Monday, June 2, 2014

Xbox One Soon To Be Available Without Kinect

Starting from 9 June, gamers in all markets that are currently selling Xbox One will soon have the option to purchase the console without Kinect motion sensor included together with their Xbox One. Apparently, this is Microsoft’s response to demands from gamers that have no problem using Xbox One without Kinect. In addition to that, this new Kinect-less Xbox One set will come with a lower price tag as well. If the base set of Xbox One with Kinect is currently priced at USD 499.99 (RM 1,610), the new Kinect-less set will be available at a significantly lower price of USD 399 (RM 1,288). Of course, gamers will still be able to purchase the Kinect sensor for their console in later time but Microsoft has yet to reveal the sensor’s price at this moment. Even though Malaysia is not part of the official region for Xbox One (thus, making it not officially available in our market), plenty of video game stores out there do imported it in. Take this as a friendly reminder if you planning to shop for Xbox One next month. At the same time, Microsoft has announced gamers will not require Xbox Live Gold subscription in order to utilize most apps on both Xbox One and Xbox 360 also from June onwards. These apps include Netflix, Hulu Plus, Twitch, Machinima, Internet Explorer, Skype and more. The full list is available right here. Too bad Microsoft didn’t provided the same liberty for online multiplayer though and continues to made it as a Xbox Live Gold-exclusive feature. Then again, that is one of the main reason why gamers willing to subscribe to the Gold service anyway and that obviously benefit Microsoft in a big way. So, I personally doubt that will happen any time soon.

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