Xbox One headset included with all systems

Microsoft's 180 saga continues. Xbox One systems will now include a headset, thanks to all the hollering fans did when Microsoft said that Kinect was good enough.

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Microsoft has done a rather stupendous job addressing nearly every complaint fans have had with Xbox One. From the big DRM reversal to its recent indie proposal, Microsoft is making good on the nickname "Xbox 180."

Here's another surprise for you. Xbox One systems will now include a headset, thanks to all the hollering fans did when Microsoft said that Kinect was good enough.

A new unboxing video produced by Microsoft shows the contents of the Day One edition of the system: Xbox One console, Kinect, specially branded Day One controller with chrome D-pad, HDMI cable, and yes--the Xbox One Chat Headset (MSRP: $25).

"The chat on Xbox One offers 3x the sampling rate of the Xbox 360. The quality of the Xbox One Chat Headset speaker and microphone have been upgraded to take advantage of the much improved audio quality. It’s also super lightweight-only 44g-with a padded earpiece that can be worn on either your left or right ear, and a bendable, rotating mic boom. You can control mute and volume without taking your hands off the controller," Microsoft details.

The headset isn't exclusive to the Day One bundle, either. A Microsoft spokesperson confirmed to Shacknews that "the chat headset is included in both the Day One and standard editions of the console." You win, internet.

Andrew Yoon was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

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  • reply
    August 8, 2013 6:00 AM

    Andrew Yoon posted a new article, Xbox One headset included with all systems.

    Microsoft's 180 saga continues. Xbox One systems will now include a headset, thanks to all the hollering fans did when Microsoft said that Kinect was good enough.

    • reply
      August 8, 2013 6:01 AM

      Heh, they just can't catch a break huh.

    • reply
      August 8, 2013 6:03 AM

      Good for them, I'd be surprised if that is a consistent international SKU though.

      • reply
        August 8, 2013 6:05 AM

        Why wouldn't it be? Weren't SKUs consistent across major regions this generation?

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          August 8, 2013 6:12 AM

          Unfortunately no, the 360 originally shipped with headset and or some other thing? (I forget, remote control? in premium pack?) - definitely didn't have same consistency here.

          Now,.......
          The AU$ has GONE TO THE SHITTER i nthe past 10 weeks and they probably set these prices 6 months ago when the AU$ was 25% stronger. As it stands, it costs Aussies only $537 US to buy an Xbox One.
          The "Aussie rape tax" is a mere 37$ US...... this is by far the closest margin I've ever seen on a foreign product here.
          MS probably won't raise the price, but they may withhold stuff from the box :/ they must be pissed about our AU$ tanking.

    • reply
      August 8, 2013 6:09 AM

      Lol, they should have just thought this whole thing through more. It's starting to look like a system to own now.

    • Ziz legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
      reply
      August 8, 2013 6:19 AM

      Now they just need to complain about the price.

    • reply
      August 8, 2013 6:24 AM

      My goodness. I wonder if they even tested any of their new choices for the new system before announcing them. That's what the 3rd or 4th thing they have changed because of public outcry?

    • reply
      August 8, 2013 6:35 AM

      BRAVO !
      Mine is already preodered.
      The best system will be the Xbone.
      HANDS DOWN !!!

    • reply
      August 8, 2013 6:41 AM

      lol!

    • reply
      August 8, 2013 6:49 AM

      That just makes sense. I remember shaking my head when MS announced that Xbones would NOT include headsets. Yeah, sure, you have the Kinect, but they did not consider that most people live in busy houses where people are talking, shouting, laughing, tromping around, watching television, gabbing on the phone, tending to barking dogs... The list just goes on and on.

      • reply
        August 8, 2013 6:52 AM

        It doesn't even need to be anything fancy. The simple PS4 earbud thing is more than enough. Just something to get people started.

    • reply
      August 8, 2013 6:53 AM

      That's good news

    • reply
      August 8, 2013 6:56 AM

      has a system launch ever been so affected by consumer whining? this is crazy. first the DRM, then price, then the speed bump, now the headset. LOL

      • reply
        August 8, 2013 6:57 AM

        the whiners are the winners.

      • reply
        August 8, 2013 7:04 AM

        The question is should we be upset that they make stupid decisions and then flip flop, or happy that they respond to criticism?

        • reply
          August 8, 2013 7:15 AM

          [deleted]

        • reply
          August 8, 2013 7:16 AM

          They are pushy as fuck, and they'll push as hard as they can in their own self serving direction despite how obvious it is. The have no choice but to respond, they're getting creamed.

          • reply
            August 8, 2013 8:19 AM

            These statements are so weird to me. After dealing with them on a professional level for almost two decades now, they've never come off to me as anything but a company that listens to its customers and make changes based on that feedback. They've never came across as pushy or anything remotely similar. Perhaps the gaming division is just managed differently, and maybe the move to rein the company in instead of being so divided has more to do with these changes than anything.

            • reply
              August 8, 2013 3:38 PM

              To me they pushed the FPS genre to consoles with Halo, pushed a mandatory sub for online gaming.. which is now the norm, and recently.. Kinect.

              • reply
                August 8, 2013 5:17 PM

                I don't see those as pushes, really, they're evolutionary moves that would have happened no matter what. FPS games were always going to end up popular on consoles eventually since they were a huge genre on PC, things like Ultima Online introduced the monthly sub for gaming online and it's not surprising that MS adopted it to create the ridiculously huge infrastructure that is XBL and support all the things gamers wanted out of online gaming at the time, and Kinect is part of XBox One simply because of how many were bought by customers this gen. Those are all customer driven things, not really pushed and forced on us.

        • reply
          August 8, 2013 8:05 AM

          I'm not following this. "should we be upset that they make stupid decisions and then flip flop". Is there a real reason to be upset that they realized their error and corrected it? Is this because it's MS and any other company would have just received praise?

      • reply
        August 8, 2013 7:14 AM

        a system launch has never needed so much whining to fix it

        • reply
          August 8, 2013 7:44 AM

          After owning a PS3 at launch I greatly disagree. The diff: no amount of whining fixed the frigging thing.

          • reply
            August 8, 2013 7:55 AM

            PS3? it's grown leaps and bounds since launch. shit, you couldn't even message friends while in-game at launch, i believe. plus the media app marketplace, video on demand, 3d functionality.

            • reply
              August 8, 2013 8:01 AM

              Grown? It grew out of playing PS2 games I suppose.

              • reply
                August 8, 2013 8:02 AM

                Yeah and Microsoft really kept "constantly adding" to that software Back/Compat list over the years too!

                • reply
                  August 8, 2013 8:06 AM

                  i think anyone who says either console hasn't grown since 2005/2006 is forgetting dozens of features. it's not even close. these are entirely different machines than at launch.

                  • reply
                    August 8, 2013 8:13 AM

                    The XMB was never redesigned (THANK FUCK) so a lot of people probably think "nothing has changed!!!"

                    The only real issue is the PSN store performance and the patching performance.

                • reply
                  August 8, 2013 9:12 AM

                  They sure did, they "constantly added to it" to get 52% of the library for two years, which was just one year less than you could actually buy a goddamn PS3 that has the feature. Oh yeah, and how can I forget the wonderful feature they added to the PS2 games, universal, unfixable lag and miserable blurring at all resolutions. Such a shame all PS3 owners could not partake in that one.

          • reply
            August 8, 2013 7:58 AM

            What are you referring to? because at least sales wise, the PS3 came from a clear last position at the start to a very difficult to figure out position by the end of it - could have beaten MS, may not have - but incredibly incredibly close.

      • reply
        August 8, 2013 7:34 AM

        I think the people at the top are like, 'hey guys, so you made the kinect sound isolation awesome right?' and they're all 'yeah, boss it's awesome and people are going to love our product' and then he's all 'okay cool because we're not including a mic for chatting in games etc.' and they're kind like 'oh, yeah... ' and when fans bitched the top dog comes back to them and is like 'are all these greasy motherfuckers worried for nothing or what? can't we do a bad ass demo of how well this is going to work?' and with tears in their eyes they say 'honestly, bro you better just include the headset because it's not that awesome :(((

      • reply
        August 8, 2013 7:37 AM

        You're just jealous because your whining never accomplishes anything.

      • reply
        August 8, 2013 9:01 AM

        It wasn't just the whining; don't forget that Microsoft's fiscal year was a mess, and that Don Mattrick was essentially a lame duck division head, since he was in talks with Zynga. Also, they had a disastrous PR plan, which was answered swiftly with an excellent PR plan from Sony at E3 (so successful that the PS4's requirement of PSPlus for multiplayer was met with applause driveb by euphoria inertia).

    • reply
      August 8, 2013 6:57 AM

      what else can we get them to do?

    • reply
      August 8, 2013 6:57 AM

      I don't even know what to think anymore. How many policy reversals is that (so far)? This really puts faith in me that the "launch" policies/practices will be retained throughout the Xbone's life cycle.

    • reply
      August 8, 2013 7:12 AM

      Hooray! I've had a Kinect since beta, and I've been a big advocate of it, but I still use my 360 headsets for game/party chat. Kinect and speakers is just no where the same in terms of usage. Glad they saw the light and threw the cheap headset in the box for everyone.

    • reply
      August 8, 2013 7:25 AM

      Whoops forgot to include the unboxing video: http://news.xbox.com/2013/08/xbox-one-unboxing

      • reply
        August 8, 2013 7:36 AM

        he clearly doesn't understand the appeal of the unboxing video :) which is dumb and i'm not surprised he gets it, but people want fucking up close and personal slow reveal. instead his mug is on-screen the whole time. hehe

        • reply
          August 8, 2013 7:39 AM

          huh, the security lock is kind of a nice feature

      • reply
        August 8, 2013 8:35 AM

        Holy crap, the Kinect is fucking huge. I thought it'd be much smaller for some reason.

    • reply
      August 8, 2013 7:30 AM

      hehe

    • reply
      August 8, 2013 7:40 AM

      GRRR. they are giving me what i want...but i still need to be angry....GRRR.

      • reply
        August 8, 2013 7:41 AM

        [deleted]

        • reply
          August 8, 2013 7:54 AM

          I feel like the consumer is the abused housewife in this situation. She left, and now the husband keeps showering her with gifts to get her to come back... so he can ultimately beat her again.

          • reply
            August 8, 2013 8:10 AM

            That's...yeah. OK.

            • reply
              August 8, 2013 5:03 PM

              yeah can we stop with the rape and domestic violence analogies for video game topics already? It's pretty cringe inducing, especially so given the level of sexism in our hobby.

          • reply
            August 8, 2013 8:16 AM

            [deleted]

          • reply
            August 8, 2013 8:34 AM

            Xbox One raped and murdered my wife.

    • reply
      August 8, 2013 8:13 AM

      [deleted]

      • reply
        August 8, 2013 8:22 AM

        the kinect alone costs $200, according to that AMA thing, so they don't have much room for manoeuvre there

        • reply
          August 8, 2013 8:23 AM

          Sure they can. They can soak in a horrific loss!

        • reply
          August 8, 2013 8:37 AM

          [deleted]

          • reply
            August 8, 2013 8:47 AM

            they want 100% kinect penetration so this will never happen

            • reply
              August 8, 2013 8:50 AM

              Yep, people need to accept this.

            • reply
              August 8, 2013 8:55 AM

              They will cave if people whine hard enough.

              • reply
                August 8, 2013 8:55 AM

                not on kinect. that'd be like changing their optical drive format or amount of RAM. it's here to stay.

                • reply
                  August 8, 2013 9:04 AM

                  It's STILL an external device. It can be turned off, and it can be removed- if MS allows it.

                  • reply
                    August 8, 2013 9:36 AM

                    They don't want to allow it because they want every developer to know IT CAN ALWAYS BE COUNTED ON AS BEING THERE!

                  • reply
                    August 8, 2013 10:01 AM

                    [deleted]

              • reply
                August 8, 2013 8:57 AM

                I don't think this is anything they will change. Their vision for the Xbox One is to have a Kinect available to all developers. The only way to do this is to pack it in.

                This is why the camera on the PS4 will fail and never get out of gimmick land.

              • reply
                August 8, 2013 5:35 PM

                Not on this. For real development on Kinect to happen (other than shovelware) they need it attached to every console.

            • reply
              August 8, 2013 3:28 PM

              I'd have no problem paying extra for the Kinect if I thought developers would do anything with it. Most won't, though, at least not for a few years. I have no interest in shouting at my TV to browse Netflix or reload guns or whatever. Build a game around it. Not a virtual petting zoo for five year olds. A real game targeted at the core market.

              • reply
                August 8, 2013 5:36 PM

                Developers will do even less with it if it's an optional device.

          • reply
            August 8, 2013 9:58 AM

            [deleted]

          • reply
            August 8, 2013 4:59 PM

            I find it really fucking depressing how hostile most gamers are to anything new except for better graphics on the same old stuff.

            The new Kinect is pretty amazing and if developers don't make enough core-oriented games for it then that's a software problem, not a failing of the device itself.

            And the absolute best way to make sure developers do cool things with the Kinect is to make it mandatory and bundle one with every system, and that's exactly what they're doing.

    • reply
      August 8, 2013 8:21 AM

      microsoft has caved on a lot of stuff lately from win8 to xbox. i wonder if that's gaining them any street cred.

      • reply
        August 8, 2013 4:28 PM

        Sadly, I don't know if it has. In these threads there's always a ton of people who simply mock the fact that they caved instead of appreciating how aggressively they're listening to feedback.

        MS really can't catch a break lately. I'm not saying they haven't made genuine mistakes, but there's a lot of folks that seem to just love hating them for its own sake.

    • reply
      August 8, 2013 8:32 AM

      The headset thing didn't really bother me. I'm still waiting for word that the system will operate fine with the kinect unplugged.

      • reply
        August 8, 2013 1:17 PM

        I thought they have said that it won't. But I could be mistaken.

    • reply
      August 8, 2013 8:33 AM

      They really should just get out of the hardware business and start making games for the Wii U. =)

      • reply
        August 8, 2013 8:58 AM

        or nintendo gets out of the hardware business and ports the legacy titles to the xb1 and ps4??? o_O

        • reply
          August 8, 2013 9:40 AM

          Gosh nobody's ever said that before. Sorry to be sarcastic but Nintendo is the one pushing the boundaries IMO.

          • reply
            August 8, 2013 9:42 AM

            in some ways, though everyone gives them the benefit of the doubt with the controller and motion features ("there will be awesome games using those features! just wait!") and then shits on kinect ("no one will ever utilize it it's CRAP!")

            • reply
              August 8, 2013 9:54 AM

              There already is awesome stuff for the Gamepad, just as there was with the Wiimote at launch so that argument is kind of hollow to me.

              Carmack even said Kinect sucks, plus it's a fucking camera in your living room.

            • reply
              August 8, 2013 4:35 PM

              I'm a pretty hardcore Ninty fan but honestly the new Kinect is more impressive than the Wii U GamePad. People really don't seem to understand how much better this thing is than the first-gen Kinect. The GamePad is cool and all but really it's just a new implementation of what they invented in 2004 for the DS.

              • reply
                August 8, 2013 4:43 PM

                To be clear, the Wii U does bring new things to the table multiplayer-wise with asymmetric gameplay and stuff, but for single-player it's basically a fancy new wireless iteration on the ideas behind the DS. And there's nothing wrong with that, the DS is great.

    • reply
      August 8, 2013 9:33 AM

      Mono headset? Useless crap.

      • reply
        August 8, 2013 9:34 AM

        ? it's used for speaking and listening to voices. why does it need to be stereo?

        • reply
          August 8, 2013 9:38 AM

          I highly dislike hearing audio only with my other ear.

        • reply
          August 8, 2013 9:43 AM

          From what I can gather though, the controller can receive stereo data for third-party headsets now. So there should be some cool wireless gaming headsets that simply plug into the Xbox One controller and you get game audio and chat all with one plug.

          • reply
            August 8, 2013 9:44 AM

            ah..i personally hate that (i'd rather get the game audio from my 5.1 and chat ONLY in the earpiece) but i'd imagine some people like that. also yeah, mono game audio would be trash.

            • reply
              August 8, 2013 10:08 AM

              The wife/kid would love if I had a headset for late night gaming.

              • reply
                August 8, 2013 11:38 AM

                That helps little when you yell BOOM, HEADSHOT every five seconds.

      • reply
        August 8, 2013 1:18 PM

        It's how the 360 headset is. Works great.

    • reply
      August 8, 2013 9:37 AM

      MICROSOFT IS DOING EVERYTHING I WANT THEM TO SO I'M NOT GOING TO BUY THEIR CONSOLE

    • reply
      August 8, 2013 9:42 AM

      Rock hard this news made me

    • reply
      August 8, 2013 10:06 AM

      WIRED! WTF MICROSOFT, wireless is next gen bitches!

    • reply
      August 8, 2013 10:12 AM

      Best gaming news I've read all week

    • reply
      August 8, 2013 11:46 AM

      Msft number one focus should be to get the box in consumers hands. Lose money upfront, make it back in the end.

    • reply
      August 8, 2013 11:58 AM

      Excellent decision!

    • reply
      August 8, 2013 12:03 PM

      [deleted]

    • reply
      August 8, 2013 12:17 PM

      To say they are listening to customers is a bit of positive spin. They are getting whipped at almost every turn. They had to change some things to have a chance at all.

    • reply
      August 8, 2013 12:27 PM

      News like this makes me feel bad for the Xbox Defense Force. So many hours and posts wasted defending a corporate position, only for capitulation at a later date.

      Regardless, no matter who wins, we all win!

      • reply
        August 8, 2013 12:37 PM

        They just had horrible messaging. There are a lot of people who were perfectly fine with the previous position. I'm fine with what they are bringing now, but I was fine with what they were bringing before.

        • reply
          August 8, 2013 1:04 PM

          I agree with you on both counts. Since I'd decided to get PS4 @ launch anyway, I would have linked to actually see if MSFT could pull of their grand experiment (i.e., their positions prior to all this "180"-ing).

          I wouldn't bet on it - but nonetheless I'd like to at least see the attempt.

    • reply
      August 8, 2013 12:30 PM

      This corrects a big oversight. Everyone having a headset helped push Xbox live over psn and helped Microsoft secure multiplayer gamers and communities for the 360. Kinect was not a viable substitute and its not worth taking a chance on kinect 2. That Microsoft initially didn't include a mic with the Xbox one is worrying because it shows an inability to learn from ps3 mistakes, or in this case 360 successes. Third console curse could still hold true for Microsoft.

    • reply
      August 8, 2013 2:19 PM

      It's nice to see Microsoft taking steps to address a lot of the issues that people had when information was made public. However, no backwards-compatibility with the 360 is still a major issue imo. I understand that the new hardware (and the software to run it) probably makes it very hard, if not impossible, to run both the new games and the 360 games. Couldn't Microsoft develop some type of emulator/program downloadable via Xbox Live that could detect 360 games and run them on the One that way? I'm not a programmer so I could be off base here but it at least seems like a plausible idea.

      • reply
        August 8, 2013 4:17 PM

        An emulator is not really feasible with the console hardware power levels. It never is. That's why the PS3 did back compat by including PS2 hardware on board. Emulation is insanely expensive in terms of processing power.

        The other option is outright porting games. That's how the 360 did back compat, ports of engines to get large swathes of the popular Xbox games to work.

        It is interesting to note that both companies took different approaches last generation (include old hardware vs software fixes) and yet both have decided back compat isn't worth the cost this time around. Sony got the best PS2 games onto the PS3 via HD collections that they could sell and dropped the hardware support asap.

        I would guess that if consoles continue to exist it won't be as much an issue in the future now that they've converged on x86 and given up on custom chips every generation.

      • reply
        August 8, 2013 4:34 PM

        [deleted]

        • reply
          August 8, 2013 5:22 PM

          I'd love a halo 2 "anniversary" and FFXII remake.

      • reply
        August 8, 2013 4:48 PM

        Why does everyone single out Microsoft for the backwards-compatibility complaint when the situation with Sony is no better?

        Also, people should give some credit to the company that has fully supported backwards compatibility - Nintendo.

        • reply
          August 8, 2013 5:13 PM

          shhh, it makes them feel better

        • reply
          August 8, 2013 10:04 PM

          Yeah both are doing it and honestly I don't really blame them it's a waste of time and resources for something that in the long run probably won't see much use.

        • reply
          August 8, 2013 10:06 PM

          BC is stupid. you want to play your old games? keep your old console! the majority of ALL consoles don't have BC. and admit it - you mainly just want to know that you can play your old games. you're not actually going to play them - at least not after the first 6-12 months after launch.

          you're not going to get shit for trade-in or value for your 360 or PS3 so why not keep them around? if BC is that important to you you're probably going to want to keep your old console handy. if not, then you probably don't really care about those old games and just want a bullet point to argue about.

        • reply
          August 12, 2013 5:06 PM

          Weird, just tried playing my NES games on my Super Nintendo and the carts dont fit. Can I play my SNES games on my N64?

          ;)

    • reply
      August 8, 2013 5:27 PM

      Is this the part where sony announces its releasing dual headset and mic kits?

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