Microsoft prices up cheapo Xbox 360, Kinect bundle
Wii-style pricing for new console
Microsoft today announced the Xbox 360 4GB console, along with Wii-type pricing to tempt new punters to buy the Kinect hands-free motion sensor.
Going a bundle
The two products are bundled along with Kinect Adventures, a games show case for Kinect's capabilities, for £249.99 and they go on sale on August 20.
Separately, existing XBox 360 users can buy the Kinect / Kinect Adventures bundle for £129.99.
The XBox 360 4GB is includes built-in Wi-Fi N, 4GB of internal flash memory, touch-sensitive buttons. It retails at £149.99
About Fifteen Kinect-friendly games will be available at UK launch, retailing at £39.99.
Kinect is not just for games, Microsoft says. You can start a movie by saying "Xbox, play" and browse music lists by waving a hand. XBox Live Gold subscribers can wave hello to each other using Video Kinect.
COMMENTS
@Downside
The price might not, but when you see the problems it has, even now just before launch, that will surely put anyone off.
It's detection, accuracy and lag problems truly have to be seen to be believed...
Sorry, you are plain wrong.
Techrader did a driving game test, and as soon as their hands made it past 00:30, the car veered the other way, it was unable to differentiate between left and right.
http://www.techradar.com/news/gaming/consoles/hands-on-xbox-project-natal-review-673321
"In the most part it was fun, but there were occasions when steering beyond the 90 degree point would make Kinect misinterpret our actions and steer in the opposite direction."
Natal does not see black people too well:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=364666
Don't jump too close to your Xbox:
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=251566
Everything else is also well documented flaws, but I can't post links right now, as most of them are gaming related sites that are blocked to me at work.
titles
>you can jump, but not too much
>>Tosh. No more likely that with a Wii and that doesn't happen AFAIK. Its a standard DVD drive >>as in any PC. You need to pick it up and wobble it.
My little lad has destroyed a number of disks just by bouncing around whilst playing his favourite Xbox games... took a few attempts to find a safe place for the machine.
>£250 bundle put it's WAY out of range of casual gamers
>>Bargain and they won't be able to meet demand on release, just look at pre-orders. Most Xbox >>PS3 and Wii owners already spend more than that in games alone.
Nah, you're well off track there I'm afriad. It is too expensive and anyone wanting to make an initial move into casual gaming will opt for the wii - more established you see, and cheaper.
Two too many
I'd imagine that a significant number of Windows users would prefer to raise just a single finger to make MS go away.
Someone want to wake up el-reg
£250 is not "Wii type pricing, it's not even close it's more than even a top of the range PS3.
This is also the cut-down version of console that needs another £100 spending on it for a harddrive (and another £40 every year to play online).
Kinect is pretty much doomed for failure, there are apparently tonnes of problems with Kinect, namely you need to be wearing the right clothes, you need to be standing up (not sitting down), you can jump, but not too much (or the Xbox will destroy your disks), you can move your hands, but not too much (don't ever cross them), you need to have white skin, you need to have your house decorated correctly and the lighting perfect, no natural sunlight and so forth...
This is even before the problem of pricing, £130 standalone £250 bundle put it's WAY out of range of casual gamers (who you would be hard grasped to spend more than £50 on something like this), and into the ballpark of hardcore gamers, the problem being of course, there are no games that appeal to these people with only Kinectimals type games.
It's also worth mentioning Microsoft's misleading advertising, with it clearly showing 4 players ( http://bit.ly/bJInhs ) when only 2 are actually supported...
