Back in May, Microsoft announced that it would reduce the price of the Xbox One to $399 and remove the Kinect sensor. Now, the company will be making the sensor available separately in October for $149.99. They’ll throw in Dance Central Spotlight as well.
Here’s what they posted today:
Since we announced the availability of a new Xbox One console option for $399, we have been excited by the response from fans. While we’ve seen our Xbox One sales double since the new Xbox One option became available, we have also seen increased demand for Xbox One with Kinect.
When we announced the new Xbox One option, we also shared that we would deliver a standalone Kinect sensor for people that chose to purchase the sensor at a later date. We’ve always believed in the magic Kinect brings to Xbox One and today we’re excited to confirm that, beginning in October 7, fans will be able to purchase a standalone Kinect sensor for Xbox One. The standalone Kinect sensor comes with Dance Central Spotlight, the latest in the dance series from developer Harmonix, which will be available as a digital download and features a soundtrack of 10 hot tracks. Kinect with Dance Central Spotlight will be available at retailers for $149.99.
Xbox One is better with Kinect, making games, TV and entertainment come alive with premium experiences. The Kinect experience includes 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, Dead Rising 3, Project Spark, and more. We believe Xbox One is better with Kinect, offering unlimited possibilities, and we’re seeing our fans use Kinect for Xbox One every day, with billions of voice commands since launch. Only with Kinect can you quickly navigate by using popular voice commands such as “Xbox On,” “Xbox Broadcast” and “Xbox Record That.” Twitch, Game DVR, and Upload are just a few of the experiences that are better with Kinect – for voice broadcasting, recording gameplay and Natural Voice search via Bing. Video calls on Skype are made possible with Kinect and Kinect enables you to control your TVs and set-top boxes via voice and HDMI-In, so you can turn your TV on and off, change the volume, or navigate to a channel by saying “Xbox watch ESPN.”
We’re excited to offer you more choices for purchasing Xbox One – with Kinect, without Kinect for $399, bundled with games like Madden NFL 15 or Sunset Overdrive, or by adding the standalone Kinect sensor at a later date. It’s a great time to choose which Xbox One option works best for you as we look toward the exciting new game launches coming in the months ahead.
