The recent uncoupling of motion camera Kinect from the Xbox One, which will retail for $399 on June 9th onwards, has seen a mish-mash of opinions. Some are happy about the price drop, early adopters are miffed for having spent $100 extra and some are wondering what this means about the Kinect’s future.
IHS Director and Head of Games Piers Harding-Rolls weighed in on the same, stating that, “IHS believes that this is confirmation that Kinect is not a major decision making factor in buying a Xbox One – at this stage games and price are the key factors involved.
“In effect, Microsoft has reverted to its Xbox 360 Kinect strategy and with a likely drop in interest from third-parties, Kinect for Xbox One has suddenly shifted from central to the Xbox vision to the periphery.
“However, later in the cycle when adoption is more mass market aligned and entertainment functionality is more heavily built out, Microsoft will be hoping that the value of Kinect will be more easily demonstrated and in demand.”
Which isn’t a bad strategy but for that, we’d need some compelling games. What say, Microsoft?
