August 22nd 2012 9:00 am PT

Kinect Price Drop

Today we are announcing a new price for Kinect. The new permanently reduced price will be US $109.99 in US. There will be also a permanently reduced price in North America, Latin America and Asia Pacific regions where Kinect is sold. Additionally, on October 4, the Kinect sensor will be available for a permanently reduced price in Australia and New Zealand.

The final retail price will vary in each region based on the currency and other variables

There are no price drop plans for EMEA and Japan.

Kinect By Larry Hryb, Xbox LIVE's Major Nelson

permalink: http://majornelson.com/2012/08/22/kinect-price-drop/

http://twitter.com/coldmilk coldmilk

will it still come bundled with Fruit Ninja and The Gunstringer or is this making up for the lack of bundled content? Either way, I’d much rather have $40 back than $30 worth of games.
rogXue

While I enjoy my Kinect I think $99 would be the sweet spot for the xmas season. Most parents will look at that and say “why $109?”
- BostonSup
  
  As odd as it is, people tend to like 2 digits more than 3 (before decimal point obviously)… even if it is 99.99 verses 100.99.
  - http://twitter.com/Navarin Buster Wolf
    
    Or 800 versus 1200.
    - BostonSup
      
      Talking about MS points? I agree, $10 vs $15 might not be a huge difference for some but 800 vs 1200 seems like a huge difference. I think MS was more thinking marketing on that one though. For $10 you can get a whole 800 points! And when there is a game, well it costs points, not real money… and you have the points because you already bought it for only $10. At least that is how I see it in the beginning. Now that the it is the end of the console people are seeing the points more as real money and are buying points instantly to use the points instantly.
      - dlmayday
        
        so why not price it at 999 pts instead of 800 or 1200 so that way it would make me pull out my calculator to see how much it really was?
Hugoku

Ooohh, now this is tempting.
Seeing how these went for $100 during the holidays last year, i expect some deeper discounts this time.
- N2O1990
  
  maybe $70 this time?
  - BostonSup
    
    That wouldn’t be a bad price, about the price of a game. I would even consider it, that is if there were no other controller based games I was interested in. There are 1 or 2 titles for the Kinect I would think about picking up. Not enough interest to buy the Kinect at $100, but for $50-60, possibly $70, I would think about it.
    - Hugoku
      
      Child of Eden, Gunstringer, Dance Central, DFHAT are attractive to me for a variety of reasons.
      
      Heck, I would even get Star Wars for my kid. He would freak out.
      And probably the HP title too.
      - BostonSup
        
        I would try Child of Eden, there is also a game I would want to try out called Nightmare (or something like that). I don’t think it is a child friendly game (don’t know much about it, just looked pretty cool), so I think I might like it.
        
        At $100 I don’t really care about the Kinect, so I would have to check out the games for it if it was cheap enough. In the end, Kinect is about personal preference.
      - http://www.facebook.com/WannabeActor16 Paul Steven Briffett
        
        Rise of Nightmares Good game but quite hard to control sometimes because of the Kinect’s many limitations.
      - Thânia Santos
        
        If you have a PS3, get Child of eden on it.
        better control, and a 3D option.
        you just look silly with this luminous plastic ice cream in your hands…
halo4cometh

Should be Packed in with DOuble Fine Happy Action Theater
- rogXue
  
  now this is a good idea, by far the best kinect game my family has played
  - JonahFalcon
    
    Wrecketeer is awesome.
    - rogXue
      
      I agree, but my 2 and 4yo can go nuts in happy action theater. Wrecketeer is a little too much for them to comprehend. I even have fun acting like an idiot in DFHAT!
N2O1990

But MS,if you guys can drop price in Asia,why can’t also drop price in europe?
iDrummer3

I was thinking it wouldn’t be long. The only thing I use my Kinect for is voice commands for movies and dashboard. Im hoping Kinect 2.0 will make me actually want to use it for games. I like the idea of sports games recognizing you’re not happy with the officiating and taking appropriate action also.
RicardoDawkins

please, drop price of the console. My daughter broke my DVD tray just 3 months after I bought mine. playing just arcade games while saving money for a new one. Can you drop the price?
- BostonSup
  
  There probably will be another price drop for the Xbox after xmas. The new consoles will probably be here in 2013 (I can’t say for sure, since all I go by is gaming news sites). The holiday bundles can be a great deal because for the same price ($299) you get 2 games on top of it, but I doubt there will be a drop until Jan or Feb.
  - http://www.facebook.com/AlexAtkinUK Alexander Atkin
    
    I love the “within the console” rumour. How would that work exactly? I can’t mount the console on top of my TV!
    
    More likely it just comes supplied as standard, like the Wii sensor bar. I certainly would hope so anyway.
http://www.thetjhzone.blogspot.com/ Tylerh1701

Why not $99.99?
- TonyLN
  
  I was wondering that; it seems to me that dropping it down below $100 would be the way to go.
Lee Rayson

Ive only just order a new xbox and kinect today, but ?UK dont get the price drop anyhow
http://john385.com/ Ivan

”
There are no price drop plans for EMEA and Japan.” aaaaaahhh, why am I not surprised? Has Europe done something to you, MS? O_o
http://twitter.com/MythicalWolf77 Mythical Wolf

Still not worth it.
Russell Gorall

As 90% of Kinect owners know, any price for this other than free isn’t a deal.
- TonyLN
  
  Have to disagree — Kinect is great for voice commands and also for kids. My 4 year old has a blast playing on it; much better for him then trying to figure out how to use an over-sized controller while sitting on his butt.
  
  The Kinect isn’t for everyone, but you can watch the videos of the games and know if it’s for you. If you purchased the Kinect for a game that doesn’t exist yet that’s not M$ fault.
  - Russell Gorall
    
    You are the ten percent, I never said 100%.
    
    What I am saying is it does not work as Microsoft advertises it. Which is why games like Kinect Star Wars and Steel Battallion don’t work and are laughing stocks.
    
    That is MS’s fault, selling a product that does not do what it is supposed to, correct?
    - jvargason2
      
      What gets me is Steel Battalion does work and for the most part so does Kinect Star Wars. I have videos of Steel Battalion on my DarthVargi16 Youtube channel if you want to verify and you can see my living room is pretty average. It just takes a while to get used to the gestures for SB and Kinect Star Wars, while not the game I was hoping it would be, is actually not that bad for a family game (call it what it is).
      - jvargason2
        
        Ahh downvoted by the people who do not actually have the device. I wouldn’t believe it if I didn’t have it based on the “professional” reviews, but the thing can work. It’s just a bit fussy about play environment but it’s not that difficult to get a 6 x 6 area of empty space (or less if you mount it on top of your TV). You can see my living room (which is where I play games) is not that large and I have virtually no problem with most games. The one absolutely dreadful Kinect game I own is Carnival Games Monkey See Monkey Do (Do). The rest range from passable if purchased cheap to actually good. A lot of it is based on effort from the developers. Although it isn’t a game in a sense, Happy Action Theater somehow allows up to 6 people to play and yet the Kinect wasn’t even built for that.
        
        What I would like to see is more games that are difficult for the Kinect such as Steel Battalion and I would love to see a sports game that rewards real skill (such as table tennis in Sports Champions on the Move). I don’t think we will see a realistic sports sim this generation so I’d settle for next.
      - http://www.facebook.com/AlexAtkinUK Alexander Atkin
        
        Its VERY hard to get a 6×6 play area in the average UK house IMO.
        
        There lies the problem though, they really needed to officially have a peripheral to make it work in a smaller space rather than leaving it to unofficial addons and then damning the manufacturers for making them.
      - jvargason2
        
        Sorry for spamming you just replying to this one too, yeah that’s a good point when I watch HGTV with the Mrs, I’ve noticed apartments in some parts of the world (Europe as a whole it seems) are very expensive and owning a place is not apparently all that common in some parts.
        
        In the USA we are a bit more spread out so the market for homes is quite a bit different. I have a small house and it’s 1600 Square Feet which if I lived in NYC that would be pretty lofty to them.
        
        I really thought Microsoft would have done a software zooming capability where it could scale to whatever environment it is put in. I think when they stripped the cpu out of there to cut costs, it lost a lot of that capability. Even though I have the space for instance, I noticed that if I did not calibrate the device after moving it to a different room with the card that comes with Kinect Adventures, I experienced lag and pretty crazy movement from time to time. It should have been able to calibrate itself (I know that sounds unrealistic, but if it’s magic, it should be simple to use).
        
        I’ve heard that Nyko Zoom is bad but I can’t comment myself because I have not used it personally. I have a friend who had it for a while and said that it made the Kinect overall less accurate. Like you said, if they can’t do a software zoom, why didn’t Microsoft create some peripheral for smaller rooms (and include it with the unit).
        
        I know I sounded quite down on Kinect there, but like I’ve said before, I’m not a fanboy of any company, but I do like the Kinect. However, I would never recommend the device to people who can’t have the ideal setup. Honestly neither should Microsoft (unless they can do some software calibration properly), because this is why they get a lot of poor reviews. For me, it is almost flawless (with the exception of that crappy Carnival games, man I hate that game) but I can take it somewhere else where the Kinect doesn’t have as much space and I see a world of difference (especially in lag because it has to interpret movements more).
      - http://www.facebook.com/AlexAtkinUK Alexander Atkin
        
        You gotta admit though, Playstation Move is BEGGING for a Star Wars game more than Kinect. After all, it looks like a light sabre to start with.
        
        On the other hand Kinect does things with Dance games which no other peripheral can. I just wish it had a motion controller to go with it so you got the best of both technologies.
      - jvargason2
        
        Good point, honestly I’m surprised there hasn’t been a better Star Wars game with 1:1 light saber combat for Move or the Wii M+. In a way it’s a major let down, I have both of those as well and while each have advantages/drawbacks (I hate the Move’s cursor drift in older games but it seems fixed in later 2011 releases onwards), they seem like a better fit for saber combat. Not to mention although the Kinect can do games off rails, it often involves some unnatural motions (totally playable don’t get me wrong, but they are odd to say the least), using the navigation/duel shock with the Move or nunchuck with the WiiMote would be perfect.
        
        Oddly enough the Light Saber combat in the Kinect Star Wars game were the weakest of the 5 modes (2 were saber combat but one kind of mixed it up in the campaign with speeder bikes and some on rails shooting). Pod racing was great and felt like the arcade machine from Sega (wish it had a lot more tracks though), that alone was a huge deal for me and I think it belonged on the Kinect.
        
        In the future I’d like to see releases highlight the strengths of devices instead of just throwing a bunch of mud on it and hoping it all works (or enough to get by). You’re definitely right bottom line, the Move is a better choice for saber combat (look at Sports Champions Gladiator for a good reference point).
      - Fred
        
        My thoughts exactly. Kinect with a motion controller would be amazing. As it is, my issues with Kinect are: 1) Too hard to get kids started in a 2 player game (I usually have to set them all up as they have trouble navigating the menu) and 2) Any natural sunlight coming into the area confuses it and makes it impossible to play. A simple set of physical buttons to get through menus (or at the very least allow ppl to use the controller as well) would help.
- mcmax3000
  
  Disagree completely. I don’t use it a ton, but when I do, I usually have a blast with Kinect games. Dance Central, Kinect Sports, Child of Eden, Gunstringer… All fantastic Kinect games.
  - Russell Gorall
    
    You are the ten percent.
    - mcmax3000
      
      I’m willing to bet a hell of a lot more than 10% of the people that bought Kinect are satisfied with it.
      - http://www.facebook.com/people/Dane-Miller/500337604 Dane Miller
        
        I’m going to have to disagree. I’ve yet to meet a person (IRL) that is satisfied with it…. The only people i can see having fun with it are little kids and the parents of the little kids. I guess it could be used as a useful workout tool, but there are so many other better ways to do that as well. It’s a gimmick, nothing more nothing less.
        
        The most annoying thing to me about the kinect is that they act like voice controls never existed before it.
      - http://www.facebook.com/AlexAtkinUK Alexander Atkin
        
        True. I wish the voice controls worked via the headset as when watching Netflix at a good volume the sensor picks up words from the movies and can’t hear when I shout out commands.
        
        That said, I don’t think the bitrate on the headset is good enough for voice recognition to work well. Also it IS meant to be something you just do without having to pickup a pad or headset first and I DO find myself using it to login sometimes.
        
        I wouldn’t say I necessarily got my monies worth out of it, but I wouldn’t call Kinect bad either. If I had a bigger room for it I would likely use it a lot more.
      - Corellianrogue
        
        Headsets don’t have a built-in voice recognition engine, Kinect does. (That can be updated via software too, as far as I know) Why do you think there are so few non-Kinect games (not just on the Xbox 360, on any platform in the history of videogames) with voice recognition if it was as simple as having some kind of mic available?
      - Russell Gorall
        
        It may seem like more than ten percent as many Kinect owners forgot they own one.
  - http://twitter.com/Lucky13X Lucky13X
    
    Agreed.
http://twitter.com/YGBJammy Jamie Wood

No love for Europe once again
John Kennedy

I’m reminded of the HD DVD Player.
http://twitter.com/Navarin Buster Wolf

Being British I’d be annoyed at being left out, but I still don’t want one so it doesn’t matter so much because the aspects of it that appeal to me are just so, so minimal. Make better stuff for it first.

Any word on what’s happened to Crimson Dragon? Please say controller support.
I’ve asked around and it’s like getting blood of a stone, the silence is deafening and it’s a shame because I was really looking forward to tnat game.
randy

what about Korea?
fried_egg

I wish someone actually got this thing to work. It is just a gimmick, laggy and unreliable.
http://twitter.com/Lucky13X Lucky13X

What’s with the extra $10? Why not a flat $99.99. Everyone knows the $100 price point is the sweet spot.
http://www.facebook.com/WannabeActor16 Paul Steven Briffett

So a new Kinect in the UK is £150.00 and that’s the way it’s going to stay? I got mine a lot cheaper off eBay.
- http://www.facebook.com/AlexAtkinUK Alexander Atkin
  
  Except it doesn’t, its been £129.99 since launch.
http://www.facebook.com/jim.masterton.3 Jim Masterton

Why do we in Europe always have to pay more than anywhere else.this is a scandal Major Nelson!

And in Germany even more so.

How come everything is more expensive in Germany than the UK?

Good example 69€ for a new game but in the UK about 50€……..
aaron

i got my kinect brand new for $99.99
http://www.facebook.com/people/Joseph-Johnson/1088034764 Joseph Johnson

This is the price the Kinect should have been when it came out (even though it still sold like crazy).. It should be down to about $69-$79 now..
http://www.facebook.com/tonimasana Toni Masana

No price drop in kinect, no suscripcion Xbox Live Family pack… no translate games in my lenguage (spanish). Good for Microsoft XBOX… I buy other console in the future or a APPLE product directly. Microsoft lost Europe very quick if move with it stupid strategic market.
Spokker

HD-DVD lost to Blu-ray but Kinect seems to be besting PlayStation Move. And it’s nothing like a format war anyway.

August 22nd 2012 9:00 am PT

Kinect Price Drop

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