Microsoft game system Kinect coming, but with stiff price-tag

Microsoft Corp will sell its new Kinect motion-sensing gaming system for about $150 and also offer it in a package with the Xbox 360 videogame console when sales of the hands-free device start in November, the company said on Tuesday.

Since Kinect can only be used with the Xbox, the combined price works out to around $300, which is about $100 more than Nintendo's path-breaking motion-sensing Wii gaming console.

The price, omitted by Microsoft when it introduced Kinect at the E3 videogame conference in June, matches the pre-order price that retailers such as Best Buy, GameStop and Amazon.com posted online weeks ago.

Kinect sales start on 4 November, and Microsoft is sure to aim its marketing message at the owners of the more than 40 million Xbox 360 models that have already been sold. The sensor will come with a family game called 'Kinect Adventures'.

Kinect's camera-based system lets players control games with body and hand gestures and is seen as a means to spark sales momentum into the Xbox platform before the holiday season in a bid to lure new and casual players to the Xbox and steal customers from the rivals Nintendo Wii and Sony PlayStation 3.

It remains to be seen if cost-conscious consumers and game fans, many of whom have already bought one or more of the consoles, will warm to spending hundreds more on hardware, and Kinect-specific software costing about $50.