Microsoft earlier today finally confirmed what everyone suspected: Kinect will cost $149. The folks at EEDAR has reacted to the news, calling it an appropriate price for the camera peripheral.
"By examining peripheral pricing over the last five years, EEDAR feels that $150 is an appropriate price for the Kinect. Previous peripherals with mass-market appeal, such as band kits, have sold millions of units worldwide even while priced north of $150," commented analyst Jesse Divnich. "With band kits, however, consumers were tethered to only enjoying games within the music genre and developers restricted on future iterations by the install base of non-upgradeable band kits."
He continued, "As a camera and motion sensor based device, the Kinect does not have those same limitations; developers will be able to optimize its software for years to come. Kinect should not be viewed as a software peripheral, as most peripherals are, but rather a hardware peripheral."
"Additionally, game specific peripherals have a limited shelf-life in terms of appeal; there are only so many sessions of Guitar Hero one can enjoy before game fatigue sets in. With the Kinect, however, there is the possibility of a wide array of games across a broad range of genres, potentially giving the Kinect a much longer shelf-life than a typical peripheral. The Kinect should not be viewed as a typical video game peripheral that is retired from one’s active playlist after 90 days, but rather a consumer enabling device that has the potential to revolutionize the way we interact with all forms of media on a daily basis."
Divnich added that Microsoft's introduction of a new Arcade SKU with 4GB of internal memory was a good move. "EEDAR always felt the Xbox 360 Arcade SKU, which didn’t come with a hard-drive, to be counter-productive to Microsoft’s goal of delivering both physical and digital entertainment to the masses. Now with the new Xbox 360 4GB SKU, even price sensitive consumers can still enjoy Xbox Live's Library of hundreds of digital games," he said.
With the new 4GB SKU and Kinect, Microsoft may have a chance of capturing more of the casual crowd this holiday. "Overall, EEDAR is very positive on the Kinect. The Kinect’s success this holiday season is crucial to rekindling the energy among the casual and mainstream audience, the same audience that has exacerbated software revenue declines since 2009," noted Divnich.
3 Comments
July 20, 2010
""By examining peripheral pricing over the last five years, EEDAR feels that $150 is an appropriate price for the Kinect. Previous peripherals with mass-market appeal, such as band kits, have sold millions of units worldwide even while priced north of $150," commented analyst Jesse Divnich. "With band kits, however, consumers were tethered to only enjoying games within the music genre and developers restricted on future iterations by the install base of non-upgradeable band kits."
Except the band games can be enjoyed by more than two people playing at once. Kinect only allows for two people playing a game at once. And, in all honesty, it doesn't look very good from what they have shown.
July 20, 2010
Guitar Hero was a cultural phenomenon at >$100 before the band kits were released. It's a poor comparison. It's easier to compare it to the Sega 32X which was also $150 or to a Wii that is $200 with two games and is already popular with the masses.
4GB of internal storage is also pretty pathetic.
July 21, 2010
Lauding the $149 price point seems odd given the very lackluster surveys showing limited consumer interest in the Kinect, even when a price point wasn't stated. The band instrument sales were driven by consumer interest in the SOFTWARE, not the hardware. It was a craze, not a sustainable market (see where music software sales have gone in the last year!). If Microsoft had some compelling, gotta-have software bundled with Kinect, then $149 might not hurt sales too badly. Or even the prospect of a lot of interesting titles might drive some sales... but as it is, it looks like a bunch of Wii titles. This analysis strikes me as very superficial and rather unlikely on its face. I realize industry insiders would love for Kinect and other hardware being introduced to jumpstart sales, but just waving pompoms isn't going to make it so.