Now here's a smart idea from Microsoft, one that would have been even better had it not waited so long to put it into action. After de-bundling the Kinect from the Xbox One to help the device put on some steam in the sales department, Microsoft assured users—and developers—that the Kinect wasn't dead, but rather just being temporarily divorced. Now, the Kinect is making its triumphant return, and it's bringing a game along for the ride.
The separate Kinect will come in for $150, but it won't be coming alone. Gamers that buy in on the separate Kinect will get a free game: “Dance Central Spotlight.” There's no word as yet to just sell the Kinect on its own, without the game, but certainly having that game thrown in is a good inducement to get people interested. The Kinect allows for not only motion controls on games and apps, but even includes the ability to throw in voice commands, the kind of thing that can be very useful for things like jumping between channels or searching for certain things.
Of course, it doesn't help much that “Dance Central Spotlight” is set to sell by itself for just $10—before the price of additional songs kicks in--which means that the Kinect is getting a bit of a price hike. Purchasing the original bundle cost $500, and adding on the game brings the cost up to $510. Meanwhile, today, the total would be around $550 with a free game.
But the key difference here is that the cost is now in installments, an easier prospect to swallow. Basic functionality is on hand for a comparatively lower price, and users who are inclined to step up to the full luxury experience can do so as said users see fit. That kind of flexibility gives users a lot more reason to step in and stick with that brand.
Microsoft lost a lot of ground in the early days of the newest console wars, and that's ground that it really has yet to make up. It's not likely to be out of the game, but it's still going to be at a rather marked disadvantage thanks to reduced numbers of players, which may lead to reduced numbers of games. Still, it's clear that Microsoft has learned quite a bit here, and if it can apply these lessons to future releases, then by the time the next breed of Xbox makes its appearance in another six to eight years or so, we may well be in for an exciting round of the console wars to come.
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