"B-b-b-but I thought it was supposed to cost as much as another console b-b-b-by itself . . . ?"

One of these days fanboys will learn, Microsoft still wants to WIN this thing. They probably won't, but man they sure are entertaining trying.

Well they better if they want Natal to even remotely succeed.

as kowen said, it will be packed in. but think microsoft may have 360 redesign and relaunch with natal part of it. next e3 will be good 2 watch

Wow...so M$ is going to launch a 360 with Natal for $499...yeah..that sounds better...lol.

Well, it's kinda like spending millions to completely redesign a new console and cut the price...

If Natal is packaged with the 360, launch price is likely in the range of 400 - 500.

The recent $50 Elite rebates was a market test for MS. If consumer response was good, we can expect to see the drop make permanent soon. Some analysts expected such drop as early as Feb, Mar 2010. After that the $250 price will likey stay the same until 2011.

How much will Natal retail for when it launches is a big guess for everyone. We should not expect it to be packaged with the system for $299 however as this suggests Natal can be sold separately for $50, the price of a controller! This is too much wishful thinking.

Rather expect it to lauch separately for $150 - 250, putting the complete Natal Elite 360 package at $400 - $500. R&D cost for Natal is probably much more than most of us give it credit for. There are some cutting edge sci-fi like tech stuffed in there. Things like voice recognition, facial recognition, body gesture tracking and the associated AI, etc. are very difficult problems that MS and many others have been working on for more than a decade. So expect some of that R&D cost to be factored into Natal.

Sorry, but this makes no sense to be that M$ would launch EVERY 360 with Natal at $400-500, while PS3 will retail at $299 and Wii at $199.  They would effectively be using Sony's strategy this generation, and it didn't work at all...it is also the same strategy used last generation that didn't work.  If M$ launches every 360 with Natal, there's no way they price it at anything more than $299, imho.

which people are free to skip posting on...as some of us have the tact to do on many postings on this site...

If this is the case, don't be suprised when natal outsells sony's motion controller.

Motion controller...more like don't be surprised if 360 outsell everything...at least in NA.