The Microsoft Store has listed the Kinect Sensor for Xbox 360 as $149.99. When GameStop and other retailers listed Kinect at the same price last week, Microsoft’s Aaron Greenberg tweeted:
No Kinect price announced yet, retail price estimates are purely speculative, final price & pack-in details are not yet determined.
So I guess the Microsoft Store is speculating on the retail price too. *shrug*
Source via Chris Kohler
I smell a bundle deal coming…
I agree with Big Blak. A bundle is coming and most likely with the Arcade version will be MS' focal point.
I think they're trying to get a feel for how people react to the price. I think $99 is a better price point for me giving it a shot. 150 plus a few games is like buying a whole new system.
You can almost bet MS is going to tout that you don't have to buy any extra controllers like Move or Wii. You'll certainly see price comparisons for 4 person gaming between the 3 motion services. I know the wii is about $60 for each controller/nun chuck combo, that's without batteries or motion plus I believe.
@shockwave
$99 is still a little bit to much for me. I think $149.99 is the price. We all know how MS likes to overcharge for their stuff.
Here is my hypothesis there are a number of things that need to happen but its looking like this to me,
The whole interwebz iz going nuts over this price point (check, negative buzz generated) and any publicity is good publicity for M$. M$ has a nice track record of saying one thing and doing the other ( just like when they said there will be no HD bigger than 120gb, or when they said the stand alone 250gb hd will not be in a console…MW2 anyone? And now the Slimbox 360 has that!).
SO I gots ta thinking in my big blak brain, M$ is going to let the whole world speculate at how ridiculously high this price is for such an asinine product (well I guess asinine is kind of harsh) and while most of the world is thinking that, they will also picture Kinect as a stand alone peripheral because the Slimbox 360 is already out. So $299 for Slimbox and $149 for Kincet is very pricey, then BAM!!! M$ announces a bundle deal price at or around $399 and all the world can save $50 before taxes.
Just a hypothesis.
@Big Blak
or they can do the arcade bundle for $249. We should stop giving them ideas btw.
@ Tokz
Lmao yes, lets stop.
@Tokz
I agree, MS will probably try to (at least start with) charge $150 for kinect, but Shockwave has a good point. $60 per controller for the wii, with most likely similar pricing for Move, and $150 is no longer a bad price point in comparison. I still would only want to pay $100 at most for it, but in comparison it is cheaper.
@Big Blak
I like the hypothesis.
or they can give us Elite/Kinect bundles @299
and Arcade/Kinect bundles @149
(if they are watching) i'm hoping this works….. ***crosses fingers***
@tokz_21 That's way to cheap. Microsoft already confirmed a "slim" version of the Arcade that will be priced at $199.
@rpad.
well it's not going to work if you're telling them that's way too cheap!
Come on! Work with me here.
@Tokz
I like $299 for a Slimbox/kinect bundle…They should sell the consoles the way Radiohead did one of their more recent albums. Give it away and accept donations for whatever people feel it is worth….haha.
@bsu
Radiohead is awesome! I wonder how many people actually donated and how much they got?
@ Tokz
If I'm not mistaken I think that album went triple platinum.
@Tokz
I hope they got a decent amount, just to show the record labels that they are not always necessary, but I really never heard a dollar amount like that.
I am going to steer clear of Kinect until it can justify the $149 to me. It is going to be cheaper for me to get in on the Move. I guess eventually it will cost significantly more though. Since I'll need 4 main controllers and some nunchucks.
I have lots of controllers. 4 PS3 controllers, 4 PS3 BUZZ pads, 4 360 controllers, 8 360 SceneIt Controllers (1 is buggy so I got the second game with 4 new ones). Luckily no Wii because that would be excessive.
@bsu
I did a google search and they made at least $4 million dollars from a survey taken in a week! They actually made in one week $10 million dollars, no wonder it went triple platinum. I'm glad they got to pocket all of it too. Being free from record labels rules!
Kincet pricing can't be compared to the Wii/Move controllers. Come on guys, it's a camera. There is not justification for charging $150 for a camera. Anything over $50 is, in typical MS add on fashion, insanely overpriced.
@ RROD
Is $50 excusable for a camera?
@N8R
I think so.
@RRODisHere I wouldn't say Kinect is just a camera. The motion sensors are pretty advanced. Is it worth $150? That's highly debatable.
@ RROD
Ok… because Kinect is actually 3 cameras. 3 x 50 = 150.
(I just got old school on you there, I apologize for that.)
@ RROD
I agree though, I would pay $75 for this at the most. And even then, that's on a good day after I just won at Bingo.
@Raymond Padilla & N8R
I understand that Kinect is more advanced than other gaming cameras but for it to be worth $150 it needs to be portable and take 8.1 megapixel pictures.
@N8R
BINGO!!! I haven't done that in years
I still maintain that whatever the price I'll get it provided I see some enticing titles for it. Even when it comes to motion it's software that sells games, not hardware, IMO.
Take Mario Galaxy for instance, I think it's a brilliant game, The motion controls could be left out altogether and I would still like it. It's not the Wii i like, it's some of the N exclusives.
@shockwave
That game is great because of the lack of complex or even moderate motion controls. Waggling the wii mote to attack is about it aside from controlling a glider or ball. I that says a lot that the Wii's best game (my opinion) is a cut above because it isn't hampered by the need to have everything done on motion…which seems very contrary to move and kinect software shown so far.
@smartguy That game is great because it was brilliantly designed.
@Shockwave
Bad example. You can't possibly compare Mario Galaxy to shovel ware that requires no buttons to play. If you think Kinect can produce games as good as Mario Galaxy then you will be severely disappointed.
@Ray
and part of that design is the limited use of motion controls. I think Shockwave picked a great game to have this convo on. I think if DK or Kirby has the same kind of limited use of motion and are great it could say a lot about motion controls in general.
@smartguy I have no doubt that someone like Miyamoto or Kojima could create an interesting game for Kinect too. As it stands, Mizuguchi has the most interesting game for Kinect at the moment.
@Tokz
Yeah I didn't realize it was that much. But that is awesome that they did that without a record label. Now I do think that they were only able to do that because of their established fan base, but that is still impressive. I wonder how many albums were downloaded so that you could figure how much they made per album.
I think if MS tried that model they would just get ripped off. I wouldn't mind them just reducing prices though, haha.
@smartguy You forget that Kojima likes to experiment. Look at his Boktai games, for example.
@Ray
He didn't use Sixaxis very much at all did he? Serious question since I never cared for sixaxis in games.
That brings another question…Sixaxis isn't a viable motion control for Sony anymore? It seems that most gamers didn't care for it anyway.
@smartguy Sixaxis has been swept under the rug. I don't recall anyone doing anything interesting with it, but there's a chance that I've just forgotten about something.
The price is looking solid with Move being bundled at $99.99.
@Raymond Padilla
Flower was the only one.
@Ray
I’ll look at anything that comes out for Kinect. If it looks like it will make the purchase worthwhile, I’ll pick it up. I’ll have to make sure Miyamoto doesn’t put out another wii music lol.
I honestly don’t know that I’d like a Kinect game by Kojima. I much prefer to sit back and take in the world and story that he creates. I think motion would really not be helpful in his style. Like Miyamoto, I’d take a look and then judge.
Two great names though.
@RRODisHere Brilliant call on Flower.
sixaxis was pretty cool for killzone, setting bombs and whatnot..heavenly sword made decent use of it
lair is def not the best example, i wanted that game to be good so bad
im still buying kinect, someone will figure something out with it…ive always been a sucker for peripherals
i saved my money all year when i was 8 to buy the god damn power glove
For anyone who's interested in giving Kinect a try, it's playable at Microsoft stores nationwide. And by nationwide of course I mean four stores no farther east than Colorado. However, one of these stores is in Scottsdale, AZ, not too far from where I live. And I plan on doing a First Impressions article for my new website GamesEyeView.com which launched last Friday. I'll be sure to share my thoughts with you guys as well.