For the past couple of days there’s been a lot of rumor circulating about Xbox and their plan for the upcoming year.
Apparently a “Senior Publishing Source” has confirmed a price drop by $100. This source has also leaked news of a Halo 2 Anniversary Edition to be released this year before Halo 5 which will likely contain a beta invitation. However the source has stated this anniversary edition for a November 11th release while Microsoft has already confirmed Halo 5 for this year. Meaning that IF the rumors were true Halo 5 would have to come out as late as Christmas in order for the beta to be successful.
Frankly asking me to spend money on an anniversary edition one month before the next chapter in the series is a bit much.
Another rumor going around is that the reason for the price drop will be due to a DISC-LESS Xbox One which may feature a 1Terabyte hard drive so that the only way you can play games, will be digitally. Other rumors in general include the release of a white Xbox One, and that Crackdown 3 will be announced this year at E3 2014.
“No, you cannot believe everything you read on the internet,” Chief of Staff for Devices and Studios Group at Microsoft Aaron Greenberg said on twitter when asked about the rumor that Microsoft will drop the price on Xbox One to $399.”
Many gamers have expressed their suggestion to remove the Kinect from the Xbox One deal however Microsoft seems to be pretty attached to that functionality. In the console war, Xbox has seen some good figures against Sony (even though the PS4 is selling more units) so the change this quickly in their strategy still seems a bit odd. Everything is speculation at this point for where Microsoft is going to go in the upcoming year, but these rumors have certainly gained them a lot of attention.
Stay tuned.