Microsoft Kinect is $149, new budget Xbox 360 planned

Even though this was sort of revealed a month ago, Microsoft confirmed that its hands-free Kinect controller for the Xbox 360 will cost $149.99.

What we didn’t know last month is that it will launch with a game as well, Kinect Adventures. Essentially this is Microsoft’s answer to Wii Play – a collection of minigames designed to show users how Kinect works, aiding the drooling mongloids who’ve never seen a games console.

I’m sticking to what I wrote previously on this: game or no game, Kinect is $50 too much. Like it or not, $149.99 looks a lot more than $99.99 to the average consumer – the price of Sony’s rival Move controller.

There’s also a new budget level Xbox 360 console SKU being planned. This will contain built in Wi-Fi N, a black matte finish like that of the Xbox 360 S, and 4GB of internal memory. It’s coming August 3rd for $199.99. You can get both the new console and Kinect for a combined $299.99 later this year, as part of the Kinect Holiday Bundle.

[Via Major Nelson]