Xbox One for $399

[BO7H B4RRELS 2,453]

http://news.xbox.com/2014/05/xbox-delivering-more-choices

 

 

 

Post updated with revised infographic - 5/13/14, 11:15 a.m. PDT

Since the beginning, we have focused on delivering great games and entertainment experiences for you. Your feedback matters to us and it shapes the products and services we build. Your feedback showed up in the Xbox One console we launched back in November and in the monthly updates we’ve delivered since.

Today, we’re excited to share more ways your feedback is impacting the products we build.

First, beginning on June 9th, in all markets where Xbox One is sold, we will offer Xbox One starting at $399*. This is a new console option that does not include Kinect. For $399, our new Xbox One offering will continue to deliver access to the best blockbuster games like “Titanfall,” “Call of Duty: Ghosts,” “Forza Motorsport 5,” “Dead Rising 3,” and the upcoming “Watch Dogs,” “Destiny” and "Sunset Overdrive." You will also be able to access popular entertainment apps, such as Twitch, YouTube, and Netflix, as well as watch live TV and use OneGuide.  Finally, you will continue to be able to use many of the unique features of Xbox One including the ability to get game invites while you watch TV, switch between games and entertainment apps, enjoy Twitch broadcasts, and upload your favorite gaming moments.

Next, we’re bringing more value to Xbox Live Gold members and offering all Xbox 360 and Xbox One owners access to entertainment apps whether or not you have an Xbox Live Gold membership.  In early June, here is what you can expect from the new generation of Xbox Live:
 

• Free games with Games with Gold**. Since Games with Gold launched on Xbox 360 a year ago, over 12 million people have enjoyed great free games, resulting in nearly 200 million hours of free fun playing Games with Gold titles. We’ve been learning from your feedback and have focused on making improvements each month to the selection of titles. To celebrate the one-year anniversary of Games with Gold for Xbox 360 and as a thank you for helping shape this program, members will receive an additional free Xbox 360 game in June. The Games with Gold titles for Xbox 360 in June are “Dark Souls,” “Charlie Murder” and a bonus game of “Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition.” We’re pleased to bring Games with Gold to Xbox Live Gold members on Xbox One in June. Members will have subscription-based access to free games ranging from top hits to breaking indie stars. The program will launch on Xbox One with “Max: The Curse of Brotherhood” and “Halo: Spartan Assault.” A single Gold membership will get you access to the free games for both Xbox One and Xbox 360.

 

• Exclusive Discounts. Deals with Gold will also launch for Xbox One in June, delivering discounts for great games each month, with significant savings for Xbox Live Gold members. The first titles offered in June will include “Forza Motorsport 5,” “Ryse: Son of Rome,” and a few other surprises. In the coming months, we will offer significant savings of up to 50 – 75 percent off certain titles. This program will continue to be available for Xbox Live Gold members on Xbox 360. And new on Xbox One, we will launch a virtual VIP room exclusive to Xbox Live Gold members where we will feature free games, monthly deals, and other great benefits.
   
• Popular entertainment apps will be available for all Xbox 360 and Xbox One owners. Xbox 360 has been a leader in delivering entertainment experiences for years, with over 170 global entertainment apps and experiences available today. We’re constantly adding new partners and experiences to the growing catalog on Xbox One. Coming in June, anyone with an Xbox will be able to access popular entertainment experiences – whether or not you have an Xbox Live Gold membership. This includes great gaming apps like Machinima, Twitch and Upload, popular video services like Netflix, Univision Deportes, GoPro, Red Bull TV and HBO GO, sports experiences like the NFL app for Xbox One, MLB.TV, NBA Game Time, NHL Game Center and more.*** Microsoft experiences including Internet Explorer, Skype, OneDrive and OneGuide will also be available to all Xbox customers.**** You can find a full list of apps and features that will be available below.

We’ve heard that you want more choices from Xbox One. You want a wide variety of options in your games and entertainment experiences and you also want options in your hardware selection.

To be clear, as we introduce this new Xbox One console option, Kinect remains an important part of our vision.  Many of you are using Kinect for Xbox One every day. In fact, more than 80 percent of you are actively using Kinect, with an average of 120 voice commands per month on each console. Some of the most popular voice commands include “Xbox On,” “Xbox Broadcast” and “Xbox Record That.” We will continue to offer a premium Xbox One with Kinect bundle to deliver voice and gesture controls, biometric sign-in, instant personalization, instant scanning of QR codes, and enhanced features only available with Kinect in games such as “Kinect Sports Rivals,” “Just Dance 2014,” “Project Spark” and more.   

If you buy Xbox One for $399 and later decide you want to have all the experiences Kinect enables, we will also offer a standalone sensor for Xbox One later this fall. We’ll share more details about the standalone Kinect for Xbox One in the coming months.

 

[Dattebayo 446]

lol

Didn't they say that Xbox One will never be sold without Kinect?

Well whatever, this is good news nonetheless.

Just 100 dollars more, you bastards, then it's in my price range...

[cyberninja2601 1,106]

We've hear you say " we all want a PS4" and we are tired of getting our asses kicked every time new sales figures come out

[L_C_Scipio 395]

lol

Didn't they say that Xbox One will never be sold without Kinect?

Well whatever, this is good news nonetheless.

Just 100 dollars more, you bastards, then it's in my price range...

Yeah, not that long ago they were positive they'd never sell it without Kinect. Hopefully they don't come out in six months and say "we changed our minds, you have to buy a $100 Kinect for your console to work."

Just get a PS4 dude, they're better in pretty much every way.

[TigerBurge 2,375]

Yeah, not that long ago they were positive they'd never sell it without Kinect. Hopefully they don't come out in six months and say "we changed our minds, you have to buy a $100 Kinect for your console to work."

Just get a PS4 dude, they're better in pretty much every way.

What way is it not?

[TigerBurge 2,375]

A pretty good article

http://m.ign.com/articles/2014/05/13/using-sonys-playbook-microsoft-will-attempt-xbox-ones-turnaround

[L_C_Scipio 395]

What way is it not?

Good point.

[deterioration 443]

I'm going to throw this in here:

 

Why is the PS4 outselling the Xbox One? Microsoft weighs in...

Yusuf Mehdi says, "They're in 40+ markets, we're in 13," and claims Xbox 360 owners are enjoying the systems so much they are less inclined to upgrade.

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/why-is-the-ps4-outselling-the-xbox-one-microsoft-weighs-in/1100-6419622/

 

 

The untruthfulness of "People have been more satisfied with the Xbox 360 than the PS3, so in that respect people have less of a need to upgrade in the short-term due to regular updates for the Xbox 360" infuriates me.

 

Good reply I saw was "Excuses are like PS4's. Everybody's got one!" 

[J4MES OX4D 10,054]

Xbox 360 owners did upgrade....

 

...to PS4

 

Anyone who hasn't upgraded can't afford to at present because the Xbox One is a rip-off even Kinectless and when they have got that sort of money; a PS4 makes more sense

 

I think Microsoft are absolutely desperate and are just trying to convince themselves that everything is fine. The amount of u-turns they are doing is unheard of and just shows how ridiculous their initial policies were. 

 

They should rename the console Xbox One-eighty for all the u-turns they do. 

[Dattebayo 446]

[Diddums 4,346]

I wish MS would just sack the lot of their PR and marketing department and start fresh. Consoles should be "for gamers, by gamers" no "for gamers, by greedy suits".

 

If MS sacked off the number crunchers, hired in some people who actually have a vested interest in gamers, their sales would double overnight. Ever since their delusional "always on, always watching, no used games or lending games, always online" nonsense people have caught on, and as much as I hate to say it, but only three people buy Xbones:

 

Those who have been so far under a rock they have no idea what went on.

 

Those who are such devout fanbois that MS can do no evil.

 

The uneducated who have bought one as a gift.

 

That's it. Anyone who reads the odd forum / blog / tech article will know what a stink that caused, and the only way of fixing this is to start from scratch with a whole new team. There is hope, but MS seems so dedicated to raising a sinking ship that they're completely blind to what the gamers want, and at the end of the day, without us, their product is a very expensive excursion into Dreamcast territory.

 

Which is sad really. The Xbone is a good machine, make no mistake. The hardware is powerful, the interface is lovely, it has loads of extra features which are quite simply a pleasure to use, but unfortunately it was let down by the morons heading up the Xbox team.

 

One quote says it all:

 

"We have a product for those who don't have internet access, it's called the Xbox 360".

 

That quote right there just shows how distanced they are from a gamer's wants and needs. Literally no clue. "Ah, that number is bigger so that's the one we're going with". Yes, but that number is also the final nail in the coffin, and now nobody wants your console. What now Mr. Numbers?

 

I don't want to see Xbox go. I really don't. At this point in time it's all we have keeping Sony honest and if Xbox goes, who's going to fulfill that role? Nintendo? I very much doubt it.

 

So please MS, there is still hope. Grab your marketing team by the scruff of the neck, throw them all out the door and get a fresh team in. Give them more generous budget constraints (still turn a profit, just a bit slower) and let them market the machine as it should have been marketed from day one: "By gamers, for gamers".

 

Either that or have fun digging your own grave.

[cyberninja2601 1,106]

I agree with what you said but MS' problems are even bigger than that. The need a complete overall and the board of directors demanded it, however now everyone is playing a conservative game to try to save their jobs instead of taking risk and have a remote chance to shine

 

- Windows 8 was a dud that no one wanted. They had to back track on that product a lot and introduce 8.1. I work for a $3B company and half of our staff is Software developers. We refuse to support Win 8.  We had also refuse to support Vista

- MS went into the tablet market and produced a dance video. Talk about a product that crashed and burned. No one buys or want that product. That was just jumping onto the Apple and Samsung band wagon. It didn't work for RIM either.

- MS did a mobile operating system and went into the smart phone business. Another disaster. Their market share is less than 2%. Google and apple continue to eat their lunch. Even RIM as more market share as they are headed towards bankruptcy. Jumping on the band wagon again however. 

- MS decided they would do a retail store similar the Apple store. It's got to be pretty embarrassing to have those store with not customers in them at all. Jumped on the band wagon their too. 

 

That a classic example of a large company with inertia that just doesn't know how to change direction in order to make itself successful again. Gates wasn't particularly creative but he knew how to successfully run a business. It doesn't seem like MS has that level of talent. Right now they just seem to copy some of their or their competitors old ideas which is a disaster once someone comes around with something innovative. 

[deterioration 443]

Right now they just seem to copy some of their or their competitors old ideas which is a disaster once someone comes around with something innovative. 

 

I didn't know this and I can't find the article I read yesterday but it explained how M$ began with producing Apple OS, ganked Xeroxes OS, stopped doing business with Crapple and made Windows. If its true it would mean Microsoft has never, in their entire history, had an original idea and that they've only ever stolen others ideas and slapped their brand(s) on it. Great business model M$ bros!

[cyberninja2601 1,106]

That would probably be wrong.

 

Steve Jobs went to the Xerox Palo Alto R&D facility and was memorized by the Mouse and Windows. Both were invented by Xerox who said they had no need for it since the could not use it on their copiers. He was told he could use it. 

 

Meanwhile MS got a contract from IBM to develop an operating system for their PC. This happen after talks with DEC failed.  DEC had the CP/M operating system which worked on 8080 and 8086 (cpu used in the first PCs). MS emulated many of the functions from CP/M and some of them still remain today.

 

Apple saw a lot of success with their windows stuff and people were liking it, so then MS decided to copy Apple. 

 

Like I said, Gates wasn't original but at least he could run and market a business. The current management can't even do that. 

 

Xbox isn't exactly new either. The were loads of gaming consoles before they decided they would have one. 

 

A lot of what we do see today in computers however was technology that Xerox chose not to deploy because they didn't want to hurt their copier business. Who ever made that choice is probably one of the guys running MS

 

They wouldn't be the first knuckle heads from a large company to do something like that only to regret it later.

[Diddums 4,346]

Nokia's in similar waters, keep trying new things and failing miserably.

 

I read somewhere that if IBM were to enforce their patents, they could pretty much shut down Apple overnight. Dunno how true that is.

[cyberninja2601 1,106]

Nokia's in similar waters, keep trying new things and failing miserably.

 

I read somewhere that if IBM were to enforce their patents, they could pretty much shut down Apple overnight. Dunno how true that is.

 

 

I don't know what patents those could be. However Xerox did try to sue apple and they lost. Apple had given them 1M in stock to be allowed to visit their facilities and use mutually agreed technology. 

 

Apple has a $500B market cap with $160B in the bank. IBM has a $180B market cap. I don't think they want to take a fight to someone who can almost buy them out cash. Apple can outlast IBM in any legal fight. 

 

I've dealt with Nokia on a professional level. Based  on the decisions I have seen them make, it does not surprise me that they are in the situation they are in. 

[J4MES OX4D 10,054]

Brilliant

[Commander_Undies 618]

^ LOL

[spectre 633]

I said I was boycotting it and I'm standing by that decision. Board games are so much more fun anyway.