Kinect Price and Bundle Officially Announced

By Ryan Fleming July 20, 2010

Image used with permission by copyright holder

In what may be one of the worst kept secrets in the video game industry, Microsoft has finally officially announced that the hands-free Kinect controller will debut for $149.99. The bundle, due out on November 4, will include the controller and the game Kinect Adventures, which features a series of multiplayer mini-games.

The price is likely not going to make retailers happy, many of which are claiming low pre-orders due in no small part to the suspected cost (that turned out to be exactly right), which is only slightly less than the cost of buying a Wii. Despite that, it seemed almost inevitable that the price would remain at the suspected $149 list, as some reports have the Kinect costing $149 per unit, meaning that Microsoft is already not expecting a profit from the hardware, more likely banking on the licensing until the manufacturing costs drop.

Also announced is an upcoming bundle of the Kinect with an Arcade-like version of the new Xbox 360, that will include the new style of Xbox 360- but with a 4GB hard drive- and the Kinect for $299. With the exception of the hard drive, the bundled Xbox 360 will be identical to the 250GB model now in stores. The new 4GB Xbox 360 will be available separately on August 3 for $199, and as a bundle for the Kinect’s November launch.

As of right now, the Kinect games will have a suggested retail price of $49.99, but third-party publishers will be free to price the games as they see fit. So far the Kinect has 15 confirmed launch titles and more on the way.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Ryan Fleming is the Gaming and Cinema Editor for Digital Trends. He joined the DT staff in 2009 after spending time covering…

Gaming

The most common Xbox Series X problems and how to fix them

Xbox Series X

Like any other consoles, the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S aren't without issues. Even after several years on the market giving Microsoft time to push out updates and fixes, there are still some issues that can crop up.

In this guide, we're going to cover the most common Xbox Series X problems, as well as how to fix them, including:

Gaming

Age of Mythology: Retold will launch on PC and Xbox at the same time

Key art for Age of Mythology: Retold.

Microsoft and World's Edge gave us our first glimpse of its upcoming remaster of real-time strategy game Age of Mythology: Retold during Friday's New Year, New Age livestream. They also confirmed that it will launch on PC and Xbox later this year.

Age of Mythology: Retold's segment of the livestream began with Art Director Melinda Rose introducing the gameand teasing that it will contain all-new 3D character models, animation, textures, and UI. Rose also highlighted the details of the character models for units like Medusa, Pegasus, and Cerberus. Each time players upgrade a unit, their design will change slightly. We then got a look at its key art, as well as confirmation that Age of Mythology: Retold will be released later this year. It will launch on both PC and Xbox at the same time and is the first World's Edge game to do so.

Gaming

Xbox and Embracer’s mass layoff explanations aren’t good enough

Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer during Updates on the Xbox Business | Official Xbox Podcast.

The wave of layoffs that has happened over the past year in the video game industry is well-documented. Some of the biggest culprits are Embracer Group, which has laid off nearly 1,400 workers across several of its studios since the start of a restructuring program last July, and Microsoft, which laid off 1,900 developers across Xbox, Bethesda, and Activision Blizzard in January. After relative silence around these layoffs, leadership at both companies finally tried to offer more transparently into what happened.

Neither of their statements are good enough.