Rumorama: Kinect Pre-ordering For $150
What is it about corporate websites that make them hotbeds for leaks on releases and pricing info? It wasn't long ago that Ubisoft's own customer service site was supporting a version of Splinter Cell: Conviction that apparently didn't exist, and now the E3 version of that same leak looks to be haunting Microsoft. Barely a week after announcing the Kinect motion controller and its games, multiple retail sites started listing the controller plugin as costing $149.99. So that's okay--retail will always be making guesses when they need to fill in that 'Price' field in the spreadsheet. But it's another thing entirely when one of those retail site is the Microsoft Store.
Microsoft haven't made an official statement on the price point, though once the leak got out with pictures on Joystiq and tons of other sites, they did edit the product page to include a disclaimer:
Official pricing has not been announced. $149.99 is an estimate only and subject to change.So that's good. But why would Microsoft's official website be advertising a price that's not official?
The easy answer is that $150 is the right price point, and Microsoft PR is doing damage control so they'll have something to announce in their next press conference. The other possibility is that they're allowing us to believe one price for a few months to get used to it... then they'll get a bunch of excited gamers in a room and announce that they're charging much less. This would be a pretty keen move if they could pull it off, but it would mean the motion gaming idea is even more of a risk for their coiffers. According to a "highly-positioned" source talking to Develop, the Kinect hardware costs $150 to make. Given that the losses on new consoles can reach well over a hundred dollars just to drive the technology into more homes, it's not hard to imagine they'll put the price a lot closer to Sony's Move by the time they both come out.
So, even though a price exists on a website, speculation still abounds! What say you, dear gamers? Is $149.99 a fair price for the multiple-body tracking tech - or will it have to go a lot lower before Kinect gets it shiny black foot in your door?
faePuck
Posted to Video Games on 23 June 2010
· Comments (3)
Other stuff like this: kinect, pricing, retail, rumorama, xbox 360
99.99 would be fair, because that's what Wii Fit goes for, but there is also a game there...so sucks to be a Kinect lover
ok I remember Microsoft saying that this was going to cost around 80 bucks, and I thought, Well I can afford that. for 150 it will have to come with at least one badass game for me to justify buying it at that price. otherwise I'll wait for the price to crash like the HD player did before I bought that...
I agree with you benwa. It it was half price I will be considering buying it but 150 bucks it's just too much. Specially since the the PS Store is having a great game almost every week for less than 15 bucks.