"There's a lot about Kinect that I really love," Xbox head Phil Spencer says in a video released alongside the news. "We've also heard from people that they just like to play games with a controller in their hand." Spencer and co. are painting today's news as a response to consumers -- the blog post is titled, "Delivering More Choices for Fans," even -- but it's hard to see it as anything other than a straight business decision. Microsoft's initial coming out for Xbox One was held up by three pillars, one of which was going "all-in" on Kinect. Today's news rolls back that pillar.

It's not a question of people using Kinect, apparently. Microsoft says that over 80 percent of Xbox One owners are "actively" using Kinect. The other 20 percent are assuredly stewing in anger over saying "Xbox On" six or seven times without it working.

Today's news is the latest walkback from Microsoft's initial vision for the Xbox One, unveiled last May in a day-long Redmond, Wash. event. The price cut is just one of two major announcements from Microsoft's Xbox division today: the long-running Xbox Live service is taking a variety of services out from behind its paywall (known as an Xbox Live "Gold Membership"), making them free to all Xbox One and 360 users.