Rumor: Xbox 360 250GB Kinect Bundle E3 Price Drop to $299.99

S

Samuelc79

CAGiversary!
Feedback
1 (100%)
Source: http://www.e3expo.com/

At the advertisement link, I noticed this Target Lounge ad, and clicked it and got me to this website.

[IMG-L=5838]22857[/IMG-L]http://www.target.com/Video-Games/b/ref=nav_t_spc_13_13?ie=UTF8&node=1042122

Notice the image shows 299.99 for a 250 with Kinect Bundle deal. When clicking that ad, it shows the regular Target price at $399.99 as it has not officially dropped yet.

What do you all think. I think it is likely true, because of all those $50 gift card bundles coming out every week lately.

Moderators, if it is not the right place, please put the thread in the correct place. I tried to find a Rumor Deals Forum. If anyone else has posted this, I'm sorry I looked around and did not see this.

Thanks!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Upvote 0 Downvote
I've been thinking about getting the new Xbox for awhile. I can see this happening, but it may seem that the 4gig will be fazed out, and the 250 gig will become $200 on its own.
 
I was too, in the same shoe, trying to consider buying one. Had this urge since beginning of May, and then those $50 gift card bundles showing up, made me wait a bit, for announcement. I was thinking it would also make another bundle bigger than 250GB? Since PS3 is already on 320GB, probably likely going to 500GB eventually.
 
[quote name='Samuelc79']I was too, in the same shoe, trying to consider buying one. Had this urge since beginning of May, and then those $50 gift card bundles showing up, made me wait a bit, for announcement. I was thinking it would also make another bundle bigger than 250GB? Since PS3 is already on 320GB, probably likely going to 500GB eventually.[/QUOTE]

GS employee already let me know about the 500 GB PS3 his store had tons of 160's that weren't moving at all. These are being phased out as stand alone but the COD bundles will be the last run. They may also be changing Sports Champion from the basic Move bundles...depends on the games the announce at E3. Now that the X360 leaked $200 PS3 shouldn't be too far behind.
 
Here is one of my many crazy predictions for E3, sorry if it's already been rumored, I haven't kept up with gaming news as of late. They're going to announce a newer version of Kinect, thus making this deal very plausible because the ideal thought would be to get rid of all the older versions quickly.
 
Also, make sure to tip this at Joystiq, Kotaku, Engadget, etc.. We'll bring some more hits to CAG, and you can get some attention oo OP :)
 
Nice find man, all those gift card deals I passed up on the 360 seem to have been worth it. Only a couple of days left to find out, too bad I got finals when the expo is going on and I live 20 minutes away lol.
 
[quote name='Donutkid2222']Nice find man, all those gift card deals I passed up on the 360 seem to have been worth it. Only a couple of days left to find out, too bad I got finals when the expo is going on and I live 20 minutes away lol.[/QUOTE]

That sux donkey balls!!
 
[quote name='ssjmichael']The only thing i see them doing with Kinect is releasing it in White, possibly alongside a white version of the Xbox S[/QUOTE]

That would be awesome! My sister has a white tv so a black 360s would look a bit odd. I never really understood why they released the first 360 in white but never made a white S.
 
[quote name='TMD121']I've been thinking about getting the new Xbox for awhile. I can see this happening, but it may seem that the 4gig will be fazed out, and the 250 gig will become $200 on its own.[/QUOTE]


Im so in for a $100-$150 marked down 4gb version.
 
[quote name='Vap']That would be awesome! My sister has a white tv so a black 360s would look a bit odd. I never really understood why they released the first 360 in white but never made a white S.[/QUOTE]
LOL, I have a white 360 FF13 bundle near all black electronics and when you walk into the room and if someone didn't recognize a 360, they would mistake it for a giant egg carton on a stand.
 
[quote name='Vap']That would be awesome! My sister has a white tv so a black 360s would look a bit odd. I never really understood why they released the first 360 in white but never made a white S.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, a white version would look pretty sweet too, especially with the glossy finish. The Kinect was originally shown in white when it was still "Project Natal" so it is possible

Project-Natal-White.jpg
 
I just bought a 4GB at BB for 149.99 after getting the Target GC pm'd. can always go back and return it within 45 days. What do u think will happen with the 4gb's?
 
[quote name='jbug617']so we could possible see a $99 or $150 Xbox 360?[/QUOTE]

I think it's likely the 4GB model will drop to $150. I can also see them dropping the price of Kinect to $99
 
Wow, nice. I figured this was coming. The gift cards and free controllers and what not are always the indication of an impending price drop. I want to know what the 250 gb non-kinect unit will go for. That's the one I need.
 
Under normal circumstances, I want to believe the ad is a typo. However, guess what is coming up?
E3. Guess what retailers are handing out right now? Gift cards. If Target lowers the price, most likely Microsoft is pulling the strings behind this.

I can't wait to see the new lower prices! Yay Competition!
 
[quote name='ssjmichael']I can also see them dropping the price of Kinect to $99[/QUOTE]Unlikely there just gonna release more & hopefully better games it's already sold 10+ million at $150 they don't want to take a bullet out of the gun this early in the game. Plus accessories are usually the last things to drop in price otherwise controllers wouldn't MSRP at the cost of new games 4-6 ys in the console life cycle. $100 kinects will be a promo in late 2012-2013 UNLESS the make huge upgrades in a new $150 kinect which is unlikely till 720.

[quote name='fezlopez']Under normal circumstances, I want to believe the ad is a typo. However, guess what is coming up?
E3. Guess what retailers are handing out right now? Gift cards. If Target lowers the price, most likely Microsoft is pulling the strings behind this.
I can't wait to see the new lower prices! Yay Competition![/QUOTE]you got it plus there was a target ad pic leaked on CAG before the $150 Wii price cut too.
 
MS is likely to keep the 4gb S both as a wii price point competitor as well as for the replacement hardware market. Phasing out the 250gb model for 250gb kinect bundle seems a bit much.....I can see something like $129 4GB, $199 250gb, $299 250gb kinect bundle if MS really wants to put the screws to Sony....but we'll find out in 6 days.

A kinect price drop is possible given that, unlike other accessories, it actually has game revenue (presumably incremental) attached to it, so selling more kinects helps MS. Prices never drop on things like controllers/memory cards because you need them to play your system...Nobody needs a kinect to enjoy their 360 and when the kinect costs the same as entire wii system, maybe that price is now a bit high.
 
[quote name='K_G']MS is likely to keep the 4gb S both as a wii price point competitor as well as for the replacement hardware market. Phasing out the 250gb model for 250gb kinect bundle seems a bit much.....I can see something like $129 4GB, $199 250gb, $299 250gb kinect bundle if MS really wants to put the screws to Sony....but we'll find out in 6 days.

A kinect price drop is possible given that, unlike other accessories, it actually has game revenue (presumably incremental) attached to it, so selling more kinects helps MS. Prices never drop on things like controllers/memory cards because you need them to play your system...Nobody needs a kinect to enjoy their 360 and when the kinect costs the same as entire wii system, maybe that price is now a bit high.[/QUOTE]

+1

I believe the Kinect costs Microsoft around $50 to manufacture, so lowering the price to $100 would still make it profitable and make it seem more cost competitve to the PS Move...
 
[quote name='K_G']A kinect price drop is possible given that, unlike other accessories, it actually has game revenue (presumably incremental) attached to it, so selling more kinects helps MS. Prices never drop on things like controllers/memory cards because you need them to play your system...Nobody needs a kinect to enjoy their 360 and when the kinect costs the same as entire wii system, maybe that price is now a bit high.[/QUOTE]never seen a successful accessory drop in price by 33% in < a year much less one with a $500,000,000 marketing budget on top of R&D cost. At 10 million sold for $150 ea. that's only $1.5 billion & we know all of them didn't sell for full price plus they have a chance to milk another Xmas season out of it with a better software lineup for both X360 & kinect. A price drop at this point would be a hard sell to stockholders w/o drastic sale fall off similar to the 3ds. Plus if Sony isn't gonna cut the Move's price which hasn't even sniffed the total sales or success of kinect why should MS. Also, there's cost that we're not even figuring in either.
Simply put I wouldn't bet on it.
 
[quote name='Enuf']never seen a successful accessory drop in price by 33% in < a year much less one with a $500,000,000 marketing budget on top of R&D cost. At 10 million sold for $150 ea. that's only $1.5 billion & we know all of them didn't sell for full price plus they have a chance to milk another Xmas season out of it with a better software lineup for both X360 & kinect. A price drop at this point would be a hard sell to stockholders w/o drastic sale fall off similar to the 3ds. Plus if Sony isn't gonna cut the Move's price which hasn't even sniffed the total sales or success of kinect why should MS. Also, there's cost that we're not even figuring in either.
Simply put I wouldn't bet on it.[/QUOTE]

How can you have a price drop for the Xbox itself and not drop the price of the motion sensor for it?
If the Xbox ends up being 150 bucks, it's going to look awfully silly for the Kinect to be the same price right next to it..
 
[quote name='Microshock']How can you have a price drop for the Xbox itself and not drop the price of the motion sensor for it?
If the Xbox ends up being 150 bucks, it's going to look awfully silly for the Kinect to be the same price right next to it..[/QUOTE]

Yep, it would look silly to have the accessory at the same price as the console.. Plus even though the Kinect is selling quite well, it still hasn't really captured the bulk of the 360 demographic. I mean, 80% of 360 owners do not yet own a Kinect, and imagine many are from the Hardcore crowd. A price drop, with the combination of some hardcore Kinect games (which MS will no doubt showcase at E3) would be just what MS needs to get the rest of the base on board.
 
[quote name='Enuf']never seen a successful accessory drop in price by 33% in < a year much less one with a $500,000,000 marketing budget on top of R&D cost. At 10 million sold for $150 ea. that's only $1.5 billion & we know all of them didn't sell for full price plus they have a chance to milk another Xmas season out of it with a better software lineup for both X360 & kinect. A price drop at this point would be a hard sell to stockholders w/o drastic sale fall off similar to the 3ds. Plus if Sony isn't gonna cut the Move's price which hasn't even sniffed the total sales or success of kinect why should MS. Also, there's cost that we're not even figuring in either.
Simply put I wouldn't bet on it.[/QUOTE]

Outside of wii fit and kinect, I doubt there has been a 'successful' game dependent add on accessory in the last decade, and wii fit didn't cost $150...it came out $90. The thing is, MS doesn't see the Kinect as an accessory...they see it as 2-3 year life extender for the 360 platform that happens to be sold separately...Similarly, they view it both a market expander and a tool to use against Nintendo, hence all the more reason to lower the price. Kinect is a central pillar of MS's 360 strategy (unlike the Move on the PS3). Given near constant gift card promos/free game promos over the last 3 months on kinect, it is pretty obvious that MS is going to lower the price on kinect....it is just a question of how much.

MS doesn't give a shit about shareholders in regards to the video game division...If MS cared about that, they would have never gotten in the business in the first place. Yeah, it is doing quite well now, but only after losing billions upon billions from the Xbox1 era and the first few years of the 360. For MS, the whole Xbox effort has been a strategic effort to prevent from any other company from controlling/dominating the home media market and profitability has been usually a 2nd or 3rd level consideration in service of that main goal.

From MS's point of view, the fact that they sold 10 million of kinect at $150 is probably proof that they could sell another 15 million at $100, and given they made so much money at $150, they can afford to drop the price now rather than waiting.....That level of success is probably tempting them to double down rather than pull back and milk profit.
 
You gotta be freakin' kidding me! I just ordered a 4GB Kinect bundle from the Amazon Warehouse for $255 (like New) last Thursday! Lucky for me, it's not scheduled to be here until Wednesday and the great people at Amazon are going to contact UPS and have them refuse the shipment and give me my refund. I really do hope this deal goes live next week because that's an awesome deal and MS would be the wiser to make it happen. Worst case senario: I'll just have to re-buy a 360 at regular retail price :/
 
If you notice there's been no buzz around price drops for either Move or Kinect. The Kinect is still a "new" product they will bundle it before dropping the price the $150 budget system will have no effect on the $150 kinect if the 250 GB was $150 you'd have a point. A Kinect price cut is a big deal therefore they won't do this & a console price cut too. They'll space these things out to effect more than 1 qtr and/or fiscal yr sales it's smart business.
1-They will bulk up the software for kinect to make it have better hardcore appeal
2-bundle it with a game(s) that appeal to both casual/hardcore markets
3-examine it's sales during the 2011 holiday period to get an accurate projection on how the new software has on it for long term.
4-most likely we'll see move/kinect continue on the next gen as well so if the start the price drop cycle this early the games will cost more than the accessories.
If kinect goes to $100 now this early in it's life cycle the next drop in 2 yrs or less which they will be under pressure to do sooner since it went less than a yr before the 1st one will bring it to $75-$80. The next one after that $50 but by then they'll have an update version a la Wii motion plus.
It's TOO early for drops UNLESS there's a new upgraded version plus just look at the console trend you'd see a ton of giftcard offers for kinect leading up to the drop with rumors swirling. MS already stated E3 2011 kinect crazy it'll be games games games nothing more. Won't be too long before there's a major AAA using kinect or Move...COD big maybe not FPS but big titles will jump on it
I'll just settle for console price cuts & more game announcements like the Devil May Cry HD coll coming in Oct.
 
[quote name='Crazypanda_85']You gotta be freakin' kidding me! I just ordered a 4GB Kinect bundle from the Amazon Warehouse for $255 (like New) last Thursday! Lucky for me, it's not scheduled to be here until Wednesday and the great people at Amazon are going to contact UPS and have them refuse the shipment and give me my refund. I really do hope this deal goes live next week because that's an awesome deal and MS would be the wiser to make it happen. Worst case senario: I'll just have to re-buy a 360 at regular retail price :/[/QUOTE]

Your fault man. You should've known not to buy a console 2 weeks before E3.
 
[quote name='K_G']Outside of wii fit and kinect, I doubt there has been a 'successful' game dependent add on accessory in the last decade, and wii fit didn't cost $150...it came out $90. The thing is, MS doesn't see the Kinect as an accessory...they see it as 2-3 year life extender for the 360 platform that happens to be sold separately...Similarly, they view it both a market expander and a tool to use against Nintendo, hence all the more reason to lower the price. Kinect is a central pillar of MS's 360 strategy (unlike the Move on the PS3). Given near constant gift card promos/free game promos over the last 3 months on kinect, it is pretty obvious that MS is going to lower the price on kinect....it is just a question of how much.

MS doesn't give a shit about shareholders in regards to the video game division...If MS cared about that, they would have never gotten in the business in the first place. Yeah, it is doing quite well now, but only after losing billions upon billions from the Xbox1 era and the first few years of the 360. For MS, the whole Xbox effort has been a strategic effort to prevent from any other company from controlling/dominating the home media market and profitability has been usually a 2nd or 3rd level consideration in service of that main goal.

From MS's point of view, the fact that they sold 10 million of kinect at $150 is probably proof that they could sell another 15 million at $100, and given they made so much money at $150, they can afford to drop the price now rather than waiting.....That level of success is probably tempting them to double down rather than pull back and milk profit.[/QUOTE]

The problem is, Microsoft seems to be the only ones who see Kinect that way. So far, I have no reason to buy it, and a $50 price drop won't do the trick. It can do a lot of cool things, but I'm not planning to rip it apart and hack it, and I haven't seen enough to convince me it's worth $100 for gaming.
 
[quote name='Microshock']Your fault man. You should've known not to buy a console 2 weeks before E3.[/QUOTE]

You're right :( I had one of those late night shopping sprees and wasn't thinking. Thank God that I was able to return it. Now, I'm even more hyped for E3.
 
Here's hoping this means Sony and M$ think alike. Been without my PS3 for a few months via YLOD. Most people predicted the 360 price cut and then a sony price cut in response, but why not at the same time?
 
IMO a $300 Xbox 250GB/Kinect Bundle is believable. We know that Microsoft can make a $200 Xbox 360, a 250GB HD can be purchsed for less than $50, and it is believed that it costs Microsoft about $50 to manufacture the Kincet.
 
[quote name='Logical Dolphin']IMO a $300 Xbox 250GB/Kinect Bundle is believable. We know that Microsoft can make a $200 Xbox 360, a 250GB HD can be purchsed for less than $50, and it is believed that it costs Microsoft about $50 to manufacture the Kincet.[/QUOTE]

Don't put too much stock in those figures. The "$50 Kinect" number comes from a third party teardown and estimate, and I can remember a few cases in the past where those estimates ended up being really far off.

We have absolutely no idea what Microsoft is actually paying per unit. Based on what I've seen of the tech (and this is coming from an engineering perspective - I got to see some projects and papers that involved ripping apart the Kinect for other purposes), I figure $100 is probably a price point that would still allow Microsoft to make a profit, but that's just a gut estimate.

Kinect needs to be in as many homes as possible to have any real chance of long-term success - you need product adoption to move the software, and if software doesn't move there won't be more software in the future. We'll see just how much they want to move the hardware soon.
 
[quote name='K_G']Outside of wii fit and kinect, I doubt there has been a 'successful' game dependent add on accessory in the last decade.[/QUOTE]
*cough*music games*cough*

I'm really hoping that this turns out to be true, btw. I need a new Xbox as mine is on its lat leg.
 
I don't believe Move and Kinect are hering price drops any time soon. Selling more 360s will increase the demand for Kinects. Also, they did launch as if Sony and Microsoft treated them as new consoles, and not as accessories.
 
[quote name='Gothic Walrus']Don't put too much stock in those figures. The "$50 Kinect" number comes from a third party teardown and estimate, and I can remember a few cases in the past where those estimates ended up being really far off.

We have absolutely no idea what Microsoft is actually paying per unit. Based on what I've seen of the tech (and this is coming from an engineering perspective - I got to see some projects and papers that involved ripping apart the Kinect for other purposes), I figure $100 is probably a price point that would still allow Microsoft to make a profit, but that's just a gut estimate.

Kinect needs to be in as many homes as possible to have any real chance of long-term success - you need product adoption to move the software, and if software doesn't move there won't be more software in the future. We'll see just how much they want to move the hardware soon.[/QUOTE]

Based on what I have seen I think the $50 figure is fairly accurate, I haven't seen any cases where the estimates have been wildly off.

Bundled with $400 Xbox 250GB, Microsoft already effectively sells the Kinect for $100, so I believe the Kinect is still profitable at $100.

I don't expect Microsoft to sell the Kinect for under $100 anytime soon, but I think they would be willing to sell it at cost if it is bundled with the system so it can get as many out there as possible.

Based on what I have been seeing at retail, I think the Kinect software is moving pretty slowly and Microsoft needs to change their strategy to ensure its long-term success...
 
[quote name='elessar123']I don't believe Move and Kinect are hering price drops any time soon. Selling more 360s will increase the demand for Kinects. Also, they did launch as if Sony and Microsoft treated them as new consoles, and not as accessories.[/QUOTE]

I don't believe selling more 360s will increase the demand for Kinects, it just increases the potential market for it. If someone didn't buy a Kinect with their system, the only thing to motivate him to buy one later is some compelling application, which may or may not happen.

It is far better to sell the Kinect bundled with the system, so the Kinect customer is already there.

Yes the Move/Kinect launches were like their own new platform launches, but the honeymoon is over now, and the only thing at this point to stimulate demand is good software...
 
[quote name='CapnO']Does this indicate that a price drop is going to happen for the 250gb 360 without Kinect?[/QUOTE]

My "guess" is the following price drops will happen this year:

X360 4GB: $150
X360 250GB: $250
X360 250GB/Kinect: $300

Kinect: $100
250GB HD: $100

and the X360 4GB/Kinect Bundle will be discontinued...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
bread's done
Back
Top