Kinect May Not Cost $150

Tuffcub 24 Comments

Microsoft have not decided on the final pricing of Kinect, despite their own website listing the controller for $149.99. A Tweet from Stephen Toulouse, Microsoft’s director of policy and enforcement for XBox LIVE said,

“All prices now *no matter what the retail source* are placeholders. We’ve not announced.”

Sorry Gastos, you are going to have to recompute your pricing analysis again.

Source: CVG

Tags:

Related stories from TSA

Microsoft Officially Discontinue The Kinect Adapter For Xbox One S And X
Microsoft Cease Production Of Kinect
No Kinect Adaptor To Be Included Or Offered Free With Xbox One X Purchases
Xbox One Kinect Sensor To Officially Be Available From October 7th

24 Comments

  1. yeh im gonna take a guess at microsoft announcing the price as $149.98 and thinking that it’s great.

    • they could give it away but it still doesn’t change the fact that it’s shit :)

    • yes, but its still not $149.99 now is it ;)

    • Move is now priced at £34.99 for the controller and £24.99 for the Sub at GAME and Amazon. Looks like the final UK Move price?

  2. Though I’m sure one of the MS guys said at E3 that they know the price for Kinext but they’re just waiting so the price gets more press when announced.

    • if it’s as high as everybody think they’ll probably wait till they can announce it when it will get as little press as possible.
      i would not be surprised to see the price being quietly announced during tgs, not at tgs mind, but during tgs so it gets drowned out by all the other news.

  3. Oooh, a Kinect story a comment box and cc_star – What could possibly go wrong?

    During the E3 stream of GameTrailersTV pre-show, they were talking pricing and they said as a peripheral they should be profit making but as a kind of new platform it could be sold at break-even/loss

    In the end they concluded they can always cut the price, but never put it up. So I’d expect it to be at the upper end of estimates and if it doesn’t shift well, they can always reduce it to a break even price.

    It’s all down to the software though, if there’s killer apps, people will buy it… So far Dance Central looks fun but the others look like mini-games which millions of people love but core gamers don’t.

    I suppose GamesCom will show us the next phase of games

    • If the games are good enough they can sell it at a lose and make the money on the games. The problem is the games announced so far don’t look capable of doing that. If they price Kinect too high then the games have no chance of doing that.

    • I’ve also read somewhere (sorry can’t remember where) that the cost of production at one point was about $150 USD anyway. That may well have changed, what with removing the dedicated chip from the camera and reducing the spec down from the reference design (ie: 30fps vs 60fps) but it goes to show it’s still a fairly pricey bit of kit.

  4. i believe Microsoft’s gaming division is under quite some pressure to make (more) profit they are probably torn between trying to sell it at a loss and make up with software or profiting from the getgo, but maybe not selling as many units.

    somehow Sony and Microsoft seem to have switched places regarding the consoles vs motion control. Sony offering a flexible system with a lower entry price, that lets you upgrade in time, and Microsoft selling one complete package.

    • They’ve swapped places with regards to hardcore game focus with efforts like KZ 2&3, Res 2&3?, securing exclusive betas for BFBC2 & MoH, exclusive content for MoH. There are loads of others but for the moment they escape me

      I think each company looked at the other, and thought “hmmm we want a slice of their pie”

    • Not to mention MS bringing in a new box that couldn’t pay more homage to the original PS3 if it tried:

      Quiet – single fan cooling,
      Gloss black,
      Chrome trims,
      Touch capacitance buttons,
      Built in Wifi.

      They really do seem to trying to swap, but I think Sony has the easier task of selling hardcore to their fans than MS do of selling casual to theirs.

  5. It depends how Microsoft react to the negative (at least from the news sources I read) public opinion about both their Kinect press conferences at E3.

    Unlike Sony who actually want to make a profit once in a while, Microsoft are cushioned by their infinite money fountain that is their software business and to some extent their Live subscription model too. Microsoft to me seem like a ‘win at any cost’ type of player, as illustrated by their $50M timed DLC exclusive deal for GTAIV. They don’t care how good their product is, they don’t care how successful it is from a direct profit perspective, they don’t care about it’s critical reception, they only care that they can trash-talk the competition in a pissing contest over sales and are able to proclaim the Xbox brand as the future of Home Entertainment.

    For that reason I wouldn’t be at all surprised if they come out with extremely aggressive (loss-making) pricing below $100…

    • Excellent point

      I think Kinect coverage has negative connotations amongst gaming sites (it’s generally being trashed by Sony favouring sites, and on Xbox sites they’re saying it’s ‘interesting’ which is code for disappointing – AFAIK)

      but and this is the big but: The mainstream coverage; newspapers, TV, magazines, generic tech sites seem to be far more in favour of it than the are Sony’s Move

      It seems to be being talked about as a game changer, whereas Sony’s device is being described as similar to, but a far more accurate version of the Wii.

      I think Microsoft are happy with this type of coverage and won’t care too much what gaming sites talk about as long as they can maintain positive coverage amongst the mainstream.

      Going a bit further I’d say the raison d’être of Kinect & Move is to expand their userbase amongst users who aren’t attracted by the core games that both systems already excel at.

      With that in mind is Kinect doing the right thing by focusing on mainstream appeal in mainstream press? whereas Sony’s Move is being sold to core gamers which is great news for us existing customers but how many extra PS3 units will it shift in comparison?

      • Very true. MS are brilliant at buying good press and they are very much in the market to buy right now.

        Even if Kinect wins the sales race against Move (going to be hard to measure btw, with the different sales models), I think what Sony is doing is buying and strengthening their already very loyal fan base. Sony haven’t pissed off their exisiting users by bringing in something that looks like a gimic, or is targeted at someone else (the non-gamer, the casual gamer, the small child or the grand parents). It’s fair to say that most PS3 users will look at Move with genuine interest and if it delivers will probably look to get one.

        On the other hand, Kinect is currently seen as a bit of a let down for Xbox users. Many are now trying to defend it and say it was always going to be aimed at the casual market and that’s a good thing, but I think the reality is that Xbox gamers are disappointed in Kinect. Sure MS might get millions of new users with Kinect, but can they hold onto them in long term, can they make them loyal Xbox gamers? I think the very fact they _are_ so casual means they won’t. Just like Wii sold millions upon millions of consoles that now sit gathering dust, I think Kinect is heading down the same path.

      • With regard to the TV, magazines ect. At work (HMV) there has been much more interest in Sony’s Move than Kinect. However we haven’t really advertised either peripherals in store so it may just be customers that keep up to date with gaming.

        But Move seems to have gathered a lot of attention, with some customers even think the £35-40 pricing to be cheaper than they thought and some being put off by the unconfirmed Ninect price.

        So I’m not sure what the change will be when both pricing are officially released and advertised but my impression is that Move has had more interest in the last few weeks.

  6. Microsoft can clearly operate at a loss so it would make sense for them to lower the price and attract a whole host of new users.

  7. Surely they put the tentative price up on the website to guage consumer reaction. There’s no way Microsoft would put a “placeholder” up with a price. Would not be at all surprised if this changed now thanks to all the flak the price has received.

    Although, i would be interested to hear the reaction from across the pond. Maybe $150 is reasonable to the americans?

  8. Someone at MS must have read Gasto’s post and realised they were underpriced. Arf!

  9. So, it could be more expensive? This could get interesting…

  10. I really wont be surprised if MS come out with Kinnect (anyone still prefer Natal? I do) at around £75-80.

    The press and general public are far more excited over Kinnect and its apparent Minority Report-esque trickery even though if they looked at games they’d see aside from Dance Central (the one promosing game-IMO) there isnt much you cant already see on Wii and what we do see is underwhelming.

    BUT, MS will make a success of Kinnect in the short term definately, expect a larger amount of first year sales to Move I reckon. But people will be burnt I think.

    But hey I aint no Micheal Patcher. Even though I clearly could be. Anyone could.

Comments are now closed for this post.