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Forums - Microsoft Discussion - Standalone X1 Kinect to retail for $149 from October 6

kupomogli on 27 August 2014

I'm sure they're aware that this won't sell to the people who purchased a Kinectless Xbox One and the $149 price tag is to make the Xbox One bundle look more appealing to new customers.



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dreamcast210 on 27 August 2014
Burek said:
dreamcast210 said:
Cirio said:
Will it at least be bundled with a game like Kinect 1.0 was?


Giant Bomb has confirmed that it will come with Dance Central: Spotlight which includes 10 songs. http://www.giantbomb.com/articles/a-standalone-xbox-one-kinect-will-cost-you-150/1100-5003/

And for the people saying $150 is high, this is standard marketing procedure. Offering the standalones at the same total cost as the bundle, doesn't give people incentive to purchase the bundle. Even the 360 bundles with Kinect reflected this same pricing strategy. You can look at any field of entertainment (or merchandise in general) and see the same thing applied. Think of movies. Each movie in a trilogy might cost $14.99 each (total of $44.97) but the bundled trilogy might cost $29.99.

So, Microsoft's strategy all along was to overprice their console by bundling an unwanted peripheral, so that when the sales come crashing down, they can unbundle the peripheral, sell the console for $100 less, and then return the peripheral at a 50% higher price, just so they can stimulate the sales of the original $499 bundle nobody cared about in the first place...

No. That wasn't there strategy at all. The problem is they already have a bundle available for $500. So they have to price the separate pieces of the bundle to equal an amount higher than the bundle. Think of a wholesale club like Costco where you can buy things in bulk. Let's say you bought a box of 20 Snickers bars for $14.99. But if you went to a regular store, they sell them individually at $1 each ($20 for 20 obviously). It's the same amount of each item, but because of how it's being sold (individual vs. bulk) they are priced differently. The buyer is enticed to buy in bulk because of the apparent savings for doing so.

It's the same with the standalone Kinect pricing. Yes, it's more expensive, and as such, it gives the bundled Kinect SKU the illusion of saving money, even though it has always been priced that way since launch.



Author of science fiction and other genres, I write under the pen name Desmond Shepherd. The second season of my series The Permanent Man premieres on November 11, 2014. Pre-order the season premiere The Walls Have Ears on Amazon today!