Xbox One Might Not Include Headset with Console

Every Xbox 360 came packaged with a single ear piece headset to communication over Xbox Live. Looking at Xbox pre-order packages and recent interviews, the Xbox One appears to not include a headset.

In an interview with Game Informer, Ben Hanson sat down with Xbox One's chief product officer, Marc Whitten, to discuss the Xbox One. When Hanson asked (starting at 12:12 of the video interview) of the possibility of the Xbox One not including a headset, Marc Whitten neither confirmed or denied the inclusion of one.

“I think you’re going to see a lot of cool things about what we are doing with headsets. In our overall strategy we think headsets are great and we want there to be great headset experiences. I do think the new Kinect can, I wouldn’t use the word "replacement," I think it can be a great communication experience for gaming," Whitten then added, "and I think actually the capability frankly when in particular powering Skype and allowing it to constantly run so that I can choose between audio only, audio and voice, so that those things can run across games like we’ve been doing with third parties for so long. I think it’s really foundational to how we think about the communication experience. I do believe you're going to see a lot of game communications using Kinect, I also think you will see a lot with headsets as well.”

Not satisfied with his answer, I searched the Xbox One pre-order page which does not mention the inclusion of a headset. According to the Microsoft pre-order page, the Xbox One will include: Xbox One Console, Kinect sensor, Commemorative controller, Exclusive Achievement and HDMI cable. If the listing mentioned an HDMI cable but did not mention a headset, I would rule out the possibility of a listing error.

If you look at the 4GB Xbox 360 bundle with Kinect, it also does not list or include an Xbox 360 headset. Checking the 250GB Xbox 360 console listing, the page does in fact mention the inclusion of a headset.

Only considering the Xbox One and Xbox 360 listings on Microsoft's official pages, the Xbox One does not appear to include a headset. At the moment, looks like Xbox One owners will need to buy a headset at launch or use the Kinect's built in microphone. 

Via: NeoGAF, Game Informer