Standalone Xbox One Kinect Will Cost You $149
(Microsoft)
Think Kinect is dead? Not Microsoft. In fact, it’s thinking you might be willing to pay a little extra for the device.
You’ll get that chance Oct. 7,
when a standalone version of the motion-sensing camera hits retail for
$149. It will come bundled with a copy of Harmonix’s Dance Central Spotlight, a $10 value.
It’s a curious move, to say the least.
Initially announced as an
inextricable part of the Xbox One, Kinect quickly fell out of favor with
gamers for, among other things, being the primary culprit for the Xbox
One’s exorbitant $499 price tag and a resource hog preventing developers from making games look as pretty on the Xbox One as they do on the PS4.
As the PS4 began outselling the Xbox One, Microsoft decided that it wasn’t actually necessary for the functionality of the Xbox One, and in June began offering a Kinect-free Xbox One for $399. Unsurprisingly, the unbundled console has resulted in a nice Xbox One sales bump.
So why offer Kinect for $149?
Microsoft could argue that this was the same price the original Kinect
sold for back in 2010, but that was when the sensor was the hottest
ticket in video game tech. It’s since fallen on pretty hard times, with
only a handful of Kinect games in the works right now.
The $149 price tag also seems
pretty steep considering that you can get it for $50 less if you buy the
still-available $499 version of the Xbox One, obviously part of
Microsoft’s plan here. Ultimately, though, gamers will be the ones who
decide whether Kinect has any moves left.
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