After Microsoft renamed Project Natal to Kinect last Sunday and announced a November 4 release date, retailers including Amazon.com, Gamestop and Walmart (to name a few) began taking pre-orders for the Xbox 360 full body motion control system priced at $150. At Amazon, sales were and continue to be brisk with Kinect grabbing and unwilling to relinquish the #1 bestseller spot in video games.
Aaron Greenberg, Microsoft’s Director of Product Management, is claiming these retailers are jumping the gun on Kinect being sold as-is and its price. “No Kinect price announced yet, retail price estimates are purely speculative, he tweeted on Thursday from E3. “Final price & pack-in details are not yet determined.”
Someone or something had to tip off every retail outlet to offer Kinect for the same price, a price we have traced to retailers in Canada as well. Microsoft must be behind the pricing whether they are willing to admit it, or in the case of Mr. Greenberg’s strong “purely speculative” statement, not.
The bigger question is why not announce pricing now? One speculative answer is Microsoft is adjusting their Kinect launch strategy after Sony announced Playstation Move’s different packages, pricing and aggressive early September release date. Microsoft may also be collecting media and retailer reactions from E3 to see which game stands out as “must-own” to package with Kinect (Kinect Adventures and Dance Central appear to be the standouts).
With Kinect standalone pre-orders coming in strong, does Microsoft need to offer a pack-in game? All questions their business and marketing teams are already working hard on answering.
