At E3 earlier this year, Microsoft announced that the Xbox One would retail for $499 and be bundled with the next generation of the Kinect motion camera. Since that announcement gamers have been hoping that a version of the console -- which excluded the peripheral -- would be announced and more importantly that it came at a price point that was easier to swallow.

Xbox exec Phil Harrison spoke with CVG at Gamescom and pretty much shot down the idea of any Kinect-less bundle seeing the light of day (anytime soon, at least).

When asking about the possibility of  excluding the Kinect peripheral, CVG's Associate Editor Rob Crossley positioned it by saying that he'd presume "there will never be an Xbox One sold without it... is that correct?" Harrison responded with the following:

Correct. Xbox One is Kinect. They are not separate systems. An Xbox One has chips, it has memory, it has Blu-ray, it has Kinect, it has a controller. These are all part of the platform ecosystem.

What we have shown really well at Gamescom is the magic of games that use Kinect. We have shown the power of voice control. I'm probably going to piss off your readers unintentionally when I say this; I have an Xbox One at home, and being able to walk in and say "Xbox on", and for the system to recognize me, launch and load my profile, and put my choices of content on the font page is a very magical experience. It makes you think about your relationship with technology in a slightly different way. It's personal. It makes you think, I wish more devices would do this.

With all the flip flopping and "message changing" that has been going on concerning this Xbox One, this would be one topic to keep an eye on. Again, Microsoft has yet to announce a street date for the console and so it seems that anything is within the realm of possibility at the point. But as of right now, the official word is that the kinect-less bundle is nothing more than a fantasy. For now.