Microsoft Xbox 360 Kinect Official Thread

I'm sure MS will do a $299 pack-in with their new Slim "Arcade" come holiday time.

That said, it's still too expensive for me. After picking up an Arcade for $85 @ Target, I would be hard pressed to pony up another $150 for the Kinect with no game (even Sony does a game pack-in with Move). If the games come I might consider it, but from what I saw at E3 I wasn't much impressed with what MS had to offer for the hardcore gamer with Kinect.

The price is far too high, but seems predictable based on other pricing indicators.

They're selling an Arcade version of the new slim at the current Arcade model's price ($199). If they sell a bundle with Kinect for $299 as rumored, then that means folks who buy a 360 are getting Kinect for $100. Which in turn means that folks buying Kinect a la carte would have to be spending more than $100 on the device in order for the bundle to make sense price-wise.

But still nothing official. I'd say, best case scenario we're looking at $129 with a game (or collection of minigames).

Basically, it looks like MS is potentially making the same mistake that Sony made with the PS3. They're assuming consumers will recognize the inherent value in the price (that they won't have to pay for extra controllers, etc). Someone wasn't paying attention when Sony nearly sank under the weight of an overpriced console that could "do everything."

nintendo sold the wii at $250 for how many years and that doesn't "do anything."

I'm not saying the kinect is a success at that price, but the value of a great demo (i.e. wii sports) goes a long way. the price isn't as big of a deal as the experience is.

All's I know is that Im not $150 for it. The controller has worked just fine for me for the past 30 years.

I think the price should be no higher than $99 but even at $149 its still #1 or #2 on amazon since it was announced. I have a bad feeling it will be $149 at launch because of the amazon litmus test. I still think microsoft is going to have good "bundles" because that is what they really want you (and the general consumer) to buy. Here are my updated predictions:

$149 kinect + game
$299 new arcade + kinect + game
$399 new elite + kinect + game
(and once these bundles start appearing the standalone consoles will disappear and kinect will be bundled in whether you want it or not)

Since we have an official thread now I figured it would be a good time to post a few videos I found "interesting".
-Kinect on Fallon last night: http://www.latenightwithjimmyfallon....rosoft-kinect/ (the demo was kinda janky and the audience still ate it up)
-Boothbabes wanted to play kinect:

(on their lunch break no less... don't remember this happening too many times as the boothbabes are generally antigaming and there for a paycheck)

MS just said the price still isn't confirmed but I don't get the "concern" about what other consumers reaction will be. So no one has seen Amazon that doesn't represent the world but why is Kinect before today been set by that retailer at 149.99 been battling in the 1,2,3 position for 7 days now between the 360 S and Live Gold. Yet the Sub-controller, bundle and Move sitting in the 49, 58 and 62 position with an official price and availbe for pre-orders for the same amount of days now?

The worst of the economy has been behind us yet that is a poor indicator to claim when you see above. You all bring so much concern about Kinects price yet don't point out the "confusion" Move brings not only in it's price structure but what games require what combination of set up.

Gamestop has pointed out a large amount of pre-orders on their site and store for Kinect after showing it at E3.

Why do some of you seem to presume you know what consumers will buy at whatever price with the cost of consoles, game and single game only peripherals that have been sold(even during the tough times in our economy) like Rockband. I am not speaking to any individuals decision to choose what they buy but trying to assume what other consumer outside this forum, your co-workers and neighbors.

With that said I pre-ordered yesterday and hope the price is less than that but my wife and kids have spoken, they no longer want me to purchase the Wii and we are all active off the couch anyway :-)

I'm gonna have to wait for next spring and hopefully a post-xmas price drop. I gotta get the Squier Strat for rockband and that makes Kinect a very iffy proposition...

Why is everyone saying the price is too high? You dont have to buy anything else for other people to play. How much is it going to set you back if you want 3 or 4 people playing Move on PS3? Hell, Even 2 players playing at the same time on that is going to bring you to the Kinect price, even higher if you both use actual Nav controllers instead of the DS3. Your looking at about 200 bucks if thats the case.

Its all about the price they can "advertise". Assuming $149 is the price there is a big perceptual difference between $99 and $149.

You are correct in that the move is ultimately more expensive than kinect but for advertising purposes it is not.

True, they only need to sit very still. Seriously, yours is the best argument I've seen for the $150 price point.

If Kinect is priced at $149 and includes a game - and probably a collection of minigames, it is going to sell extremely well.

There's a lot of debate over the price and how "limited" it is, yet the vast majority of people that have played it have been saying very, very positive things about it.

My wife saw the video of Dance Central and that alone was enough to sell her.

Huh? I read a lot of previews about Kinect and its games and they were maybe 80% negative. The one positive I read was from Gizmodo, and the Ubisoft fitness game got a lot of good press.

I mean, I guess it's not a big deal, but I'm not seeing this "vast majority" here.


Move is too expensive too.

Meh. It's too high at $150. But, then again, I'm trying to figure out why I would want it in the first place.

Shiny new toy syndrome has worn off for this device.

I'm not sure if the price is too high. The Move controller is $50 + Eye at $40 + the little nunchuck controller thing at $30 = $120.00. Plus, you'd have to buy a Move controller for each player, right? That's only a $30 difference...

We must be reading or listening to different sites, but from the articles I have seen and the podcast I have heard most people seem positive about Kinect as a whole. Not every one loves the launch lineup, but the general impression seems to be fairly positive.

My reading was the complete opposite..... virtually everybody that actually played it was positive about it. Any chance you would include some links to some of the negative reviews? Id be interested in reading them.

Some positive ones:
http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/17/k...ofts-new-full/
http://www.giantbomb.com/e3-2010-kinect-event/17-2801/
http://www.ubergizmo.com/15/archives...-hands-on.html
http://www.examiner.com/x-31345-Vide...inect-hands-on
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/xb...ands-on?page=1

I could go on but these were the first few google found....

The obvious difference is that the Wii is a full-blown console, and Kinect is a peripheral. But, yes, it will matter enormously how well MS manages to communicate the "experience" part of the package.

The Kinect mini games don't have any of the charm of Wii Sports. There's no equivalent to the bowling minigame in any of the first-party Kinect titles. The two titles that will make or break the launch are third-party titles: Harmonix's Dance Central and Ubisoft's Your Shape for Kinect. And it's highly unlikely either of those will be packed in for free with the peripheral. That means that if Dance Central and Your Shape are the big sells for the peripheral (to the casual audience), they're looking at something closer to $200. But just like PS3's Move, the advertised price of $150 (or whatever it ends up being) will be the number that sticks in people's brains.

If it will work while I'm laying on the couch (jury is still out on that), I am probably in at $150.

I am interested in controlling Netflix that way (which is probably 75% of my XBOX usage), and my kid and wife are interested in several of the games shown, including the dancing, Adventures and that one with the pet tiger.

I suspect it will come with some Wii-Sports like title as well, with that ball smacking game and some other "demo" games.

While $150 is a bit higher than I was hoping, it's not out of my price range, and while I have a Wii and PS3 as well, it appeals to me more than Move (which would be more expensive assuming I want enough equipment for 2-3 players, as well as add another big pile of controllers)

Kinect is also over four months away. The only games we've seen are the ones slated to launch with the hardware. I suspect we'll see more and more over the coming months and it will begin to be integrated in to more hardcore games.

It also means more time to tweak what was already shown.

The only hard core game that has been announced is Forza so far. Hopefully they will have more integration with other games soon or else I'll just hold off for awhile.

If it's only 4-mos away you'd think MS would have shown hardcore games if they had them, wouldn't they? How many people want to stand up (or even sit down) and play racing games by waving their hands in the air the whole time? Seems a bit counter-intuitive doesn't it? Clearly MS is more interested in making Kinect a family experience type device.

Also, someone's math is off. You don't get a new Slim Arcade for $100 if the package is $299- it's $150. (You still have to pay the whole $299 for the package if you want it anyways)

If you check the threads on such hardcore gaming sites like NeoGaf, people have vehemently expressed their disinterest in the Kinect, and that's only MS' fault.

If Forza just going to be a patch to get it to work with Kinect?

I mentioned in another thread, but I think it would be cool if you could use the MS Wheel as is, and Kinect could be used to manually shift. If not, I agree that using Kinect for racing would suck.

Also, it's no surprise hardcore gamers are against Kinect. It's the most hard-to-please audience out there.

DaveFi is right - Kinect is clearly a way to get grandma and whoever to play 360, not a way to get hardcore gamers dancing in front of the camera. That's where the emphasis was.

Overall it seems like MS is just happy to focus on getting grandma to play the system because that's where the money is. If Kinect is a hit, I don't know just how many "hardcore" games they will be pumping out. It's a pretty big change from how MS has done their console business to date.


Yes, that is the only reason why gamers would not like Kinect.

If so, why are they more positive about Sony's device? It's because of the games.

But for hard core gamers, what do they even want in order to be interested in it. There are complaints that it will ruin "real" games if integrated, yet complaints about the launch games being too casual.

It's a no-win situation trying to sell it to a crowd of gamers that will never be interested anyway. Don't buy it if you're not interested. The world will continue to turn.

There will still be 100's of hard core games on the 360 to play. Why can't grandma get some action too?

Microsoft recently stated--in the wake of the E3 response--that it doesn't intend to release any of its "hardcore" franchises on Kinect (I guess they forgot that they showed a Forza demo during their press event).

When asked whether MS intended to incorporate Kinect-based gesture controls into any of its more traditional "core" franchises, their response was the following:
You can read more here:
http://kotaku.com/5567696/

Doesn't mean "never." It just means that it's not a priority.

Bundles are almost never just throw the components in the box and add them up..... they almost always give a discount. The $199 arcade has been confirmed by microsoft and when you add $150 to that you get a total of $349 (before the bundle discount). Its pretty logical to assume there will be a $50 price break when buying the whole system so that is where the $299 price comes from.

http://kotaku.com/5567850/microsoft-...w-199-xbox-360

Also neogaf is not like your normal gamer website..... by and large they hate any and all motion controls so its not surprising they hate kinect (they similarly hated the wii and look how that turned out). It has its uses because many things leak out there first but not something I would base tech impressions on.

You might want to doublecheck your prices, there....