed MS were too stuborn to unbundle it. 

Same here, I thought Microsoft would keep Kinect in the bundle unless sales would go utter shit, like 3million in 6 months.

Until April's NPD with PS4 being so far ahead of Xb one I didn't think there was much good reason for them to drop Kinect. With or without Kinect Xb one was not going to fare well outside USA and UK, but without Kinect Xb one would have been able to launch in a lot more countries day 1. It's voice recognition language localisation that held back a wider launch and ultimately that's what's killed Xb one prospects globally, ceding over 40 countries to PS4 with a 9 month sales lead is death for Xb one in most of those markets. Individually, and week by week they don't amount to much, but over time those sales accumulate. Last gen those countries belonged to PS3, even ahead of Wii, with PS3 selling the second most consoles across RoW of all time, only behind PS2. So giving PS4 a head start in those markets was a fatal necessity because of Kinect.