14 DAY TRIAL // Games industry analyst Michael Pachter has once again offered his prediction on the new console war between the PS4 and Xbox One, saying that a Kinect-less version of the Xbox One bundle will launch in 2015 with a lower price, prompting Sony to discount the PS4 in order to stay ahead.
The PS4 and Xbox One both launched in November of last year, and Sony's new console now has a big lead over Microsoft's device largely due to the smaller price.
While rumors have pointed to a lower priced Xbox One that would be sold without a new Kinect sensor, Microsoft has denied such plans, saying that the Kinect is essential to its vision for next-gen entertainment.
Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter, however, has shed some insight into the whole Kinect strategy, saying that former Xbox boss Don Mattrick was the main backer of the peripheral.
"Kinect was Don Mattrick's favorite child. He believed in it, he thought it was going to change the world. He believed it a mechanism to cross sell Skype and to cross sell cable access and doing other things," he told GameTrailers, via DualShockers.
Now, seeing as how Mattrick left Microsoft and moved to Zynga, Pachter is certain that a Kinect-less Xbox One bundle with a lower price will launch next year.
"I think the voice command is really cool, but you can use your tablet. The answer is: Don isn’t there anymore. You have a new boss over the Xbox division, who has no skin in the Kinect game, so… Sure they’re going to unbundle. Not in 2014. They will not change the SKU that dramatically in the first full year. It’s a 2015 event."
Pachter even predicts just how the new Xbox One will be introduced, saying that the Kinect edition will probably receive a bigger 2TB hard drive, while the Kinect-less one will keep the current 500GB one and aim for a price point of 399 USD/EUR.
This move, however, will result in Sony lowering the price of the PS4 to 350 USD/EUR, in order to maintain its current advantage.
"The problem is that if by spring ’15 they cut the price to 400 USD/EUR, Sony goes 349 USD/EUR. Sony right now is in a position to stay ahead of them, and this is what happened with the PS2. PS2 kept taking share by cutting price. I think this is a price game. I think unbundling Kinect is the smartest way to get competitive right away."
It's going to be interesting to see just how the PS4 and Xbox One stack up after March passes, as both will see big exclusives appear in the form of Infamous: Second Son and Titanfall, respectively.