Microsoft Defends Kinect's Pricing Honor

Speaking with British gaming site, TechRadar, a Microsoft executive stood up for Kinect's $149.99 price tag, comparing it to Sony and Nintendo's offerings.

The site chatted with Microsoft group marketing manager Brett Siddons at some kind of Amazon event. Here are the juicy quotes:

"The price thing itself depends on how you look at it," said Siddons "It's £129.99 RRP [$149.99 in the US] but it comes with a game within that price – so Adventures  will be packed in with the camera.

"If you buy it with the console which normally costs £149.99, [the package price is] £249.99 [$300] with the Kinect and the games – another 100 pound on top.

"The camera tracks six people – with two active gamers – you don't have to buy anything else."

"I'll let you do the math but when you say Nintendo Wii or PlayStation Move you buy this and this, even for a two player games.

"What do you need and what do actually have to spend for a two player game for this device versus that device. You actually find that [Kinect] is very competitively priced."

Here's the math in US pricing going from nothing to a two-player motion gaming experience:

Xbox 360: $300

• $299.99 for a 4GB console, Kinect sensor, black controller, and Kinect Adventures

Wii: $270

• $199.99 for a console, remote, nunchuk, Wii MotionPlus, Wii Sports, and Wii Sports Resort.
• $49.99 Wii remote MotionPlus bundle
• $19.99 nunchuk

PlayStation 3: $510

• $399.99 for a console, PlayStation Eye camera, Move remote, black controller, and Sports Champions.
• $49.99 second Move remote
• $59.98 two navigation controllers

Hmmmm, looks like Wii still wins by a decent margin. Even if you subtract the two navigation controllers from PS3's price (since you can use a standard DualShock in its place) that would eliminate $60, but you'd have to throw $50 back on for a second DualShock controller. This brings the two-player Move experience down to $500.