Earlier this year, Microsoft made the decision to unbundle the Kinect from Xbox One in order to bring the price down from $499.99 to $399.99, in line with Sony's PlayStation 4. But for consumers for whom the Kinect is an attractive device, this move presented a problem — how will they get their controller-less dancing on now? Xbox Wire answers their cries with a standalone Kinect, ready for purchase on October 7 for $149.99.
You might have noticed that this brings the cost of an Xbox One plus Kinect to around $550. Where did that extra $50 come from? That's the penalty for not buying the bundle, I suppose. At the very least, each standalone Kinect will come with a downloadable copy of Dance Central Spotlight, which itself retails for $9.99. That still leaves $40 unaccounted for, however.
Once again, if you've already purchased a Kinect-less Xbox One in the past few weeks, you'll have to wait until October 7 if you wish to complete your Microsoft-branded Voltron.