For those who briefly rejoiced by the rumour that the Xbox One will be releasing summer 2014 without the Kinect and supposedly at a lower price, prepare for that hop to be shattered.

Following the onslaught of rumours online, Microsoft has released a statement saying that it has no plans to release the Xbox One without the Kinect, according to GameSpot.

"We believe in Kinect and the value it brings to both games and entertainment, and believe $499 is a great value for what consumers receive with their Xbox One," said a Microsoft rep to GameSpot.

Better get used to the Kinect staying for a while, if you want to enjoy the next-gen console from Microsoft when it releases in November.

Getting on the good side of indies

Following the flak that Microsoft got from Oddworld Inhabitants boss Lorne Lanning, Microsoft has gone up and done another policy reversal--this time, allowing indies to self-publish on the Xbox One.

This is just the latest in the string of policy reversals from Xbox One, as well as seemingly copied features from Sony's PS4.

Below is the statement of Marc Whitten, corporate VP of Xbox, as quoted by CNet:

"Our vision is that every person can be a creator. That every Xbox One can be used for development. That every game and experience can take advantage of all of the features of Xbox One and Xbox Live. This means self-publishing. This means Kinect, the cloud, achievements. This means great discoverability on Xbox LIVE. We'll have more details on the program and the timeline at gamescom in August."

It almost feels like Microsoft is adjusting its features in order to be at par with Sony's PS4. Which begs the question of why they did not think of these features through before the actual launch? Some of the policies, such as indie development and the ease of lending used games is pretty common sense, and it almost seems unbelievable that Microsoft was not able to think that factor through.

What is Microsoft trying to do with its Xbox One? Make it a device that acquiesces to what the people want? Or is it simply realizing that it won't stand a chance if it did not forgo with its pride for all its strict policies?

Make a game yourself with the Xbox One?

Having Microsoft announce that independent developers can now self-publish on the Xbox One is one thing, but it's another thing to make every Xbox One console owner a potential developer of games.

In a recent twist following yet another policy reversal, Microsoft has announced an added feature for its next-gen console, which is a sort of DIY of games for your Xbox One.

According to Kotaku, this is a major change from the Xbox 360, which had a very tight-knit policy all throughout. This means that even if you are not a licensed developer, you can, in the future, create your own game using the Xbox One as a developers kit.

But the catch here is that you cannot do this at launch, as the devkit function for the device will be made available later. Whether this comes as an update for next year, or if this is actually the system where indie developers can use in order to publish with Microsoft.

More details will come out for Gamescom, so be sure to stay tuned for that.

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