Interesting video... But didn't microsoft also state that the kinect would be required to be plugged in to even use the system? So even if you turn the kinect off after you start the system, you still need to have it plugged in anyway. So... if they're going to be shipping xbox one's without kinect then are they either going to reverse the requirement of having the kinect always plugged in? Or are they going to leave that and nail people who think they're getting a great deal?
Or is it that microsoft was only tossing around ideas for ways to cut cost and aren't actually going to do it by removing the kinect? (Which is my bet... I think they'll keep the kinect in the package but cut the hard drive size down for a cheaper version and maybe offer a premium one with a 1TB drive. Or they'll go with a subscription type model where you pay like 350 for the console up front but then you pay like 70$ or 80$ a year for XBL for 2 years to make up the cost.)
Going back on the kinect might help persuade people to buy an xbox one since they can remove the kinect (or even buy a console without it for less, which seems to be one argument against the xbox one I've heard... that the kinect increases price and users don't want it so why should they pay an extra 100 for something they didn't want in the first place).
But from a developer standpoint, it isn't that good. Since it again splits the userbase into those with kinects and those without. So developing for kinect becomes a risky gamble much like how it exists now.
The cheaper version sounds like the Xbox 360 Arcade, but with a smaller hard drive. I guest this is good for people who only play a few Xbox One games where the full 500GB won't be filled for a long time, or mostly rent their games for the weekend, or a few days, so they will delete the game off their hard drive once they returned the disc to Redbox, Gamefly, Block Buster, and other places since without the disc, the game is no longer playable.
Casual gamers who are not interested in motion gaming may be more willing to buy a cheaper console.
I wonder would Kinect for 360 work on Xbox One if the cheaper version of Xbox One without Kinect comes out since some people who already own Kinect for 360 are willing to use Kinect for 360 on Xbox One to save $100, and live with slightly less responsive gameplay because Kinect 2.0 has a better camera and microphone which are more responsive for motion and voice gaming.
I wonder if there would be an option with no hard drive where you can use your own USB 3.0 hard drive or SSD as the drive like how the Wii U lets you use your own USB 2.0 Hard drive to store DLC, and games. With the Xbox 360, there is an Arcade model with no hard drive, but you can buy a hard drive from Microsoft at a latter time, use the 4GB of flash memory, and use USB flash drive up to 32GB to store game save, DLC files, and other files.
USB 3.0 max speed is 5 Gbit/sec / 5000 Mbit/sec, so the speed differents by using a USB 3.0 drive and an internal drive may not be very noticeable since mechanical hard drive speeds are still not really fast at under 100MB/sec which is slower than USB 3.0.
A lot of people these days own USB 2.0-3.0 external hard drive which they can use to store games for Xbox One.
Indeed, the price of a hard drive would not make much of an impact on cost savings since the cost difference of a 3.5 inch desktop 500GB and 1TB hard drive is only five to ten dollars more expensive for the 1TB version of a 3.5 inch hard drive on websites like Amazon, and Newegg.
If you are willing to buy lesser known hard drive brands from smaller or Chinese/Taiwanese companies, the price of a 1TB hard drive may be cheaper than a 500GB drive from a bigger company like Seagate, and Western Digital because it is from a smaller brand which is not as well known, so it needs to use cheap prices to convince people to buy their brand of hard drive like how you can buy a cheap 500W power supply for $20 from lesser known brands like CoolMax.
Although, selling an Xbox One, where you can install your own hard drive which you already own, or use an USB external hard drive may bring down the price by $50-60 dollars.
