Mega retailer Walmart has published pricing information for the Kinect controller-free controller for the Xbox 360 - the whole package, including a game, will set you back $199.
Kinect is a hands-free controller that allows gamers to control scheduled their Xbox 360 using body movements, and forms the core of Microsoft’s plan to revolutionize gaming without actually revolutionizing the console itself.
So, what’s the Walmart offer?
So $199 buys you the Kinect controller, a choice of game and a $30 eGift card. Not a bad deal.
The games with Kinect support on offer as part of the deal are:
- Kinect Dance Central
- Kinect Joy Ride
- Kinectimals
- Kinect Sports
- Kinect Adventures
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows
The main question everyone has about Kinect is the obvious one: Will people buy it? The Xbox 360 has been around since November 2005 and some 40 million have been sold (although it’s hard to know how many haven’t ended up on a trash pile somewhere because they suffered from RRoD), so the potential market is big. But a 2005 vintage Xbox 360 is, from a capability standpoint, pretty much the same as a brand new 360 S. $200 is a lot of money to drop on an accessory for a console that’s been around for so long and I wonder whether gamers wouldn’t have preferred a proper hardware refresh of the console first (although that would have been expensive for Microsoft).
Kinect is scheduled for a November 4th launch.
