Kinect price confirmed 150USD plus arcade model priced

[Alkohallick]

Microsoft has finally made it official: the Kinect hardware will retail for $150 when it's released on November 4, and will come with a copy of Kinect Adventures included. That's not the only news today, however, as Redmond revealed a new version of the Xbox 360 that will hit stores on August 3 for $200.

The new Xbox 360 will feature 4GB of flash storage, and will follow the recently released Slim's styling, albeit with a matte finish. With the ability to store and save games on USB sticks, this is perhaps the most able entry-level 360 ever released, and the $200 price point is certainly attractive. Just like its big brother, it has WiFi via the 802.11N standard.

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2010/07/kinect-official-150-new-360-hardware-coming-august-3.ars

http://majornelson.com/archive/2010/07/20/announcing-kinect-pricing-xbox-360-4-gb-console-and-holiday-bundle.aspx

 

[Arwin]

Ha, I predicted the Arcade bundle correctly (not that this wasn't extremely obvious, but still).

 

[Alkohallick]

I still think $150 is too high for existing 360 owners though

 

[Gradthrawn]

I still think $150 is too high for existing 360 owners though

Agreed. But $300 is a darn good price for new owners, IMO. Particularly now that they've added WiFi (quite important for certain demographics, like the one they're after). 4GB of space is quite nice. Not enough to install games or do much on the Marketplace with, but plenty for game saves. They're sitting right between the Wii (at $200) and the PS3 (at $400).

EDIT

That's the PS3 Move bundle, I'm referring to, obviously.

 

[Scott_Arm]

$150 is probably a price that people would pay. $200 would have been pushing it. Kind of wish my slim had a matte finish. I'm not much of a glossy guy.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

$150 with pack-in game is much better than some preorder bundles were looking. It also shows where MS are are targeting this (not like we didn't know already!) by packing in Adventures, which is a bounce-around 'waggle' game. There's not much room for hardcore only buyers from the off.

EU pricing is £130/€150 for Kinect and game, £150/€200 for XB360. Written like that, in the UK the peripheral seems pretty crazily priced!

 

[Alkohallick]

$150 with pack-in game is much better than some preorder bundles were looking. It also shows where MS are are targeting this (not like we didn't know already!) by packing in Adventures, which is a bounce-around 'waggle' game. There's not much room for hardcore only buyers from the off.

EU pricing is £130/€150 for Kinect and game, £150/€200 for XB360. Written like that, in the UK the peripheral seems pretty crazily priced!

I wonder just how many "casual" gamers w/o a gaming system are out there. I agree that 300 is a great price for the bundle to a gamer but im not sold on how the casual crowd will perceive the price. Guess we'll have to wait for the numbers.

 

[dragonelite]

Now drop the kinect as a stand alone to $99 or 99 euro and i will bite.
Just saw a little glimpse of forza 4 headtracking on inside racing sim youtube channel.

 

[Arwin]

I still think $150 is too high for existing 360 owners though

It is, but it will work well enough in the beginning, where Microsoft will be far more interested into getting new systems (Arcade Kinect bundle) out to new families rather than getting a Kinect out to existing 360 owners. The Wii market is perceived as much bigger than the market the 360 is currently targetting.

It's also still competitive enough with the PS3, for whom a bundle with a game, and an additional Move controller for two player gaming is close enough to this price. Their only problem perhaps is that you could get a PS Eye + 1 Move for 65 Euro, which I expect will result in a higher attach rate for existing owners to motion controls on PS3 than on 360. It's not going to sway people from 360 to PS3 very soon, though if this in the long run means that the PS3 will have an enormous lead in software support for the Move, that could become a risk particularly if the Move is embraced also by the more hardcore crowd.

Right now though Microsoft is clearly after the Wii market, and their pricing strategy right now is sound. But if they're too slow with making Kinect something that also benefits the more traditional game types, they may lose Europe to Sony very quickly. I am very curious how close to the Arcade bundle Sony will try to get, because right now they keep being the most expensive system. Even if the value for money is more than fine, price always matters.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Right now though Microsoft is clearly after the Wii market, and their pricing strategy right now is sound.

I can only see two ways that statement seems right. One is if the Wii demographic sees this as something new as an improvement over the cheaper Wii experience, causing Wii owners to 'upgrade' and non-Wii-owners to buy into Kinect. The other is as an overall value proposition offering something for everyone, with families split over owning a 360 for Dad or Wii for mum and kids seeing this as a perfect fit. I can't believe the true 'Wii crowd' is that much interested, and have only not bought a Wii because they are waiting for the price to drop, in which case a 360 for this price won't do well. That leaves the other sector, those hardocre gamers getting a 360 or owning a 360 who also buy Kinect for their SO's or their own interest in active gaming. The lack of hardcore gaming support probably hurts that a fair bit.

 

[NavNucST3]

I'm happy it comes with Adventures rather than Sports and while I do currently have it pre-ordered I am still unhappy with the price.

Insert my recurring complaint:

Spoiler

$299 (a launch price) is ridiculous five years after the consoles launch. I say this as a shareholder.

 

[eastmen]

$130 would have been ideal with kinect adventures included imo . I think though MS needs to make a big deal out of the hardcore games that will support this. Head tracking in cod /halo / forza would be a good step , something with fable 3 would be good too. They need to give a good solid reason for the hardcore to buy kinect. After all the more people buying the hardware , the more developmentsupport it will get and the more support it gets the moreo f the wii aduiance they can take over.

 

[phenix]

What about this kineckt adventures game, is it any good? I would bite it if it was bundeld with that dancing game instead.

 

[Grall]

$150 for Kinect is way over the top. I could get a proper HD video camera for that price instead of that piece of crap toy thingy.

MS still thinks they're Apple with their 360 peripherals; they've all been ridiculously overpriced.

 

[obonicus]

Kinect might still do decently at the $299 bundle price, but I think this dashes any hopes of it approaching the Wii's success. I imagine we'll be shifting targets in the coming months.

 

[eastmen]

What about this kineckt adventures game, is it any good? I would bite it if it was bundeld with that dancing game instead.

Its the one with the river rafting game

 

[eastmen]

$150 for Kinect is way over the top. I could get a proper HD video camera for that price instead of that piece of crap toy thingy.

MS still thinks they're Apple with their 360 peripherals; they've all been ridiculously overpriced.

Move bundle


$100 for game + movev controller + eye toy.

$50 for move controller


$150 for two players on move with a game vs

$150 for two players and a game on kinect.


Though I still think $130 would have been a better price.

http://www.pressstartgames.com/2010/07/motion-gaming-price-comparison.html

Of course there are side cases like what if you already have an eye toy. However the kinect prices seem to be in line . Still think $130 would have been best

 

[obonicus]

Move bundle


$100 for game + movev controller + eye toy.

$50 for move controller

Strange, where did you see Grall talk about Move?

 

[Shifty Geezer]

A comparison for UK prices, it's £50 for the Move bundle, £35 for the second wand, making £85 for two player Move on PS3, versus £130 for 2 player on Kinect. And if you already have PSEye, the entry-level for Move is £35 if games you already ahve get retrofitted like LBP. Move has a definite cost advantage in attracting existing userbase adoption.

 

[Arwin]

I can't believe the true 'Wii crowd' is that much interested, and have only not bought a Wii because they are waiting for the price to drop, in which case a 360 for this price won't do well. That leaves the other sector, those hardocre gamers getting a 360 or owning a 360 who also buy Kinect for their SO's or their own interest in active gaming. The lack of hardcore gaming support probably hurts that a fair bit.

You mention it before this, but you don't reason why you think the current Wii crowd that does in fact already have a Wii wouldn't be interested. The Wii has been out there a long time, and for many devices in this price-range, from two years of ownership onwards the customer is susceptable to the 'next thing'. This is the area that Sony and Microsoft are targeting, although Microsoft more than Sony is hoping to get new gamers in as well (as they might with their full-body experience, they may be more successful in drawing in people who are into dancing or fitness than Nintendo was).

I'm however not saying that it will work. It's a big gamble, and if they won't be able to deliver on the software front, they won't make it. But for getting to the new crowds, they may just have enough even with just one good dance game, one good sports game, and one good fitness game to carve out their demographic. There is a lot of potential here. The EA Sports Active game for Kinect for instance really stands out from the other two.

However, it appears that even Wii gamers average close to 8 games per system now. There is some really great software on the Wii across a large range of titles. This will be harder to match by Microsoft in the casual space, where they are currently pretty weak, especially when it comes to first party titles. Sony seems in a better position to take over here, with strong first party titles like LBP, Singstar, Modnation Racers, Ratchet & Clank (soon to be joined by Heroes on the Move) and several other titles, with far more potential to have a lot of games fitted with Move controls really fast (as we're seeing already) and with still some really big hitters like GT5 coming out at an opportune moment for the system.

It's a complex game, and I foresee that all three systems will stay on the market for a considerable time - none of them will fail completely. But the percentages of market share remain very hard to predict, except that for the near future, Wii looks unassailable. But even that may turn out to be false.

And yes, entry level for Move is very low. You could compare it to the Arcade unit back in the early days of the 360 in that respect, where getting everything equal to the PS3 on the 360 cost you typically more, but you could slowly buy your way into it, or suffer missing some components.