Much has been made about the rumored $150 price for the Xbox 360 Kinect especially in comparison to the $100 price for the PS Move bundle that was announced at E3.  Some say that price is too expensive for a product targeted towards the casual market.  Others say that the price is in line with similar offerings from the Nintendo Wii and Playstation 3.  However, what about the price of the games? 

Pre-orders for Kinect games have already started but instead of being priced at a casual game level of $39.99 to $49.99, they are listed at a full price of $59.99 that is typically reserved for games like Halo, Call of Duty, or Mass Effect.  Kinect Adventures, Kinectimals, Kinect Joy Ride, Kinect Sports, and Harmonix's Dance Central are all listed at $59.99 at both GameStop and Amazon.com.

By contrast, PS Move games of a similar nature like Sports Champions, The Fight: Lights Out, Start the Party, Singstar Dance, and even Sorcery are priced casually at $39.99.  The $20 difference in price is completely unexpected considering that Microsoft has previously had casual first-party games such as Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts at $39.99.  JoyRide, in fact, was originally announced as a free-to-play Xbox LIVE Arcade game with paid DLC until Microsoft decided to make it a Kinect game.

Why Microsoft didn't price the Kinect games at a price that is more competitive to the Wii and PS Move games is unclear.  Since the entire demonstration for Kinect at E3 and elsewhere has, to this point, been entirely about attracting casual gamers to the Xbox 360 the game prices may end up pushing them away instead.

We are attempting to contact Microsoft to get their comments on the price differences.

http://www.examiner.com/x-28759-Atlanta-Video-Game-News-Examiner~y2010m6d17-Xbox-360-Kinect-games-not-priced-for-casual-gamers

They also have Forza Kinect listed and dated.

http://www.amazon.com/Forza-Kinect-Xbox-360/dp/B002I0JD1C/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1276794970&sr=1-1

MS never said what the prices of the Kinect games were going to be.

Causal gaming ftw.

I wonder what you're trying to say. Casual gamers won't care that the games do not have casual gamer friendly prices simply because Microsoft never said anything about prices?

No I am saying the prices they are quoting from web sites are bullshit because MS hasn't announced any.  The web sites are probably further bullshit because they have listed a game that doesn't even have a title yet.

MS silence = negative speculation

Life continues as usual.

prbably not true but if so i hope kinect fails greedy chumps

While it is true that we do not know the official prices.

It is also true that Gamestop and Amazon probably have some information on which to base their "guesses."

Mike from Morgantown

So assuming this is true, the absolute minimum price to get a 360 and start using Kinect (if you purchase the arcade model) will be $360 (whoa weird) since you will need a 360, a Kinect camera, and at least 1 game. Not to mention soon the $150 arcade will be phased out, so the minimum at that point becomes $410-$510, depending on whether they keep the elite model or just stick with the $300 slim model.

No casual consumer is going to do that when they can simply purchase a Wii for $200, that already comes with a controller, motion plus, Wii Sports, AND Wii Sports Resort. Not to mention Wii already has a much greater catalog of games, that appear to be of much better quality (at least the Nintendo made ones are). It's really a no brainer for consumers.

This thing may sell to a few mothers, little brothers and sisters, and girlfriends of gamers who ALREADY own an Xbox 360, but Kinect will not sell very many 360s itself, if any, especially not judging from the quality of these early Kinect games.

If true that just sucks badddddd :S especially when the competition having lower prices for their games