Woah ur right, dunno how I misremembered it :S

I really doubt MS will drop Kinect.  As many here have stated, its part of their value proposition and something that PS4 doesnt have.  I think 399 with no game is a good price for MS to remain competitive.  450 bundled.

This way the price is the same.  PS4  has its advantages (power), Xbox has its advantages (integration, multitasking).  You take away Kinect and Xbox loses that.

The million dollar question is MS willing to sell xbox one as is for 400.  I'm sure they will be losing money at that point.

Even if xbox one drops to $399 / $349 sony wont drop it. It will continue selling as it is now. Price drop sends a bad message (sometimes) and sony will certainly do it in current situation. Xbox 360 is still more expensive than ps3. But it didnt mattered for xbox 360 sales.

If they lower it to parity with PS4 ($400) and keep kinect included, I think they will start to win NA, and at least put up a fight everywhere else.  

I think people will see that is potentially has extra value than PS4 at $400 as it comes with Kinect, and while hardcore gameres may not like kinect, the more mainstream audience either doesn't mind it, or are in most cases going to be curious to see what it can do.

Right now though, that price is really hurting them.

I really have to call BS on the 399 price because I never saw it but once and it was over in seconds on MS store.  Is there any way you can prove that the X1 on average was being sold at that price.  I know I was constantly checking and never seen the price go lower than 450.  

On the topic of price cut, I believe that MS will be happy if they continue to sell at a nice pace then trying to outsell the PS4.  When it comes to sells just selling is good expecially if a product will be on the market for years.  I believe MS will protect their margins and pretty much do what Sony did during the PS3 launch but try not to lose any money.

Wii U was a different situation, there were barely any games that came out for it until the end of it's first year.  Simply put, People just didn't really have a very good reason to own one. 

Xbox One on the other hand will be able to play all the latest multiplatform games, has a verry healthy list of exclusives already out (DR3, Forza5, KI, Ryse, PvZ: GW, and Titanfall), with plenty more on the way later this year (Sunset Overdrive, Quantum Break, and Halo).  So the fact that it still isn't selling well is purely down to it's price.  While it is being discounted at a lot of stores, most people aren't aware of it as the retailers arn't allowed to advertise the price.

You say people will buy it for thier exclusives at any price, but my best friend hasn't bought it yet simply because he can't afford it!  He is just sticking with his 360 until the price drops.

Also, if MS mad a kinectless X1 that was cheaper than the PS4, people would have a reason to buy it for Multiplats because it is cheaper than PS4.  

Not everybody cares as much about resolution as us hardcore gamers.

I think they might drop it eventually, but IF they did, it would be holiday 2015 alongside an Xbox One slim redesign.  Anuyways, its really Phill's call.

I know he personally likes kinect stuff, but he also is willing to listen to what the fans themselves want, so if he see's everyone is wanting them to drop kinect, then he might just do it eventually to undercut PS4 in price.

I know customers are stupid but are they really THAT stupid? I think this bargaining over a few bucks for a console is absolutely ridiculous. The expenses for games absolutely dwarf any price of a console. For an investment that will pay off for at least 5 years 50 or even a hundred bucks are nothing.

What's left is the public perception of the console. The average consumer might not care about resolutions and stuff but word of mouth travels fast and the press showed overwhelming praise for the PS4. On the Xbox side the controversy amongst the gamer community was so bad that it even reached the mainstream populace. So what would you buy? A cheaper product that you once heard bad stuff about or that other product which is 50 bucks more expensive but universally praised?

Would your friend buy the X1 without Kinect if it were 50 bucks cheaper?

I'm not sure about that. AFAIK market strategy and behavioral analysis claim people do prefer to think and feel they've got something for free rather than get a price discount.

They have no choice but to try at this rate. There's a chance it might not put them back into contention, but even Titanfall didn't spur a big boost in sales. Indeed, considering that the March NPD was 5 weeks instead of 4, sales were actually flat.

We'll just have to see, I guess.