We finally have a release date and price to marry. Kinect for Xbox 360, the advanced motion-tracking camera that aims to get games off the couch and into the game (so to speak), will release on November 4 for $149.99. That’s a bit steeper than most had anticipated, but watchagonnado? Now let’s talk bundles. When you buy Kinect standalone for $149.99, the action/adventure game Kinect Adventures! comes packaged inside. Speaking of Kinect titles, Microsoft says that all first-party Kinect-supported games will run $49.99 a pop (that’s ten bucks less than “standard” retail games). In doing this Microsoft hopes to make this pricing standard for Kinect games, but they will leave third-party Kinect games up to the discretion of the developers. Only Dance Central, the exercise disguised as a dancing game from MTV Games and Harmonix, has followed suit with a $49.99 price tag so far. Kinect will also be bundled with a brand new Xbox 360 console. This new SKU is similar to the new 250GB Xbox 360 announced at E3; it’s still “whisper quiet” and comes packed with a WiFi N-adapter. What it lacks is the large HDD and shiny aesthetics. The cheaper SKU will feature 4GB of internal flash memory and a black matte finish (as opposed to the 250GB Xbox’s glossy finish). The new console will come with an empty HDD bay, leaving the option open for Microsoft to ship to market a HDD for expandable storage. The new 4GB Xbox 360 will cost $199.99 and release on August 3. The Kinect + Kinect Adventures! w/ 4GB Xbox 360 bundle will go for $299 and release alongside the Kinect standalone sensor on November 4.
Microsoft’s Aaron Greenberg shared the reasoning behind the bundle pricing scheme: “We’re currently a full $100 less than the PS Move bundle which is $400, which is a single player experience. Obviously if you add a second player to that they get well over $500 pretty quickly.” He also says that by setting the Kinect w/ console bundle price at $299 (fifty bucks cheaper than buying everything separately), this will help draw in new potential gamers and expand the market. Look after the break for the full PR.
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