Microsoft Claim Kinect Is The Cheapest

Dan Lee 88 Comments

Judging from the majority of comments on yesterday’s Kinect price announcement, Microsoft seems to have struck a nerve, with most of our readers saying the cost – £130 – is simply too high.  Well now a couple of charts have been released showing Microsoft’s justification for the $150 price tag showing the costs against the PlayStation Move and the Wii for those that own a console already, and for those that don’t:

Interesting charts, and the first thing that springs to mind is that – if this is a true like for like comparison – is Microsoft admitting Kinect is a two player device only?

It is also slightly skewed in Microsoft’s favour.  The Wii Balance Board is by no means essential for the Wii motion experience – and we already know that the Move’s Navigation controller can be substituted for a DualShock 3.  Add in the fact people might already own the PlayStation Eye and Kinect hasn’t quite got the competition licked.

Is Kinect’s pricing the worst thing ever?  Probably not – but it’s not as rosy as Microsoft like to think.

Source: Kotaku

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88 Comments

  1. “is Microsoft admitting Kinect is a two player device only?”

    Looks like it. Nail. Coffin.

    • Wow, MS must be scared to pull a stunt like that.

      I give NeoGaf 46 seconds to come up with a corrected version.

      For starters….

      They clearly state multiplayer – but leave out the ‘online’ word. Convenient no?

      They also ignore the fact you don’t need the sub controllers if you’re happy to use Dualshocks, or indeed if the game doesn’t need them (their example, Sports Champion being one such title I believe).

      Oh yes, and Kinect games are $49 USD whilst Move games are $29 USD. Forget that one did you MS?

      • Apparently it didn’t take long, found this in the comments of the original Kotaku article.

        http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/comment/9/2010/07/eb9317a5a16d8de779f0f836ae225909/original.jpg

      • That was fast work, and those two are probably more accurate!

        The point is Move is modular – I’d be surprised if any 2-player Move game requires the navigational controller as that is more for single player experiences like FPS games. Comparing them to Kinect’s limited party games you could argue no navigation controllers are required to get the Kinect style ‘casual’ experiences.

        Move will (initially) cost me £30ish for the Move controller as I already have a PS3, an Eye and a DS3 – Kinect will cost every user a MINIMUM for £130 – and that is the difference.

        Also if you have friends round it’s possible for them to bring their own controller, there are lot’s of options with Move for lot’s of genres. With Kinect there is one option – pay £130 or more – for one genre – party-fitness-minigame-shovelware (a new genre I made up especially for Kinect!).

      • How exactly are these replies to the 1st post? Answer – they’re not. The only reason you put them as replies is so people would read them first. This really shouldn’t be allowed, sorry to be such a pedant but that really winds me up.

      • To be fair to JesseDeya, judging by the times of the posts the comments would have come up directly below Nofi’s anyway, so I fail to see your point.

      • Awe, want a cookie?

      • Kronic, in order for his comment to be indented under nofi’s like it is, and not directly under it, he needed to hit the reply button after nofi had posted his comment. Make sure you know what you’re talking about before making a comment.

    • what’s one more nail to go along with the dozens that are already hammered in?

      • more nails than wood at the moment.lol

    • *plays funeral music*

  2. Obviously skewed in MS’s favour and i’m sure sony could release some form of stats showing the Move to be the cheapest.

    • Yeah, this article should be entitled ‘Microsoft employs the logical fallacy of equivocation’.

    • I’m pretty sure Sony could just say something like PS2 for $50, and Eyetoy for $20 = $70 total, which beats the crap out of the Xbox360 (except of course it doesn’t have speech recognition).

      Still, that would be $70 versus $300.

      Also, a balance board as a comparison? Really? -_-!? It’s insulting that they would state that.

    • btw spoofer stop killing me in killzone it hurts my feelings!
      lol

    • Microsoft have made their own coffin, made their own nails, so I think Sony will sit back and let Microsoft dig their own grave!

  3. Hardcore gamers will buy that stuff for one player only, I think.
    Which makes de ps3 motion stuff a lot cheaper.
    But ofcourse, the Kinect cán be used with multiple players aswell. (Or just two)

    • But as a party game (4 players), Kinect ís a lot cheaper compared to ps3. But perhaps, as said above, it’s two players only.

      • Yeah if it’s two players at a time anyway you could just pass the move controllers around. That’s what that one game Start the Party looks like.

      • Yeah, sorry to compare with the wii but I’m sure most games like bowling and golf, you’re able to just use one control and pass it around, I can’t see why move games won’t be able to do this

  4. Microsoft also neglected to include a stand alone blu ray player and at least 116gb of hard drive on their price list. Skewed springs to mind, but that’s marketing for ya!

  5. Simply ridiculous, in no way like for like! The idea that you ‘need’ a wii fit board is crazy and including two move controller, two sub controllers AND the eye is a bit silly too.
    Of course they have to do something to justify the price and a real like for like that shows how much more expensive kinect really is would not be very sensible marketing :)

    • And xbl subscription.

    • Yeah, now that you mention it. It’s funny that they include only one Wii controller-“set”, and include two ps3 controller-‘sets’.. just to pump up the ps3 price.

      • I think its because they are implying you get one Wii ‘cotnroller set’ included with the console. Though you never used to get a nunchuck with the Wii, do you now?

      • There is a nunchuck with the Wii console.

      • My bad.

      • lol, I did not notice that at first :) Good job M$ marketing team.

  6. Why is the Kinect logo so squished? Are these definitely from Microsoft?

    • You got a point there. Microsoft would make sure their logo is showed clearly. But the rest of the ‘layout’ seems pretty much like Microsoft.

  7. i think the ride board for the tony hawks game takes the prize for worst pricing ever, only usable for one game and doesn’t even work properly?

    • It’s the balance board, right? For those fitness/yoga/tai-chi/karate/vicious martial art games, I think.

  8. PS2 – $120
    Eyetoy camera – $30
    (full body capture, multiplayer)
    total cost for a new buyer – $150

    • Full body capture?

      What with? It barely captured the wiggling your fingers to select a menu

      • Well it may not “capture” but the option’s available. If I were to choose between Kinect and Move, I’d go with Move, simply because I like the look of the games better. You get what you pay for oftentimes (not all the time, as I’ve found). If I had a choice between Kinect and Eyetoy, I would pick jogging or cycling tbh as most of the Kinect games seem to just be throwing your torso around for the sake of exercise. Which I can get elsewhere.
        .
        Woah I was planning a five word reply and it turned into a mess of random thoughts.

  9. Wrong… Move is even more expensive… you can play sitting on your sofa… with Kinect… well, you better don’t pay for a sofa -_-

    • Yes but you need $300,000 to afford a house with a lounge room big enough to accommodate Kinect.

  10. The best announcement Microsoft could make regarding kinect is “Now does sitting down”.

    • On the next Kevin Butler video when it loops through the it only does everything stuff they should have that one zip by quickly :)

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