Kinect Priced at $150 with “Free” game, Slim bundle on the way, and The return of the $50 game! (Unless you’re a Wii gamer, in which case the 50 dollar game never left…)

Commencing not buying… NOW! P.S. this is kinda like 3 or 4 articles in one!



So after weeks of speculation at the true price of the Microsoft Kinect, with various sources all saying $150, including Microsoft’s own online store, The True Price has finally been confirmed. At $150. NO kidding. To be fair there is a catch the Kinect will be bundled with a “free” videogame which is a pretty good deal, I mean I don’t particularly want Kinect Adventures, but it like Wii Sports will be the quickest way of showing people what the device can really do. So I approve there, but I'm not sure If I'm buying the system.

Bigger news is the Xbox 360 Slim bundle with Kinect will also be sold at the expected price of $299. However the main issue I have with this bundle is that the Arcade version of the Xbox 360 slim is that it comes with an absolutely impotent 4 gig Hard Drive size. That’s pathetic. Despite the fact that Microsoft is pushing the sale of zip drives in lure of having a hard drive, 4 gigs is nothing. You can do so little with 4 gigs, and an Xbox. This is really sad. I wouldn’t be as upset if Microsoft would just start selling slim unit hard drives at stores, so this would a more palatable buy. I mean they will release the hard drives eventually, but as of right now those of you looking to upgrade to the slim with the Kinect Arcade version are SOL until Microsoft gets its head together. Really this is all just a ploy to get new guys to either buy Kinect separately for $50 more, or buy one of Microsoft’s 16 gig zip drive memory sticks. And that is lame.

Biggest news is that Microsoft is pushing to make all Kinect games only cost $50. They have priced all first party games at $50, and have gotten the biggest game of the launch lineup Dance Central from Harmonix, will also cost the same. I LOVE this news so much.


Ever since the generational leap I have been hurting from the ten dollar price hike, I don’t know it’s just has always felt weird to me, like it’s just ten dollars to much. I hate the pricing has extended to Premium Hits/Greatest Hits games, the key to selling me a greatest hits is to sell to those on an impulse buy. 20 bucks is easy to give up for a new videogame, but thirty is pushing it, especially when you include tax. Not to mention I hate the proportional decrease if you buy premium hits in bulk, back in the day for the price of a new game ($50) you could buy 2 and a half Greatest hits games ($20), now a days for the price of a new game ($60) you can only buy 2 ($30). I miss the old days

Gaming has gotten more expensive, and I know I have to accept that times are changing, but I really don’t want to. The price seems right for these Kinect games, especially since the Kinect takes up like 15% of the Xbox’s processing power, hence technologically weaker games, but I wouldn’t worry about it too much.
Kinect is coming in November, and as of right now, well I have no idea if I’m on board or not, but we’ll see.

Notes

• Waiting for a Sony hardcore to create a photo shop image of an Xbox user saying “Xbox stop red ringing”
• I wonder if Microsoft will ever allow third parties to create hard drives for the Xbox. Probably not.
• I love ellipses