Move vs Kinect: It All Adds Up

With the current topic of various motion controllers and their pricing gaining a lot of attention, just how much will everything cost and is Microsoft’s rumoured Kinect pricing too large?

It’s a hard question to answer considering the price of Kinect has still to be announced by Microsoft, but, going by the current favourite of $150, I’ve attempted to look at the overall cost for those wanting to become an owner of all the technology needed.

The following information is based on average prices on the internet. Cheaper versions may well exist if you shop around but this is based on people that would normally only use the larger retailers to buy from. Please note that the Kinect pricing is completely based on estimations at this time.

Single Player:

First off, let’s look at the single player. Perhaps living the batchelor/batchelorette life or perhaps the only person in a household interested in gaming. How much will it set him/her back?

Two Players:

Perhaps a young couple, perhaps two siblings, perhaps a single player and a friend, how much does it cost in this instance?

The Family:

Seeing as I doubt the Mafia will be sitting around waving their arms, the ‘Family’ of course refers to an average family of 4 or perhaps even a shared house where each resident wants to get involved. How will the prices be affected by multiple gamers?

So the PlayStation 3 actually costs more across 2 of these examples and only beats the Xbox 360 on price by a penny on the other, although it’s only fair to point out that the PS3 does include a Blu-Ray player as well. There are still arguments over which motion tech is the most accurate, but, either way, Microsoft appear to have the advantage.

This is complete speculation until the Kinect price is 100% officially confirmed by Microsoft. My estimations are logical but by no means should be taken as read. Kinect’s actual pricing could render all of the above incorrect!

I am also aware that Sony revealed a PS3 + PSEye + Move Controller bundle for $399.99, so, converted and allowing for a little extra, this is likely to be around £350. Kinect bundles may also drop the price of the combined units, too. Due to this uncertainty I have purposely not included bundles.

UPDATE:

Okay, it seems that some of you are seeing this as some kind of ‘attack’ on Sony. It’s not. I no longer own a 360 and doubt I will any time soon, unless I come into some money and can afford to pay for luxury items again. No, this is purely an attempt at providing some realistic numbers to soon-to-be-realeased technology. Things seem to have become a little confusing. So, in an effort to maintain my point and cut some confusion, let’s re-evaluate using a basic set up. Let’s work on the basis that the PlayStation Move can not handle 4 Move controllers and 4 Sub controllers by limiting it to 4 Move Controllers and 2 Sub controllers. Let’s also get rid of the additional official controllers as keep it just about motion, shall we?

Things have become a little more even. You happy? As long as Move will never be able to handle 4 of each type of controller then here’s a rough guide to the price differences. Let’s get one thing straight, I’m actually not a fan of motion controllers and have only recently been even remotely interested in PS Move.