In the latest sign that Microsoft’s Kinect will clock in around the $150 mark, Walmart has begun advertising a Kinect bundle with a game and a gift card for $199.
Microsoft still hasn’t committed itself to a price for Kinect, the motion controller for the Xbox 360, but that rumored $150 figure just won’t go away. The latest pointed finger is an advertisement from Walmart offering a Kinect bundle for $199. For a couple of bills, you get the Kinect hardware, a Kinect-enabled game and a $30 gift card. The ad features Kinect Sports, but apparently the list of games available in the bundle is not yet complete.
Kinect pricing remains a touchy issue because while Microsoft refuses to carve any stone, observers have expressed concern that the oft-reported $149 price tag could hinder widespread adoption. Signal Hill analyst Todd Greenwald said in June that the projected high price point of Kinect is a “big risk,” while Activision COO Thomas Tippl noted that his company was “concerned about how the price drives a lot of the outcome of how big an install base there’s going to be.”
“We’ll have to see how much of an install base they’re going to develop,” he said. “A lot of that will depend on the price point they choose.”
It’s also interesting to note that Walmart has Kinect Sports, Kinect Adventures, Kinect Dance Central and Kinect Joyride also available for pre-order and all listed at $60 – the same price as Madden NFL 11 for the PS3, which also comes with a $20 gift card. Sure do hope Microsoft is still tweaking those numbers.
Source: Ars Technica
