Of course MS should continue to fight, but they should do it in a manner that doesn't alienate their hard core fans - those early adopters who bought the system in Nov. '13 without the benefit of a free game.

Did Sony ever bundle the PS3 with a free game when the 360 was kicking its ass???  Of course both systems bundled games for Black Friday, but MS continued the effort with their annual "Spring Bundles."

Bottom line, I predict both FH2 and SO will fail to live up to expectations as the XB1 hardcore fans, those early adopters, are not so keen on their system these days largely because they feel betrayed by MS proper.  Lastly, there will not be a FH3 or a SO2, because of this sentiment. 

With news like this... MS drops out of consoles this Christmas?

Not really, Kinect with Xbox One is still $500 is it not?

Yes they have a cheaper model, still not a price break because they are taking out a expensive piece of the hardware.

Ah yes, they most certainly did remove "an expensive piece of the hardware," or more precisely, they removed an expensive piece of gaming crap.

Please point me to an official price cut on any SKU - then I will happily cede you the point

Was the entry price dropped?  Yes.  Was there ever a $399 SKU before the removal of Kinect?  Nope.  That means there was a price cut.  Just because they took out Kinect so they wouldn't lose so much money on the price cut doesn't mean there wasn't one.  You can use whatever weird reasoning that there wasn't a cut (like the SKU replacement BS from last gen), and you and some of the more zelous Xbox fans can agree.  But for me, the majority on this site, AND average customers everywhere, there WAS a price cut.  And that's all that counts.

The entire year has been filled with 'special' xbox promotions that haven't amounted to much.

True, bunch of 360 players yet to upgrade.

I think perhaps you need to familiarise yourself with discussions more fully before entering into them.

No one in this thread, least of all me, has denied that the entry price for an Xbox One experience has lowered, officially, one time. As you point out, the original SKU remains at its launch price.

But what has occured in this thread, is the suggestion that Microsoft has in some way embarked upon a series of rash price cuts - something that is clearly untrue. Like-for-like, an Xbox One with Kinect costs what it always has. A Xbox One sans Kinect is offered at a lower price, that also hasn't moved.

You can say something over and over again, and many in this thread have, it won't make it more true. When you have people saying an Xbox One is going to cost $200 in twelve months time, you should probably be examining who's ideas you're getting into bed with

Edit: I see one person has claimed the entry price has not dropped - which is incorrect.

It is still a reduced price for point of entry. At first you could only get the $500 SKU, then due to sales they removed Kinect in order to reduce the entry price and entice more people to buy in.

Either way you look at it they reduced the pricing due to $500 being too high.