Gaming Pub #7-Kinect Pricing Itself to Failure

June 22nd, 2010 at 6:24 pm -

Welcome to the Gaming Pub, where game talk flows like wine.  Every week, I, Nate Largent, will provide you with my own perspective on the game industry and its inner workings.  If you have a topic you want discussed, send me a message on Twitter or post your ideas in the forums.  Let us move on to Gaming Pub #7—Kinect Pricing Itself to Failure.

In this generation of consoles, motion control is all the rage thanks to the monster success of the Nintendo Wii.  Millions of gamers and non-gamers alike have went to their local retailer and plopped down money for the console, making cash hand over fist for the “House that Mario Built”.  Like most other things in the retail world, you can follow the money trail to copycats and late-comers looking to make the same monetary splash.  If you watched this year’s E3, you obviously saw the motion controllers for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 and had them shoved down your throat.  Despite both companies working toward getting a piece of that motion control pie, Sony and Microsoft have gone at it in very different ways.  Sony has responded with the Playstation Move, which is setup very much like the Wii, complete with a motion sensor (camera) and wand-type controller to wave around.  Microsoft, on the other hand, has gone a very different route, bypassing the controller entirely and having the player rely on their body as the controller.  With three companies now going after a similar market, the competition is going to be fierce.  Nintendo already has a head start and will most likely never be caught by the other two consoles, meaning the battle is more likely between Microsoft’s Kinect and Sony’s Move.  Despite both of these new pieces of hardware coming out this fall, one of them may have already set themselves up for failure.

One of the reasons why the Nintendo Wii has been so successful is its price.  Coming into the market, the Wii was priced at $250, making it by far the cheapest of the three options.  Gamers bought it, parents bought it for kids, and grandparents bought it for exercise.  Obviously, many of these casual and non-gamer purchasers would have thought twice if the price was higher.  Based on that simple info, you would think that Sony and Microsoft would do their best to price their motion hardware at a price that will be very competitive, especially considering that you have to either already own a console or will purchase one along with the Kinect or Move.  Sony seems to have had enough brains to do this.  After pricing themselves in last place with their ultra-expensive PS3 at launch, they have priced move at $99.  For that amount, you get the Move controller, the Eye camera, and the “nunchuck” controller.  The Move seems to be set up very much like the Wii, meaning it will be easy to pick up and understand for most and the learning curve will be minimal.  On the other side of the spectrum is the Microsoft Kinect.  Microsoft started off E3 with a pretentious and self indulging Kinect event performed by Cirque De Soleil that impressed no one turned off many gamers.  Microsoft has trumpeted the “coolness” of Project Natal/Kinect for over a year and talked about how revolutionary and fun it will be.  Recently, rumors started to leak from retailers such as Amazon stating that the price point will be $150.  Most believed that this seemed too high to be successful with Microsoft even coming out and reminding everyone that they had not “officially” announced a price point and that these were just placeholder prices.  Today, however, Microsoft’s official store made pre-orders for Kinect available at….you guessed it…..$150.

I am as big an Xbox 360 fan as there is out there.  It is my favorite system and despite its incredible hardware failure rates, it has been a tremendous success.  Microsoft has already started an uphill battle with the Kinect, thanks to its extremely “casual” game lineup for the hardware, including that infuriating Skittles the tiger demo at E3.  I guess their idea of a core game is that lame Star Wars Kinect game where you slide up a corridor and killed random stormtroopers.  I am not a gaming snob and I know that there is a place in gaming for games such as this, however, even a novice game journalist such as myself knows that “casual” and “kiddie” does not show well at E3.  A room full of bloggers and website writers could care less about petting animals and river rafting.  Despite all of this, a reasonable price point would make these cynical gamers turn their head and say “hmm, I might pick that up”.  After seeing the price of Kinect, I think most people are going to say “No thanks”.  Think about it…you can buy a Wii with both Wii Sports games and a Wii Motion Plus for just $50 more than the cost of JUST the Kinect.  Remember, you have to have a 360 if you want to play Kinect.  If Microsoft hadn’t come out with all of the annoying Project Natal hyping and then had a bunch of acrobats push the Kinect on us all, maybe I would be a bit more open.  Sony has been fairly quiet about the Move and then showed it at E3 and priced it in a way that is realistic.  Microsoft has overpriced the Kinect and made themselves look like morons in the process.  While I love the 360, there is NO WAY I am buying the Kinect at that price and despite not playing my PS3 all that often, I will probably pick up the Move.  Here is hoping that the eggheads at Microsoft will get half a brain and price the Kinect at no more than $100 bucks.  If they don’t, I fear the Kinect will go the same path as the 32X or Sega CD.