No price drop then, Sony better bring some games because that high school talk isnt gonna work this E3

Finally MS sees the light. Although with all these changes, this makes the Xbox One and PS4 virtually the same console now.

Good move by Microsoft, Phil Spencer in charge is working out well. 

Great. MS should have done this earlier to be honest. Kinect really bit them in the arse early this gen imo. It was never an essential part of the console and yet the thing needlessly jacked up the price. This gen got a whole lot more interesting..

Also, when the XB1 drops to around the £200 mark, I might be tempted to get one (won't happen anytime soon).

KIm was great for Xbox 360 games, but most of those games were still from third parties. Their first party still wasnt fixed. Actually it never really worked.

This literally just got real. I'm surprised they didn't save this news until E3, then announce it on stage and say it'll be effective immediate since that day. It would have seriously blown the roof off the place.

This is absolute megaton. I chose a PS4, but I'm glad MS is actually doing their best to compete. This is pretty much what they needed, a kinectless SKU. Now it should be interesting to see how they try to best each other even more, since we end up winning in the end. LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO PHIL!!!

People asking the question why would MS remove Kinect now, its because of new leadership. Phil is in control and he pulled the trigger. Personally I am a little shocked because I thought MS would not go down this route.

In business, sometimes you do have to give up your sacred cows in a sense. Ms has not really made a case for the people who purchase consoles at 500 bones for the inclusion of Kinect. It makes perfect business sense to drop kinect until MS has the software library or other enhancements to the device to make a better pitch for its auto inclusion.

I really have never seen MS move so fast on big decisions like these. I would say MS is moving faster than Sony did during the PS3 era when they needed to make adjustment in order to stay in the game when the PS3 price was to high.

It will be interesting to see how this all works out in the market. As someone suggested, if MS have enough AAA games at E3 it could mean better sales for the console.

One thing is for sure.

Phil Spencer is an absolute beast, and at this rate will have done more good for the Xbox brand than Mattrick did in the entire time he was with the company.

Praise Based Spencer.

Amazon US preorder is up

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00KAI3KW2/viglink129408-20/

You know that's not even comparable (rumble isn't "integral to the PS experience" nor is it something that, if implemented or taken out would increase the cost of the console), but if I'm not mistaken, people called Sony out on their shit. Sony said "rumble isn't next gen" and most were like "what? that's BS." And we all knew they were only saying that because they were in a lawsuit with Immersion. At least, I was