Okay, so I was at Walmart earlier tonight looking for a component cable for my psp and I happened to spot all of the 360 accessories, and it occurred to me; there are so many hoping for Natal to launch at a mass market price to spur adoption rates. However, looking at this realistically, almost every one of Microsoft's accessories is twice the price that it needs to be ($40 web camera, $60 headset), so what makes anybody think that Microsoft will launch Natal at a reasonable price (aside from being bundled with the system, which does nothing for the 30+ million existing owners)?

Yes, I am aware that Microsoft is conscious of not pricing Natal out of the reach of consumers, however, it is not a standard practice of Microsoft to price anything inexpensively (yes, the console itself was cheaper than the ps3; this is more because the ps3 was expensive, not because the 360 was ever cheap). It is more likely Microsoft will charge an absurd price (at least what I feel is absurd, like around $100) and simply use their marketing genius to make others feel this is a value. I refuse to believe that Natal, an advanced camera with a built-in processor, is going to launch within $20 dollars of their standard web camera.

You feel that 100 bucks is too much for a camera whose processor is rumored to be more powerful than the x360 is too much?Iam honestly expecting it to be 200 bucks and up....

Offtopic: Ah I love grandia 2, hah the church of granas.

^ No, I don't think $100 is too much (I feel that is realistic, $200 seems a bit much though as even if it were as powerful as the 360, the 360's processor does not cost anywhere close to $200), but I can't see it being under that, which I think it would need to be to perceived as a mass market price.

Personally, I judge off of value, not the price, which is why I bought the ps3 when it was still $500, however, I think for Natal to start this revolution that everybody thinks it will need to have a mass market price ($100 is pushing it in my mind).

M$ is going to roll out Natal with a MASSIVE campiagn for the holiday season, and it's going to be a major console deller, imho...at leat in NA. With that said, they are going to stick to a price that consumers will not have too much heartburn about, but at the same time, at a price to come in close to breakeven. I can't imagine this thing costing more than the 360 to produce, so estiamtes of $200+ are riddiculous, imho. I think they will launch it at between $89-$119. The range is wide, but I'm sure M$ is looking at WiiFit, and thinking, this is a nice launch model. By next Fall, they should be able to launch a 360 Natal model maybe with a HDD) for $249, and probably a premium for $349. I think they will drop the price on regular arcades to $179 as well for people who don't want Natal, and to for price competitiveness.

If Microsoft want it to sell ala 360 arcade, they will price it cheaply.

Those accessories are hardly in demand. People automatically assume the cam will be $200 because the wireless adapator is $100.

Wireless adapator costs nowhere near $100 for them to make and they're raking in profit on it. With Natal I imagin they will want to take a small loss to get it out there.

So I expect a $60 - $90 range

I think they need to hit sub $100 for it to be a long term success personally. Thats just for a good launch though, they still need to backup the product with investments in terms of great games also to constantly bring in new gamers. If it came out for $150 then I think its a reasonable price for the technology but they'll never sell at that price. If some gamers on this site don't consider it that different to the PSeye then there is no chance of getting casual buyers to believe it's worth so much more.

How much is WiiFit in the US? I think that's the price you are looking at for Natal (it's around 80 euro's here, so I'm guessing similar in the US?). Anything higher will make it harder to sell imho.

I thnk it launched at $119...but I could be wrong.  Now, you can get it from $89 to $99.

Well, then 119 seems reasonable to me, especially considering the marketing that MS will put behind this. Should make for a fun 2010 :p

I think we've all seen the rudimentary capabilities of the Natal tech, and it looks impressive and capable of much, but I'd hardly say I'm going to get it based on what I've seen.  M$ is going to have to bundle it with a killer app like Wii Sports or Wiifit to push this device.  Not only that, but those 14 launch titles had better have 2-3 AAA titles in the bunch.