I don't know why so many imply that the Xbox division has an endless money pit. If that was the case they wouldn't be forced to sell low end hardware at $500. This situation is entirely of Microsoft's own creation. It would have been incredibly simple to design a console that leaves the PS4 in the dirt considering we have off the shelf hardware with 2-3x performance available to consumers today. They instead chose profitability and Kinect over gaming performance.
However, we don´t really know yet if Kinect will make a difference this time around, being something that comes with all boxes. It is difficult to make a standard with an add on..
The previous kinect does not have the best track record and MS themselves are not showing of Kinect2 in the best of ways BUT.. this time around, there are more possibilities for it to make a changing impact.
1. It comes with every box = Standard equipment devs can count on.
2. Xbox One is a dev tool, meaning that indies don´t need to shell out big bucks to be creative. The possibilities of indies with Kinect2 is interesting and we dont know yet what can happen there, the next Minecraft perhaps?
These are the biggest factors that gives Kinect2 a proper chance of making the impact that MS perhaps envisioned. It´s still early but we will see how this develops.
Regarding MS, Xbox and money. The Xbox division does not have endless money, MS "have", true. But the argument is now, if Xbox is an important part for the consumer push, then money will be thrown in order to make it competitive and even market leader...
and, MS is doing a consumer push now..
Yeah, so my argument here are with lots of IFs and possibilities but these are things that cannot be neglected either. It´s easy to say that more powerful hardware will win but history has shown that that is not always the case and that there are ways to make an impact, even with less powerful hardware. The battle is far from over, there are far too many unknowns to decide a winner yet..