Xbox One Coming in White; Could Shed Blu-ray to Lower Price
The rumor mill is churning out Xbox One chatter like there's no tomorrow. From the console's appearance to its innards, this could be a very interesting year for the Xbox One.
First up is talk of aesthetic changes. Larry Hryb said last year that there may be a white Xbox One far into the future, but recent rumors say we'll see it later this year. The Verge cites one NeoGAF poster as saying it will come in October with Sunset Overdrive. The Verge says it has independently verified that yes, a white Xbox is coming later this year, but there's been no official word from Microsoft just yet.
Aesthetic design is important, but apparently the color is not the only thing Microsoft is looking to tweak. Word has it that the company is also going to release a 1 TB version of the Xbox One in November. The current model has 500 GB of storage via an internal drive, so Microsoft would be doubling the onboard space. No doubt that's going to have an affect on price, something Microsoft's already faced criticism over compared to the PS4.
Read more: Xbox One Review
Perhaps most interesting is talk that Microsoft might release a version of the console without a Blu-ray Drive. Now that's intriguing. Microsoft has responded negatively to rumors that it might eventually sell the Xbox One without Kinect. The company believes Kinect is an essential part of the Xbox One experience, and it doesn't plan to sell the Xbox One without it. But is the Blu-ray drive as critical? Though consumers might not like having to get their games exclusively via digital distribution, we could easily see Microsoft dropping the disc drive and selling the console for less. Perhaps that could tie in with an option for more storage, too?
When contacted for comment about any the above, a Microsoft spokesperson gave us the usual, "Microsoft does not comment on speculation or rumors." Still, the company has made a lot of changes to the Xbox One since it was first announced last spring (enough for it to earn the nickname 'Xbox 180'). This could be a way for Microsoft to help gamers out a bit on the price.
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I can always use a pc for anything else.
The problem, as I see it:
Microsoft considers the value proposition differently than the consumer does. They would rather sacrifice the blu ray drive vs kinect and therefore kinect is a plan that goes deeper than the xbox.
Can we see mobile phones with a miniature kinect sensor on the front some day that tracks eyes or other craziness?
Of course what's really funny is watching all these people going after Kinect for "privacy" concerns. Meanwhile they use their more-vulnerable phones to take pictures and video. You're much more likely to be spied on (whether by NSA or hackers) on a PC/laptop or mainstream smartphone/tablet. Heck, with a smartphone you've even got GPS. Half of these guys are just Sony fanboys using it as an excuse - take away Kinect and they'd still never put one on a shelf next to their precious.
Now, if you're the type that puts black tape over all their cameras, wires in a toggle switch for the microphone built into their devices, and never uses a USB cable they haven't personally checked for rogue components, etc, then you get a pass.