Xbox One News: Microsoft Exec Discusses Steam Box, Price, Games for Console Ahead of Release Date

The Xbox One is set to appear on Nov. 22, and Microsoft is confident that its next-gen console will be the best on the market. However, the Xbox One will have lots of competition from the PlayStation 4, Wii U, Ouya, and the newly-announced Steam Machines and Steam Box from Valve. In an interview with Eurogamer, Microsoft executive Phil Harrison revealed that the company is keen to keep an eye on Valve and whatever other consoles they bring to the living room:

"Valve is a very impressive company, and obviously we're going to be watching what they do with great interest."

While Valve may be a new contender in the next-gen console market, much has been said of the competition between the Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Many are concerned about the Xbox One's high price point of $499, and Harrison explained that the company could have cut costs by removing the Kinect, but said the Xbox One's marketing as a high quality overall package justified its higher price:

"The platform of Xbox One is a combination of many things. It's a box with CPU, GPU, memory and a hard-drive. It's a game controller. It's a Kinect sensor. It's Xbox Live. And it's the cloud. All of which inter-operate and work together...you can utilize Xbox One with Kinect unplugged in those scenarios where you want to take Xbox One to a room where it's not convenient to have Kinect plugged in. We fully support that. But we believe the most exciting and valuable use cases of Xbox One are where Kinect is part of the experience."

Harrison also addressed the initial digital focus of the Xbox One, specifically when it came to the games on the console. The exec revealed that, while some wanted the Xbox One to not have a disc drive and only sell digital games like Steam, Harrison stated that the company would rather leave those choices up to the player.

"We've given players a choice, and we think that choice is really important. We've given players a choice to purchase and enjoy games on the format that is most convenient to them. If you purchase games on disc there are certain advantages and benefits that gamers are used to and comfortable with, based on previous generations, and we will continue that on Xbox One. If you purchase games digitally, there are a bunch of additional benefits that come with that, particularly around your content showing up wherever you are, rather than being linked to that particular console or that particular disc. We think that choice is great," said Harrison.