People were right all along. The Xbox One costs more than the PlayStation 4 because of Kinect. But we had no idea how pricey Microsoft’s peripheral was to develop.
An Xbox One developer recently jumped onto the Xbox One subreddit for an AMA (Ask Me Anything). In it, they disclosed the fact that the Kinect sensor costs almost as much as the actual console. When further asked about its price tag, the developer mentioned that without Kinect, the Xbox One could easily cost less than $399, the price of a PS4.
All that being said, they’re behind Kinect all the way: “the majority of the masses care only about the console, except that the success of the Kinect carries much more weight to us.” As with any type of peripheral, it all depends on how developers use it. If we can see some solid uses for Kinect 2.0, then maybe that extra money spent making them will be well worth it.
Source: Player Effort