Microsoft has finally put the definitive rubber stamp on the price of its venture into arm waggling game control, with Kinect set to hit the shelves at a staggering £129.99.
The steep price tag for the motion sensing camera comes as a double ouchie to us in the UK, with the US price set at $150. We’re not banking mathematician superstars, but we’re fairly sure that isn’t the fairest currency conversion rate in the world.
Trying to put the expensive device into context, an analyst from EEDAR (Electronic Entertainment Design and Research), Jesse Divnich says; “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.”
So as well as being an arm flailing game controller, it could also be a limb floundering DVD remote.
It’s going to be interesting to see how Kinect will be taken up by the majority of Xbox 360 users, especially with the casual angle that Microsoft played up at E3. The release date is slowly creeping towards us, but so far there have been no concrete announcements of more hardcore games that involve Kinect in a major way.
Having said this, it was reported yesterday that ‘hardcore’ games for the device are apparently 18 months away. Only 18 months people! That’s definitely put our mind at ease…
I went into Gamestation yesterday and thought I’d ask the guy at the counter how many slim 360′s they’d sold since launch.
“Lots” he said with a commission smile
“How many have come back” I asked
“Just a few” he said
That’s since last week. I’m really interested in Kinect as an everyday interactive web-surfing, menu-navigating type device but NOT UNTIL 360′S STOP MELTING DAMNIT!!!!
Let me know when this happens, and I’ll happily buy a 360 with Kinect.
Its too expensive, its out too late. They really think it’ll convert the Wii generation to take it up?
The new console looks like a good idea but perhaps Kinetic should have been bundled in or something similar….
I think the thing here is, the motion controls ARE the Wii. Not part of it, not an added extra but they are the console. Because of this, the price stays cheap. Going for Move or Kinect means buying them as PART of the system and costs much more. I’m quite sure a large part of the Wiis sucsess was its price tag.
Like you said, I think it’s too little too late. If Sony and MS can find genius ways of utilising these new extras then maybe the ‘core’ (ugh) gamers will pick them up later. As it stands, I’m still not a fan of energetic gaming, even playing Ragdoll Kungfoo yesterday annoyed the hell out of me as I jerked the controller around like a person having a fit.