Microsoft have gone announcement mad, ladies and gentlemen. Having officially unveiled and named Kinect as a live and working (well, sort of) consumer product at this years E3 conference in June, the company have finally made their intentions clear with regards to pricing. I’m sure Microsoft’s PR department would like you to be surprised by the official $149 price tag, although in typical fashion, every retailer in America has already leaked this figure at some point over the last month. Still, it’s nice to see such issues settled officially by Steve Ballmer and chums.
Well, it’s kinda nice. How about that price, folks? What does a $149 accessory do for you more than mid way through a consoles projected life cycle? At £129.99 in the UK, that’s some considerable margin more than I’d feel comfortable with, missing the sub £100 “sweet spot” that might have proven more of a temptation. Or at least a temptation had there been anything about Kinect’s launch range that I found even remotely interesting.
Contrary to rumour however, Microsoft will be including a launch title with every Kinect sold. As someone who believes that Wii Sports – the free game bundled with every Wii ever sold – was probably the most important piece of software ever to grace the system, I was prepared to blow a gasket when it transpired that Microsoft might not follow suit. By including a free copy of Kinect Adventures, early adopters should at least have something to get their waving arms and legs into at launch.
Also announced today was a new Xbox 360 SKU, which looks set to replace the existing “Arcade” models. Sporting the same looks as the freshly redesigned Xbox 360 S, the new console will come with a matte finish as appose to the glossy exterior of the 250GB flavored unit, along with a built in 4GB HDD. Like the standard console, the Arcade replacement will also feature built in Wi-Fi, a HDD expansion bay and “whisper quiet” noise levels. At $200/£149.99, this strikes me as a significantly better value entry package for new consumers. The new SKU will also be bundled with Kinect for $300/£250, offering a slender saving on the stand alone price of the motion camera.
For anyone looking to invest in an Xbox 360 any time soon, I’d find the new entry level unit incredibly easy to recommend, but at not much less than the cost of the console itself, this is still a no sale from me as far as Kinect goes. Opinions welcome as always.
The new Kinect bundle. The Kinect camera, Kinect adventures and Xbox 360 4GB for $300/£250. Xbox 360 4GB sold separately for $200/£149.99
Email the author of this post at matc@tap-repeatedly.com
Not that it’s a very mature thought, but in the interest of my own good and of gaming itself, I really do hope that Kinect is a baffling, incomprehensible, utter failure for Microsoft.
Here’s why: Kinatal has been done, folks. It was called Wii. It was hot shit for nine weeks, then again for a week in 2007 when its only good non-launch title ever shipped. Now that three-and-a-half years have passed since its release anyone who was an actual gamer before the Wii sees it for what it is: a piece of trash.
I was so bored of Wii that I gave it to my parents. Fortunately I won’t have to give them Kinothanks because I won’t be duped into buying it like Nintendo duped me into buying their shiny, white paperweight.
Enjoy your “makin’ fools of nerdy white couples dancing” simulators, Mircosoft. I’ll keep my sweet controller and keyboard/mouse in hand, thanks.
(No offense intended to Super Mario Galaxy, Super Paper Mario, and the maybe two other good Wii games that ever existed; it’s too bad you’re not on another system!)
Agreed on all counts. You know what Kinect reminds me of?
Sega CD.
Came out several years into the Genesis/Megadrive lifecycle, cost $200, and really never delivered anything of worth except Lunar: The Silver Star.
I just don’t see the value in motion controls. Just. don’t. see. What few good games the Wii has use traditional controls, with only a couple of exceptions. Meanwhile Kinect looks best for manipulating the dashboard, not playing games. $149? Jeez, I could get a Wii for that.
Do you know how many chili poutines I could get for $149? Well, I’m not sure either, when you factor in tax. But it would be a lot of damn poutine, I tell you.
Hey hey hey, Wii has some good games you penguin!
Yes, kinect seems to be nothing special, especially at that price.
The cheaper (
shinierer, matte-r) Xbox sounds tempting…Like EyeToy, the Nakinectal is an interface suitable for very specific uses, uses that I don’t think will stretch beyond the sort of trash that we’ve seen for years on the Wii. Having said this, the Wii motion controls integrate well into many different game types so at least they’re versatile. Sony have done well to
rip offpick up on this because it essentially means their motion controls will have more possible applications.My only reservation is that, like Microsoft, Sony have got to convince people that it’s worth investing in. Nintendo never had to do this because the motion controls came bundled with the console at launch as well as Wii Sports; they knew where they were going from the offset. It’s clear that Microsoft and Sony want a slice of Nintendo’s success but like two giant liners slowly changing directions it’s going to take some time to get on course.
Ha! That’s the first time I’ve been slandered as “penguin.” I like it.
You’re right, the Wii does have some good games, but on the whole I became so disinterested that I wouldn’t even want to turn the thing on. Super Mario Galaxy sat in the Wii’s disc drive for months as I played through countless games on my 360.
I never ended up finishing Galaxy. The only game on Wii that I actually made my way through was Super Paper Mario, which was quite excellent I thought. I couldn’t even bring myself to pass the first couple chapters of Twilight Princess. The thing just collected dust, and that’s too bad I suppose. I know there are other titles that have garnered some acclaim, such as the No More Heroes ones and Zak & Wiki, but I’ll make do without.
The thing about the Wii is, in my opinion, far more of a concern for PlayStation Move than it is for Kinect. I mean lets face it, what is there to stop the PlayStation 3 becoming a dumping ground for high res Wii ports of shovelware? I was reading an article on a major gaming website just the other day that suggested this was already rearing it’s head.
I still think that Kinect has potential, and is perhaps different enough to avoid simply being disregarded as a Wii HD, but I think it might take some developer creativity to overcome the barriers that it currently faces. Regarding the lack of buttons, one of the early demonstrations for Move showed a Sony head honcho playing through Resident Evil 5 using Move, although with a Dual Shock 3 as a replacement for the as yet undesigned Nunchuk. It gave him the flexibility of the controllers buttons alongside the motion controls. I think something similar could be implemented for Kinect. Using an FPS as an example, perhaps you could hold your arms up and point at the screen in the motion of holding a lightgun, but with a standard 360 controller in one hand. You could then use the 360’s trigger buttons to fire, but use your own arms and gestures to aim. Again, that’s just an idea (and not one I’m saying would certainly work, or that I’d even be interested in playing) but.. just a thought.
That said, nothing about motion controls (or at least nothing about the Wii) has ever resonated with me before and I’m still be proven that it ever will. I just prefer the traditional controller. That said, I’m not going to disregard Kinect (or Move) just yet. Perhaps when it finally makes it’s way into the consumers hands and once the initial wave of dance sims are out of the way..
http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2010/07/30/surprise-microsofts-xbox-360-kinect-impresses/
I think a lot of the skeptics will be eating crow a few months after this comes out.
I’m reserving judgement until we see how Kinect performs with traditional game types. I can see it working quite well for racing games and say, on rails shooters but I’m curious to see how it will work for a platformer or RPG for example. It could be a lot of money for something that’s only good for very specific uses, at least as far as existing 360 owners are concerned. With new customers your mileage may vary.