Kinect Priced, New Bundles, 4GB Slim Announced

[Hedon]

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Microsoft has announced several new product bundles that will be coming to market in the coming weeks and months. Even better, the company has finally offered an official price on both the stand-alone Kinect sensor and a bundled version that comes with a new Xbox 360. There's a lot of info here, so let's get right to it.

First up, the price. Kinect will have a suggested retail price of $149.99, as many online retailers have recently guessed. The news is that Kinect will be bundled with a free game, Kinect Adventures. All first-party Kinect games will have a suggested retail price of $49.99 and Microsoft expects that to be the standard, though it is leaving third-party pricing up to those publishers.

At least one third-party game will follow that standard. Microsoft has announced that Dance Central, from Harmonix and MTV Games, will also retail for $49.99.

For those new to Xbox 360, Microsoft will have a special Kinect console bundle available at the November 4 launch of the sensor. For $299, the bundle will include an Xbox 360 console, the Kinect sensor and Kinect Adventures. The Xbox 360 will be the previously confirmed $199 redesigned Xbox 360, not the 250 GB model that has spurred sales in the past month.

Microsoft has also announced the full details on that new Xbox 360 console model, which will be available August 3 in North America and later in the month around the world. This version will have a 4GB internal flash memory, but no 250 GB hard drive. It still has a built in Wi-Fi N adapter, as well as all of the other bells and whistles of the 250 GB Xbox 360. The internal hard drive bay will remain, but will be empty at purchase. You'll be able to tell the difference between this new 4GB console and the 250 GB version as the 4GB model will have a black matte finish as opposed to the glossy finish on the more expensive model. Again, this 4GB model will cost $199.

As for why Microsoft chose Kinect Adventures as the free game to include, Greenberg said it had a lot to do with offering something new. "It's a great broad appeal game for existing and new buyers. It's got more than 20 game modes, everything from River Rush to Obstacle Course...We did a lot of testing with consumers and we really felt like this title had a great broad appeal. It's full body, it integrates voice. It's great jump-in jump-out multiplayer. We think it's a fun game to play for existing owners as well as new consumers...We thought about Kinect Sports, but we felt like Adventures was more new and unique."

Those who pre-order Kinect, either on its own or in the $299 bundle, will receive a download token for three additional exclusive levels for Kinect Adventures.

The $299 bundle allows new consumers to get Kinect at a cheaper cost than those that buy everything separately. Greenberg noted this in saying, "That's our primary focus, at least for launch, is the opportunity to expand the market."

What do you think of the Kinect and bundle pricing? Will you pick up any of the new products? Leave a comment and let us know what you think of Microsoft's decisions.

Rip off price for Kinect. Bring KY with you to the store when picking yours up. It will make it easier on the butt. Games should not be $49.99 either.

New flat black Xbox 360 Arcade model with 4gb of internal flash memory. Retains all other options of the Xbox 360 S 250gb. $199. THAT is a great deal.

[Richard Hammond]

Funny you can buy a console for that price.

[+BeLGaRaTh Subscriber¹]

Priced itself into oblivion

[Hedon]

Priced itself into oblivion

Easy come, easy go. Maybe Kinect will wave hi to the HD-DVD add on up in heaven?

[AbandonedTrolley]

Seems pretty steep :/

I think the arcade bundle is a good idea though and VERY well priced.

[azz0r_wugg]

Absolute fail.

[LittleNeutrino Veteran]

I might pick up the 4Gb model and attempt to put the HDD from my original 360 in it that i have laying around.

[Guest]

Matte black 360 S, with 4GB of internal memory? I'm sold.

[iconboy]

I think they should have been willing to take a hit on the hardware in order to get this into as many homes as possible. $99 seems like the sweet spot for most people.

What?! The kinect bundle system comes with 4gb flash memory and not at least a 60g hdd?! Doesnt this sound.... Wrong to anyone else?

[Hedon]

I think they should have been willing to take a hit on the hardware in order to get this into as many homes as possible. $99 seems like the sweet spot for most people.

What?! The kinect bundle system comes with 4gb flash memory and not at least a 60g hdd?! Doesnt this sound.... Wrong to anyone else?

I bet they would have released it at $99 if Sony didn't price theirs so high. Now they feel like they might as well rape us too. :(

[Alladaskill17]

So the slim Xbox 360 with 250GB HDD will still be available? This is just another option?

[Hedon]

So the slim Xbox 360 with 250GB HDD will still be available? This is just another option?

Correct. You can choose from:

$199 - Xbox 360 S Arcade

$299 - Xbox 360 S Arcade + Kinect Bundle

$299 - Xbox 360 S 250gb

[Ayepecks]

Kinect and Move both just screwed Microsoft and Sony from competing with Nintendo because of their prices.

No way in hell I'm paying that. Only way I'd get it is as a gift.

[macrosslover]

Priced itself into oblivion

basically. I think it's funny they are also lowering the MSRP of the Kinect games by $10 like they are admitting they are not worth asking a $60 price tag for. I'm also sure they decided to bundel Kinect Adventures after everybody universally said the game was crap. This shouldn't have been more than $100 at most. Anything over that, with a game or not, and people are just going to get a Wii. They should have bundled the dance game, that would have had the best chance of moving some hardware.

[Southern Patriot]

I might pick up the 4Gb model and attempt to put the HDD from my original 360 in it that i have laying around.

I didn't see it mentioned in the article, but will the 4GB model even support adding a hard drive? Either way, it still doesn't seem all that great of a deal. Save $100, but lose the hard drive. Then again, the 360s isn't that great of a deal compared to the PS3 slim anyway, considering that it's the same price, but doesn't include Blu-Ray.

edit: nevermind, I missed reading the part about it still having the bay for the drive.

[LingeringSoul]

From the article:

For $299, the bundle will include an Xbox 360 console, the Kinect sensor and Kinect Adventures. The Xbox 360 will be the previously confirmed $199 redesigned Xbox 360, not the 250 GB model that has spurred sales in the past month.

So at the $299 price point, you're basically trading your 250 GB hard drive away for 4 GB of flash memory and Kinect (and the matte surface if you really care about that). Maybe that's an appealing deal to some people (families who just want to use Kinect together perhaps?), but if this old 360 of mine ever kicks the bucket, I think I'll put my money towards the console with the hard drive.

As for Kinect on its own, $150 as an acceptable price remains to be seen. I certainly wouldn't pay that kind of money for hardware that may or may not see some worthwhile releases down the line. Then again, I feel the same way about Move.

[Hedon]

I didn't see it mentioned in the article, but will the 4GB model even support adding a hard drive? Either way, it still doesn't seem all that great of a deal. Save $100, but lose the hard drive. Then again, the 360s isn't that great of a deal compared to the PS3 slim anyway, considering that it's the same price, but doesn't include Blu-Ray.

The Xbox 360 S doesn't have BD, correct. But the PS3 has 130gb less space, 3 less USB ports, only has g/b wifi (where as the Xbox has b/g/n) and doesn't have a dedicated accessory port. The Xbox 360 S probably has a bit more features really.

[Sikh]

Jesus it's 11:52am. Do you have a job AWBrian?

Haha all jokes aside, I just saw this on facebook via ign page 20 mins ago. I promised myself I wouldn't big kinect for $150 and I'm not going to. Unless friends pitch in and we get 1 for my buddies basement( where basically every night we LAN it

up, chill, movies, etc) then I'll be ok with it, but just for me no thanks. My sister has a Wii.

Anyway, I think Microsoft just lost a lot of sales.

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

wtf, what's so special about today's date that they kept it under wraps until now :/

Also, eep at the price :( They've really not done themselves any favors

[Jimmy0]

Too much.

[Konstanov]

Edit: Ahh, I see the price now. I'll go and pre-order it now.

[Sethos]

The Xbox 360 S doesn't have BD, correct. But the PS3 has 130gb less space, 3 less USB ports, only has g/b wifi (where as the Xbox has b/g/n) and doesn't have a dedicated accessory port. The Xbox 360 S probably has a bit more features really.

Not to mention the WiFi on the PS3 is manure, so many speed problems with the thing.

[Hedon]

Jesus it's 11:52am. Do you have a job AWBrian?

LOL! I post from work all the time. Work is VERY boring here!

[Martog]

I might pick up the 4Gb model and attempt to put the HDD from my original 360 in it that i have laying around.

Hopefully you can find a caddy that works with it. The Xbox 360 S have the hard drive in a plastic box, just much smaller on the S vs the original.

[George P Global Moderator]

I suppose since you get a game with it, the $150 price might not look that bad to most. People figured it'd be $150 for JUST the device itself. And really, if you look at the other bundle, 360S 4GB + kinect for $299 + game, then it does come out to $99 for it. I expect retail to do some deals though, as always.