On June 9th, Microsoft will release a Xbox One bundle that does NOT include a Kinect for $399, making it the same price as the Playstation 4. Despite the earlier promise that every Xbox One would come with one, Microsoft decided to listen to the consumers and give them a choice. This seems fair since I only use my Kinect for Kinect Sports Rivals and when I want to tell my system to go to Netflix or something. My take on this is that Microsoft had big plans to use Kinect and currently has 2 games that require it, while forcing the console to cost $100 more than the competition.
Microsoft claims they are not done innovating Kinect and I am sure they are going to do everything they can with it before they call it quits, especially with Sony still having its Playstation Eye camera that functions very similar. I would not say Microsoft is "abandoning" Kinect, but sales figures and consumer feedback left them with no choice but to put it aside and bring down the price.
The other piece of news being that you no longer need a Gold membership ($60 per year) to access apps such as: Netflix, Hulu, Skype, various sports streaming apps, and so on. This seems only sensible and a much needed (and long overdue) change.
Also, the "Games for Gold" program, where Gold members get access to a couple free games a month to download, may change as well. Taking a page from Sony's Playstation Plus program, rumor has it that you will need to keep your Gold account active if you want access to the games you downloaded.
All of this is interesting (if not unexpected) news. It will be interesting to see how this impacts sales figures and if this is enough to get Microsoft and the Xbox One back on track against Sony. Expect to hear more about this and other changes (as well as the inevitable Sony response) at E3.
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