Kinect for Xbox 360, Microsoft's new motion control gaming device, will cost $150 when it goes on sale Nov. 4, the company said today.
Kinect, unveiled by Microsoft at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in June, lets users play video games and select movies and music through their Xbox 360 with nothing more complicated than the wave of a hand. (Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC Universal.)
Kinect for Xbox 360 will include the Kinect Sensor and the video game "Kinect Adventures," Microsoft said. The Kinect Sensor will work with the 40 million Xbox 360s currently in households worldwide.
Microsoft said it will also offer an "all-in-one" Xbox 360 Kinect Console Bundle for $299. The bundle will include the new Xbox 360 4GB console, Kinect Sensor, and "Kinect Adventures." Additional games, including "Kinectimals," "Kinect Sports," and "Kinect JoyRide," will retail for $49 each.
Pre-orders for the Kinect are being taken starting today by major retailers, including Wal-mart, Target, BestBuy and Amazon.com.
The $150 price tag — which had been anticipated — is "appropriate," said Jesse Divnich, analyst with EEDAR. "Previous peripherals with mass-market appeal, such as band kits, have sold millions of units worldwide even while priced north of $150.
"With band kits, however, consumers were tethered to only enjoying games within the music genre and developers restricted on future iterations by the install base of non-upgradeable band kits."
"As a camera and motion sensor-based device, the Kinect does not have those same limitations," he said. "Developers will be able to optimize its software for years to come. Kinect should not be viewed as a software peripheral, as most peripherals are, but rather a hardware peripheral."