The price is right for Kinect, says EEDAR analyst

When Microsoft first announced that Kinect will cost $150, many were not surprised, but others felt that the price is a too steep. In fact, one of our writers believes that it may lead to its downfall. However, an analyst from think tank Electronic Entertainment Design and Research (EEDAR) believes that Kinect is priced appropriately.

Analyst Jesse Divnich said that EEDAR looked at peripheral pricing over the last five years and found that band kits sold well in spite of costing over $150. Furthermore, band kits are limited to games only within the music genre, as opposed to Kinect. He emphasized that Kinect shouldn’t be seen as a software peripheral, but as a hardware peripheral.

Divnich added that game-specific peripherals have a “limited shelf-life” in terms of appeal. After all, you can only play so much of a music rhythm or driving game before you get bored with it. In contrast, the Kinect can be played with many kinds of games.

Finally, Divnich had some advice for Microsoft in how to effectively market Kinect. He explained that we often don’t hear of its ability to interact with other forms of media using gesture-based controls. Microsoft does point this out in their first trailer by showing Kinect interact with Zune videos. However, Divnich felt that this may send the wrong message to consumers (e.g. it only works with Microsoft products) when in fact Kinect can also interact with Netflix and DVDs. He did seem confident though, that Microsoft will address this issue in later promotions closer to launch.

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