Microsoft and the Xbox One can't catch a break...  and to be honest a lot of gamers may not feel they deserve one after last years industry coup attempt at E3. After the dust settled though, it was clear that they weren't really trying to screw gamers out of their livelyhood, but only attemtping to ensure their own. By chasing after the PC model of gaming, which takes DRM to the extreme; limited if any sharing of games, restricted trade-in pollicies, verification and strict licensing of intectuall properties, they were trying to create a more lucrative and thereby stable environment for themselves and developers.  They weren't trying to cheat anyone out of what they deserved, only trying to keep people from cheating them. That's pretty black and white.
But the whole thing blew up and every gamer who paid attention got to watch as Microsoft exploded right in front of us.
A moment many console gamers and their PC brethren had been patiently and opportunistically waiting for.
Attack!!

Since then we've seen every facet and design choice of the Xbox One and Xbox Live broken down and set on fire through nearly every gaming forum, publication, and self-serving blog site the internet has to offer. Some opinions presented fairly and objectively, most of them... not.
Kicking the shit out of Microsoft's Xbox One has almost become a pastime on this site; with PS4 fans slipping comfortably into their Sony jerseys, finding an open seat in the stands and lobbing every insult, ugly fact or baseless claim they can find or dream up towards the other team.
Annoying.
Some of it fair.. most of it not.
The one that gets to me the most though is this conditioned, predisposed opinion that the Kinect for Xbox One is a peripheral.

 It isn't.

It's an alternative controller that Microsoft decided to build there system around, something, as other posters have already stated, helps define the Xbox One and separate it from its competitors.
For the most part, it seems the only people complaining about it are the anti-Microsoft crowd, devoted PS4 fans with a bashing agenda, and gamers that can't seem to wrap their head around the fact that it's not a peripheral and use its inclusion as a way to bitch about price.
While the PS4 is inarguably more powerful on the stat sheet and has seen that difference parlayed into countless threads about better resolutions and frame rates, the Xbox One, as is, can do things the PS4 simply can't.
I'm more than willing to sacrifice a mere 180 lines of pixels and a few dozen frames per second, both technical specs that are negligible when the differences of measurement are so small, for a console that gives me advantages and user experiences the others don't have.
The PS4 is the more powerful, less expensive machine; the Xbox One is the more interesting and forward thinking alternative.
Price or innovation?
Innovation always wins in the long run.. would you be reading this on your tablet or smartphone if it didn't?

I agree.

Graphics and resolution aren't the end all and be all of video games for me.

I mean, look at me now. I'm playing Space Channel 5 2 on the 360. I'm having a great time and the graphics are 10 years old. The video cut scenes appear worse than an SD television transmission. As long as I have fun, that's what matters. All this resolution and framerate crap is getting really annoying.

Its a peripheral

All parts of xbox one are accessible and currently all games work perfectly fine without it, There is 1 game coming up soon kinect sports that needs it, but its still just a game that if your not interested in you still wont need a kinect.

Your innovation always wins statement is rediculous, many many things are invented and discarded if they dont server a necessary purpose or improve on the way something previously worked.

Voice commands will one day no doubt be something we all live with, but they will work on natural language not predefined phrases and will work 100% of the time. This tech does not need an expensive camera tho just a mic.

3D body tracking is what kinects real stand out function is and its launched with NO games.

... isn't it fair to take your above statment and point out that 1080p/60fps gaming is PS4's real stand out function and it launched with NO games?

you see... the nonsense works both ways.

"Price or Innovation?" I'll take both thank you very much...

Was this thread really necessary?

no its not its a nonsense and rediculous statement. 

I'll have to guess that this is a comment on the PS4's price and innovation.
Other than the monster specs, what's exactly innovative about the PS4?
(and don't say the controller touch pad because I'll just counter with rumble triggers... both interesting, neither innovative)

Xenostar... back in the day, before the Sega Saturn made launching a console with only one controller an industry standard.. most systems came with two controllers and a pack in game. Was that second controller a peripheral?, even though it may not have been needed to play the system?

What I see is that the people who are complaining are X360 owners that didn't like Kinect and don't want it to be packaged with the X1 making it more expensive than it would have to be. Us PS fanboys couldn't care less. In fact we are really happy that MS decided to force it on their fans and making them upset ;)

So what groundbreaking things can the X1 do that PS4 can't? You do know that there is this thing called PS4 camera that is very well capable of voice, gesture and face recognition as well as motion gaming. If people would care, Sony would push these features but they don't because nobody does.

Wii had price AND innovation and see where that ended. Innovation alone can't hold up a product. Also you can't really call Kinect innovation anymore. It's more like an evolution of a thing that was once regarded Innovation.

Wii U actually >.>