Sony tried including PlayStation 4 Eye camera at $399, may include in future bundles
The $100 difference between the Xbox One's $500 launch price and the PlayStation 4's $400 launch price comes down to Sony's PlayStation 4 Eye: the motion and voice-sensing peripheral that acts very much like Microsoft's Kinect. Apparently Sony intended on including the Eye with its PS4 at launch this November, but word came from on high at Sony Computer Entertainment that the console needed to keep its $400 asking price and not lose "too much" in the process (the console, at $400, is being sold at a loss).
SCE president and group CEO Andrew House doesn't see the Eye's exclusion as an issue for PlayStation, though, as he told Business Spectator, "the vast majority of the audience that we speak to tells us that their primary wish is for the full controller interface and there's not necessarily a huge emphasis being placed on camera interaction." House said he could see SCE "adjust messaging" on the Eye in due time, but it remains to be seen how much users demand the Eye as part of the PS4 hardware bundle. Somewhat bizarrely, the console comes with a copy of PS4 tech demo The Playroom, much of which employes the Eye (see a lengthy walkthrough in video form below).
Regardless, the difference in strategy here is one major distinction between two game consoles that are, in many ways, extremely similar. Microsoft's taken an "all-in" approach with its new version of Kinect, risking a higher initial price for the ubiquity that including Kinect brings. Considering the company sold over 24 million of its standalone motion-sensing camera on Xbox 360, we're anxious to see what including Kinect in the box will mean for Xbox One sales.
