Microsoft Confirm Kinect Price

TSA Staff 52 Comments

Gamestop might have already spoiled the fun by leaking Kinect’s price, but the amount that we’re really going to like has been revealed – it’s $150.

Officially put on the Microsoft Store overnight, Kinect’s $150 price point puts it way above the cost of a single $50 Move controller (and $30 subcontroller) but, of course, Kinect can support more than one player for that price.

“Kinect brings games and entertainment to life in extraordinary new ways,” says the product page, re-iterating the fact that there is “no controller required”.

Sceptics, especially hardcore gamers, remain unconvinced that Kinect is the way forward for the Xbox 360 and despite Microsoft’s family friendly approach I’d imagine the price point puts it outside a casual impulse buy.

Microsoft originally said that the price for Kinect would be revealed at Gamescom, so expect UK pricing then.

Image: Getty Images.

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52 Comments

  1. Move may be only one controller for the price, but 70 X 2 is still 140, and there has been speculation that Kinect doesn’t actually support 4 players – they only seem to show two people playing at a time…

    • Well, it’s $80 x 2 ($50 + $30) but I know what you mean.

      • Oh yeah, I was thinking in English with American symbols again… ;P

      • why would you need 2subcontrollers?

      • multiplayer?

      • but have you seen a game where you use 2subkontrollers on multiplayer?They always have move kontrollers when they play multiplayer.

      • Exactly. It’s not like it’s replacing the DualShock.

    • Eh, to the average consumer it doesn’t matter.

      They see it as Move for $50 versus $150 for Kinect. It’s similar to the PS3 for x amount of dollars versus the Xbox360 arcade for much cheaper. They don’t mention anything about having to buy extra wi-fi, bigger hard-drives etc., so it seems to be a bargain versus the PS3. The Wii has similar success with its controller and nunchuck.

      I think Sony in light of this is in a MUCH better position than Microsoft to capitalize on the price, but knowing Microsoft they’ll be marketing like mad and giving it out to everyone. >.<

    • Actually people need to stop thinking of the Navigation Controller as a key component of Move – it’s just a nicer to hold DualShock and for a lot of the game – the games that compete directly with Kinect’s casual family titles (Start the Party, The Shoot, TV Superstar etc) you only need the Move Controller.

      So for 4 player Move casual games it would cost $200, slightly more than Kinect, and that assumes you already have the Eye and don’t want to ‘take turns’ which most of these games are aimed at anyway (i.e you probably wouldn’t need more than 2 in practice).

      The fact is Move is modular – for someone with an Eye it would cost $50 to give it a go, but Kinect is all-in-one upfront purchase. Sure it’s a good deal if there are 4 people in your house that love party games and don’t like taking turns (and already own an Xbox), but it would cost you $150 even if there was only one of you interested in trying it.

      The thing that gives Sony the edge IMO is it appeals to existing owners and a wider user base – I’m not interested in Kinect’s daft party games, but I am interested to try using Move in SOCOM or Killzone 3 (by all accounts it’s very responsive and accurate, perfect for an FPS). The PS3 also has non-gaming appeal as a great Blu-ray player and media hub, this would help non-gamers jusitfy the purchase (and many non-gamers probably already own one) and adding Move would give them access to casual party games, likewise PS3 has a big casual crowd already with games like Singstar that would like Move.

      But what about Xbox360? That built it’s user base on the hardcore FPS crowd, only recently have they decided to backtrack and become a something for everyone machine (a strategy they openly criticised Sony for adopting when the PS3 launched). Past attempts like Viva Pinata, SceneIt, Lips etc have hardly set the world alight either. So already they have got a hard sell to convince existing users to get Kinect (especially after this years E3 conference!), so they’re aiming at the Wii crowd – would a Wii casual user really going to pay out for a 360 and Kinect just for a new selection of casual games? I doubt it, they’re not even getting a Blu-ray player or something else to sweeten the deal…

      I’ll be interested to see how much the pricing for Europe and the UK is, will they take the Sony approach and make it €150 and £130, or will they be more agressive in pricing given Europes more casual tendencies…

      • This is exactly what I’ve been trying to say. It annoys me when people have been saying, “oh you will need to get 4x $50 Move controllers so therefore it is more expensive than Kinnect”. That’s just not right.

        You don’t need four controllers. Most of the “party games” (which probably won’t even interest most of the people on here) work with just one controller each for 2 players. I haven’t even seen a game demonstrated with four people playing at the same time.

        Plus you need to factor in whether you will even use it or whether it will just get dusty like the Wii you have tucked in the corner. Move looks so much more appealing to hardcore gamers because it’s about more than just casual party games. Kinnect just isn’t a viable controller for most games we enjoy playing. It’s too laggy and the fact it has no buttons means that it will not work as a controller for FPSs/RPGs/racing games which is mostly what gamers actually play.

      • The other thing to remember is that for 4 people to play Natal simultaneously you will need a living room the size of an industrial warehouse.

        I wounder how many law suites there will be once everyone is waving their limbs around?

        I must check my contents insurance to see if it covers Wii, Natal or Move damage.

    • i wouldnt buy 2 logitech g27’s for multiplayer racing so why would i buy 2 playstation move sets for multiplayer?

    • plus you can play 4 player PARTY games with one controller

  2. Kinect also appeared on Jimmy Fallon show last night in the US,showcasing lag yet again.

    http://kotaku.com/5569409/watch-kinect-lag-it-up-on-jimmy-fallon

    • Oh and MS were giving away more 360 slims on Jimmy Fallon,trying to bribe people yet again I see.

      • and did you notice that (what’s his face) is wearing a red jumper (just like the red jump suite) and has less lagg and when Jimmy Fallon plays he takes his black jacket off

    • Yeah i seen that, it looks pretty bad

    • Whoa, that’s some laggy action there. I also noticed that the girl’s avatar just before the race starts is twitching like a mad ‘un.
      The queued up applause is irritating and makes me feel uneasy about the whole presentation.

      I hold my hand up and say that I’m a PS3 owner and don’t have an xbox but even if I had one, I’d be quite worried about the lag and twitching which make the product look like a ‘Mark 1’ product and I that I should probably wait until ‘Mark 2’ is released.

      • Her name’s Miranda Cosgrove. No I’m not a teenage girl.

  3. I remember after flogging my 360 buying a brand new one with gears 2. I got it home, set it up and turned the 360 on and got an instant RROD. After this, I will never ever buy a 360 or anything 360 related again. I do want to play GEars 3 when it comes out, my little bro [theres 3 of us] has an old dusty 360 which will do the rounds when gears 3 comes out.

    The piracy is also another reason i will stay away, i dont know any 360 owners who dont dabble in the copies market too….

    I am gonna have a blast with Move but only see hardcore 360 fans buying into Kinect….

    • Really? I don’t know anyone who does pirate on the 360.

      • almost all my friends pirate on their xbox360.

      • I know plenty of people who pirate, but most got stung in that big clean-up MS did at the end of last year.

        They got what they deserve.

      • Do you only know 3 people? Loads of folks I know pirate, certainly plenty of the guys we talk to in work. The MW2 banwave just meant that most went out and purchased a second console, one for piracy and the other for online play.

  4. Well if its not ideal but you can use a Sixaxis or DS3 instead of the sub controller so really its the price of 3 Moves.

    Even then I can still definately see it selling. MS will market the hell out of this one.

    I even had a friend the other day who was like forget Sony Move what about Kinect instead and went on about how you can run and kick and ball for real and do all this amazing stuff on the camera. He doesnt follow games like I do and when I told him it was all smoke and mirrors after watching E3 he wouldnt believe it. I asked him howd you expect to walk in a game and he just stood there on the spot walking.

    Thats seriously how deluded people are and MS will lap this up.

    • “It can pick up many players, track users movements with great accuracy and speed, and also give all gamers, casual and hardcore, a great experience!” Said by some celebrity, like, Bono. People will run out in masses to get it.

      Of course, real gamers (us) would of seen this crap device for what it really is and stay clear. MS know this, hence no hardcore Kenct games at E3. They can price this at $150, knowing that the general public will lap it up once they see some house hold names to promote it.

      Kenect will fly off the shelfs, i would put money on it

    • LOL!! That’s a funny story man. “he stood there on the spot walking”? priceless!

  5. TBH Move’s price is a bit more “impulse” (for want of a better word) friendly. It’s more likely they I’d get move over Kinect. Move to me is cheap as chips in comparison.

  6. $150? That’s the price of the console. Bargain! :D

    • It may look like it now, but wait till you get home with a RROD :P

  7. i already said this the other day, that it was going to be $199 aussie, which when you work around exchange rates and BULLSHIT would be about the $199 mark.

  8. “I think you’re going to really like the price”

    Fail.

    • It’s not like Move is going to be cheap either.

      • 2 x move, 2 x sub = 1 kinetic.
        Not many people i know have more then 2 dualshock at the moment.
        So id say it works out the same, with move being better ;P

      • You only really need 1 subcontroller

      • No, but my point was that this isn’t an exceptionally impressive price really, is it? As others have said, those that decide to go with move, will probably only end up with a couple of controllers anyway so won’t be out of pocket vs the pricing of the Kinect. The fact that Kinect can handle more “users” seems superfluous to MOST people’s needs.

        As someone else said, $150 is unlikely to be an impulse buy for most people.

      • Except you don’t need 2 x sub, because for most things one will do – and even then you can just use a dualshock 3. $(2xMove + 1xPSEye) < $(Kinect).

    • LOL!!! Yes! I thought the same.

  9. I’m intrigued by Kinect (god I hate that name), but it’s going to be a ‘wait and see’ for me.

    Move, on the other hand, is a pretty certain purchase for me. I don’t mind paying more for actual controllers, plus I still can’t see Kinect being used for controlling games like FPS and 3PS, my two favourite game types.

    Also, I play 4 player Wii at parties, 4 player PS3 and 360m games with mates, but only have two controllers and always will have. Most people have friends that also own controllers, so Move should never really require the purchase of a full set, unless it is all for the family of course…

  10. More players, more lag??

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