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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.
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