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Release date: 05/28/13

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Release date: 05/28/13

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Release date: 06/04/13

The Last of Us
Release date: 06/14/13

DAILY MANIFESTO

Kinect Costs A Lot, First Parties Are Free From It

Posted on Tuesday, October 26 @ 20:20:26 Eastern by Daniel Bischoff

Not happy with a Kinect price point at $149? We've got a Ballmer-Spencer-Mattrick one-two-(three) CEO knock out for you.

An interesting read from the New York Times, covers nearly all aspects of the Kinect's development, including how it works, what different technology makes up the unit, and what kind of games are coming to the system. Of note, is how high the price of the original Kinect unit was.

The first Kinect prototype cost Microsoft $30,000 to build, but 1,000 workers would eventually be involved in the project. And now, hundreds of millions of dollars later, the company has a product it can sell for $150 a pop and still turn a profit, Mr. Mattrick says. (People who don’t have an Xbox can pay $300 for a package that includes the console, Kinect and a game.)

Nice of them to wiggle that price down as far as it could go, but there's still plenty of worry that Kinect could signal a change in what the Xbox 360 means. Mattrick, Ballmer, and Spencer all spoke with the New York Times about Kinect. I can't help but think this is the first advertisement Kinect's $500 Million in marketing bought.

Nevertheless, Microsoft is covering enthusiast press as well, talking to Gamasutra about the state of development at Microsoft Games Studios now that Kinect has arrived. Gamasutra asked Phil Spencer whether or not first party development studios were being directed to utilize Kinect in some capacity: "No."

That was easy, but Spencer points out that Fable III launched this week without its previously reported Kinect support. I doubt Microsoft would undo all the progress they've made with the ~~hard~~... "core" gamer audience.

I can't lie. I'm interested in Kinect, but I think I'm going to get sick of it before it's even on store shelves.

Tags: kinect, Xbox 360

Comments

De-Ting
Joined: Nov 2006

Posted: Oct 26th, 2010 at 8:48 pm
I'm giving it time. That much I can do.

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UpAndAtThem
Joined: Mar 2009

Posted: Oct 27th, 2010 at 4:19 am
$150 isn't that high a price, when you consider you don't need to buy anything more for extra players.
How much does it cost for 4 Wiimotes, 4 nunchucks, and 4 Wii motion plus thingies? By the way, does anyone know how many players Kinect can actually track at once?

Still, I think Wii has already given me my casual gaming fill. I don't plan to get Kinect or Move unless there are some games that really wow me, and baby tigers aren't doing that.

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MrrClean
Joined: Aug 2010

Posted: Oct 27th, 2010 at 8:03 am
Yeah, I have given up pretty much all interest in the whole motion-gaming thing. They have yet to put out any truly awesome or noteworthy games, every one of them is just a gimmick designed to attract more casual gamers and younger/older people.

Although, clobbering the sh*t out of people on the PSMoves new Gladiator game is fairly satisfying....

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