The tale of the tape in the upcoming motion controller showdown is complete: when it hits stores Nov. 4, Microsoft's Kinect hands-free sensor adapter will sell for $150 and come with the game Kinect Adventures.
Newcomers can also purchase a $300 Kinect Console Bundle with the Kinect sensor, the game and a new Xbox 360 system that comes without a hard drive but has 4 Gigabytes of internal memory. That new Xbox 360 system begins shipping separately (without the Kinect sensor or game) Aug. 3 for $200. "It does not have a hard drive but it has 4GB of internal memory and it is matte black vs. the glossy black console we showed at E3," said Microsoft Xbox 360 product manager David Dennis.
The various offerings mean, he says, that "this holiday when Kinect is available (consumers) will be able to buy either the ($149.99) bundle or if they are brand-new to the category they can get a bundle for ($299.99) and just to point out, too, remember about six months ago that we enabled the ability to use USB drives for storage, which was not unintentional."
Also announced: Kinect games such as Kinectimals, Kinect Sports, Kinect Joy Ride and MTV Games' and Harmonix's Dance Central will retail for $49.99.
Doing battle along with Microsoft against the Nintendo Wii and its motion remote is Sony's new PlayStation Move controller system, due Sept. 19, which sells for $100 with the main controller, the PlayStation Eye camera and the game Sports Champions (additional main controllers, $50, and the smaller navigation controller for $29.99, sold separately).
Analysts have said that Microsoft and Sony need to price their new products under $100 to spur sales this holiday season. Dennis says that Microsoft feels confident in its pricing and position. "What we heard from (analysts) was it all depends on what you put together with the game," he says. "If I juxtapose our offering with Sony's, ours is a very simple, clean, easy-to-understand message. … (Sony's) is just a very confusing story."
Analyst Michael Gartenberg with the Altimeter Group agrees to a point."You are basically talking about a $99 peripheral with a pack-in game that would cost you $50. They went with a title that is not only one of the better titles but one with good horizonal appeal," he says. "I think some people probably would have preferred a standalone Kinect (sensor adaptor) for $99 but that doesn't give you all that much, just some command and control for the Xbox. In order to get the real Kinect experience that is going to drive this means getting people playing the games."
Microsoft is following Nintendo's lead of packaging Wii Sports with the Wii upon its initial release in November 2006. "Nintendo was able to get people to get their hands on the controller and play the games. Microsoft has to do the same thing," Gartenberg says. "Now they got to evangelize the experience, the content, the services, the games and show people the holistic experience -- that this is the same box on which you are playing the Kinectimals game and Halo: Reach and that you are doing Netflix with it and that you can access the ESPN content."
EEDAR's Jesse Divnich "very positive" on Kinect and its ability to attract casual and mainstream consumers, noting that $150 is "an appropriate price."
He concurs with Gartenberg that Microsoft should stress Kinect's ability to interact with Netflix and DVDs. "The Kinect should not be viewed as a typical video game peripheral that is retired from one's active playlist after 90 days, but rather a consumer-enabling device that has the potential to revolutionize the way we interact with all forms of media on a daily basis."
Retailers such as Amazon.com, Best Buy and GameStop are taking pre-orders now; customers who opt-in get a token to download three exclusive game levels for Kinect Adventures at launch. For more information:
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/hardware/wheretobuy
