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Natal To Cost $149 – Source
Natal will launch in the US this October with a price tag of $149.
That’s according to a trusted source, who told us that the motion sensing camera will also be bundled with the Xbox 360 Arcade console for $299.
We were informed that prices outside of the US would be determined based on a number of factors, including exchange rates. Based on current rates, the standalone unit would retail for £103 / €121, and the console and Natal bundle for £207 / €243.
The figure for the standalone unit is significantly higher than a previous sub-£50 estimate, but less than pricing recently suggested by European retailers. It’s also more expensive than Sony’s Natal rival Move, which will be available later this year with a game for less than $100.
Our source said that the device has been pencilled in for an October 26 worldwide launch, although we were advised that the date could yet shift by a few weeks either way.
We were also told that Microsoft’s camera definitely won’t be called Natal, that its proper title will be revealed at E3 next month, and that It will be heavily targeted at causal players and families.
“Microsoft expects to sell millions and millions of Natal units in its first year on the market so you can expect the software launch line-up to target non-traditional gamers,” our source said. “A major marketing campaign will also play a key role in attracting and educating the expanded audience about Xbox 360’s controller-free revolution.”
When contacted about this report, Microsoft told us that it "does not comment on rumour or speculation”.
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TOO MUCH MONEY!!!!!!!!!!!
Microsoft, if you are reading this, I suggest you listen to the people here and on other websites!
VERY FEW PEOPLE are going to be interested in Natal for $149.
I can tell you that I was very interested in Natal when the rumors of $49 or $59 were circulating.
But for $149 I am DEFINITELY NOT interested in Natal.
Same thing with Halo: Reach... For $149 I am NOT interested in the Legendary version of the game. I paid $129 for the Legendary version of Halo 3, and that was the absolute maximum I would pay. $149 is pathetic in touch economy. How dare you say the price of Natal will be based on currency rates (trying to squeeze every penny out of a dollar), and then raise the prices in such a tough economy!
I'm going to get the Standard version of Halo: Reach from Amazon.com because it costs $59.99, and if you preorder you get $20 off your next game, which basically means you are getting Halo: Reach for $39.99 with free shipping and no taxes (depending on where you live). Lets see how you like it when consumers try and squeeze every penny out of the dollar.
Oh, and for the record, my friends and I still have not purchased a joystick for Xbox 360 or PS3 because of the INSANE prices this generation! I can speak for my friends, too; we will NOT be paying $149 for Natal, no matter how many games it comes with.
As arcade sticks go it might not be the fanciest on the market, for the price though, nothing else comes close and it's definitely worth every penny.
i have two of those, they do a good job for the price. All my console-raised friends couldn't deal with them though so i had to buy the fightpads too (HMV are selling the SFIV branded ones off cheap)
In less than a month we'll all know if it works, how much lag it creates , if the launch games are any good, what it's really going to be called, and hopefully what it will cost. We might even have seen it hooked up to a 360 slim. So, why not just wait and see, after all, if they are right, the 360 haters will really have something to get their teeth into then.
Denial
this is bullshit
Anger
THIS IS BULLSHIT
Bargaining
oh god, allah or....ahem...jesus.....please take away this burden of high priced accessories and i promise to buy more games at retail so msoft won't punish us
Depression
wow this is bullshit
Acceptance
fuck it....where's the closest gamestop.
I'd still say it's a planned leak so that when they make the big announcement on price (I'd go with 99 bucks) they get a decent crowd response
Even $99 would be too much for it to catch on with any significant number of consumers. This will have to be $50 or less for it to sell well in the accessory aftermarket. If not, then someone will have to come up with a killer title or two to justify the purchase of this Wii++ remote.
$99 being too much is going to depend on the pack-in. For $60 (absolute tops), I can see them selling the hardware by itself. For $100-110, there better be either a great game included, or even lots of crappy stuff (Ricochet, painting, some cool-but-useless tech demos and a bunch of minigames for example).
I absolutely agree that 100 bucks for the hardware simply by itself is dead on arrival. If I'm just buying the hardware, really all I can do with it is control the 360. That might be an interesting tech geek curiosity . . . but not $100 interesting. I think its going to be a while before Natal integration seeps into mainstream titles to any extent that would drive sales , so the Natal-specific software is going to be the hardware mover out of the gate (especially at $100).
As people have said . . . they have 2 weeks. Either they bring something awesome, or not.
But $150 is friggin' nuts. The Arcade is $200, for Pete's sake!
well, I'll go with wild speculation and say the only reason I would go with $99 is that the rumour was it was going to cost around $50, they realised they couldn't do it at that price, now if you announce $99 and everybody is expecting $50 it's not going to look very good, so the only solution you have is to make people think it will be significantly more, hence we get 2 articles within a week of Natal being highly priced.
although the $99 I'd guess would be the stand-alone with the Arcade/Natal(Wave) bundle selling for $179.99 to sit itself firmly beside Ninty.
Well MS has a habit of releasing products just to cut back momentum on the competition (HD-DVD as an example). I would not be surprised if NATAL just failed out of the release door but i believe they do a good job of marketing the thing regardless in more ways than one.
In anticipation of Industry_Insider, this should have today's bases covered...
April's NPD figures
A certain prediction...
I personally wouldn't be suprised if God of War 3 didn't appear in the Top-10 NPD Sales chart for April. And IF it does, I can put 25 years of experience on the line and GUARANTEE it will be at the bottom end of the chart....And THAT is something you can quote me on when the April NPD sales chart is released
Mooks,
Looks like I was wrong.
I predicted God of War 3 would end up seeing enough of a sales decline that it would end up ranked no higher than #6 in the Top 10 chart. God of War 3 ended up doing slightly better than I expected, at #5 in the Top 10 for monthly sales.
If this had been a deal for money, I guess I would be paying up right now.
Take care, bud.
So 6th place?
PEOPLE PEOPLE! HEAR THIS, HEAR THIS! 6th place out of 10 is now considered THE BOTTOM!
No, Kimberly, this sad excuse doesn't work.
my respect for you has risen ten fold
If true then they have a possible FLOP on their hands.
This addon is bizarrely aimed at the "casual gamer", most of whom have already bought a Wii. If dollars goes to pounds like it normally does then they had better throw in an Xbox360 for about £50 or it'll undersell and won't catch "casuals" like they would hope.
Casual gamers - most likely tired of the Wii by now - and possibly even games period - are unlikely to fork out another £300 for a new motion-based "casual" system.
People not yet convinced by videogames may be interested in the controller free system but the price may still put them off unless 360 is heavily discounted in a bundle.
If it's as crap as some reports say it is, they might even be pricing it deliberately high to stop people buying it and finding out after all their initial hype.
So you think M$ are going to price high to stop people buying it as clearly they don't want to make any sales after all that investment, I guess you also think that no one in the press will review it either just in case the big secret that it's crap gets out to the public. Get a grip!
I would say that, in all probability, schnide was joking.
Actually, I wasn't. Microsoft can afford to take the hit on their finances for the investment in Natal a lot more than they can their reputation - especially with the hype that was generated over what Natal now probably can't actually do, and also since now we live in times where Apple have overtaken Microsoft on the stock exchange.
It'd be a lot better to sell it for too much and blame cost as the reason that no-one bought it, making Natal 2 both better and cheaper than for everyone to buy it cheaply and ridicule it into the ground.
You think M$ want another disaster on the scale of the RROD on their hands? They'd rather kill it dead and start again than admit it wasn't good enough.
Sega kind of did the same with their Sega CD and 32X (probably unintentionally) priced them really expensive and you could say that it didn't sell because of it but no matter how expensive it was some people, and I mean in the thousands, bought it regardless of price cause... you know... some people have more money than others including the press who HAVE to buy it. With just those few thousand buyers plus the power of a little thing called the internet everyone will know if it didn't work and that it was a bust.
The RROD in the end turned out as a lot of good press and kind of a win in PR for M$ in the end. Have you forgotten the headlines they made when it was announced that they will spend over a BILLION dollars to make it RIGHT for their consumers? The money back they will get if they had their Xbox repaired previously to the announcement, etc. Polls showed they came out all right from it.
Your theory sounds a little naive to me, specially with the amount of press they are dedicating to Natal for this E3.
Or maybe the fact that MS is talking about it daily, went to the considerable expense of putting on an entirely separate announcement show with MTV broadcasting it commercial free and featuring Cirque du Soleil is a sign that they are confident people will like the way it works and the early reports were just that - reports based on early, unfinished test units. You don't spend that type of money attracting the mainstream media for something you hope will fail.
So many conspiracy theories...
My point is that however high they price it they'll still get hit with the backlash if it doesn't work, in those circumstances it's probably better to sell cheap and hope enough people rush out and buy it before the message that it's crap gets out. Also, the fact that they are going to show it off to the press before E3 this year, a good four months before it gets released, suggests that it probably works and that M$ are confident that it will be well received.
I owe you an apology by the way, sorry!
As for the matter at hand. I agree, I just don't see a deliberately high price as a sensible way of minimising reputation hits.
Going back to the RROD, this happened partly because they were trying to keep costs down, and partly because they wanted to take advantage of the VHS-Betamax effect and release before the PS3, so they didn't do enough QA. Relating that to Natal then I could envisage a similar situation where they release something too early because they want to beat Sony to the punch - Move in this case.
Basically if they're trying to keep the costs down - as the removal of the on board chip indicates. Then it's either because it doesn't work all that well, but they're more worried about getting out first. Or it's because it works fine and they're just trying to get a cost/desirability balance.
If they're deliberately raising the price - which the removal of the chip seems to contradict. Then it's either because it works brilliantly and their analysis has decided that the desirability is high enough to counteract the higher cost. Or it's this hypothesis of trying to minimise sales.
But in the latter case - if they're deliberately trying to minimise sales then they're happy to not make use of the VHS-Betamax effect. In which case, why not just delay until improvements are made and release something that works well? I cannot see how the hit to their reputation of releasing something deliberately expensive, which works poorly, is going to be less than the reputation hit of delaying something until it works well - or releasing it anyway at as low a price as you can manage of course, which precludes the hypothesis of a deliberate price raise. Therefore, the idea of it being crap and them deliberately upping the price just doesn't seem to work.
For me that leaves the other three as the only realistic possibilities to explain the price point - it's either brilliant and that's as cheap as they can get it, it's crap but they want to be out before move (and it's as cheap as they can get it), or it's fantastic and they have deliberately upped the price. Then, the implication of the chip removal - that they're striving to keep costs down - suggests it's one of the former two only and this really is as cheap as they can get it.
Really? You don't think that, if things were that bad, they'd just hold it back and refine it more? There must be better ways to handle the situation than just making it quite expensive? It seems a very simplistic solution to me - not to mention a rather perverse logic.
Even at that price, I would expect enough people will still buy it to have a significant negative impact on their reputation if it doesn't work well, then the high price will just be an extra stick to beat them with. If they were that worried about its performance (technically speaking), then surely a delay for refinement would be a much smaller hit to their reputation than releasing it at a high price?
It may end up being useless and too expensive, but I just can't see that they would deliberately make it too expensive to try to cover their tracks as it were. Deliberately making the price high to discourage sales just isn't a viable business decision if it isn't working well. Assuming it doesn't work well, it may be brilliant after all, then there must be plenty of other "lesser evils" that they could do rather than that.
If the amount of lag is true and they can't fix it, then maybe there'd be no refining they could do without scrapping it altogether and they'd lose far too much face in doing that.
They want this thing to appeal to the mainstream, let's not pretend that isn't the main market they're going for. The mainstream don't read videogame websites, they don't read the specialist press and I don't think the Wii became popular because of an EDGE review. A lot of it was word of mouth.
Nerds can get incessant all they like about the supposed high price (and hey look - they are!) but if people don't buy Natal, it can't spread around to the massmarket. The damage will be limited.
Are you seriously trying to tell me that Microsoft can afford to sell the Xbox 360 console for £99 but can't sell a camera peripheral (on top of removing the chip inside it to make it even cheaper) for under £150? I know that the 360 has been going a few years now so production costs have come down, but even then I don't buy that as being a significant factor in these price differences. It's a camera, ffs.
Microsoft can launch the thing with all the fanfare it wants - there's no hardware going to be shown at this launch, right? - and then launch it at a high price, get some bad reviews for it and let it die down. Out come the PR stooges with "well it wasn't perfect, but we believe it was the high price that killed it and HEY! LOOK NATAL 2! This does everything we said Natal 1 would but it isn't even half as expensive!" and have everyone cooing around it. Natal 1 becomes a distant memory. If it's so good, why haven't we seen anything decent of it? Why was Molyneux not given the latest and supposedly better iteration to show to the press?
This is all my theory based on the facts available. I appreciate you may not understand or agree with the logic. We will just have to wait and see. I personally hope it can let me control games with just a twitch of my left nostril, make my breakfast in the morning and get me dressed all for £20 without a hint of lag.
But I don't think that's going to be the case, so it's next move: Microsoft.
I'm still not convinced that the high price will prevent word of crapness getting out to the mass market, and expensive crapness to boot. After all, the mainstream understands that the 360 is a relatively unreliable console. If fact, I remember one of my casual gamer friends quoting to me things that had blatantly originated in the tabloids, such as that the 360 crashed every 7 minutes on average, within the first few weeks of its release. As such, I just don't see how it wouldn't be preferable for them to simply to delay the release or sell it cheap. I do get your logic, I just think there's better ways for them to handle it, assuming the lag etc is as bad as claimed. I refer you to a reply I made above, if they are deliberately upping the price (I suspect the high price is due to a combination of bespoke hardware and paying off the R&D), it seems more sensible that they think they've got a winner on their hands and think they can up the price, without significant sales reductions, so that their profit margins go up.
Anyway, I hope it does all of those things too. Although involuntary nostril twitches could cause all manner of issues - they'd certainly have to turn friendly fire off as standard.
I figure they'll just sell it for a ridiculous price now so that when they release some kind of 360 slim in a year or so, they can go "look with built in natal that doesn't even cost an additionla £150! BARGIN!"
Exactly! Were people expecting $50? Surely that would have been awesome and they would have actually sold a few but really when has any manufacturer of late released something at a decent price?
They always have to start high and move down, its part of the life cycle of the product, they have it all mapped out for us suckers.
i don't think i'll be interested in the main Natal titles (i already have a Wii) but i am looking forward to devs finding inventive ways for motion control to enhance the games i already enjoy. Corner peeking in FPS games by tilting your own head for example would allow greater control without introducing more button presses and maybe even a natal assisted FPS could begin to rival PC mouse/Keyboard control.
I also like the idea of Natal replicating hand-movements for sneaky silent FPS tactics, being able to have your ingame avatar point at a target would be much easier than the current method of shouting "to the right! no my right! no by that tree! the tree i'm looking at! GAH!"
I won't be buying super MS Breakout anytime soon, but i have faith in the talent found in games industry and that certain devs will discover great uses for the tech that go beyond anything i can dream up.
£100+ is a bit too steep for the casual market though, especially if your main target audience already owns a Wii
"to the right! no my right! no by that tree! the tree i'm looking at! GAH!"
so that was you! Sorry about that.
I like your idea of the Natal offering extensions to current control schemes. However, the extensions probably aren't significant enough to make the games Natal only. This means that it is likely that the games won't be designed with the extensions as a crucial part of the control scheme, they'll be more a useful enhancement than a requirement. I would say, therefore, that at that price, those enhancements won't be desirable enough to encourage people to shell out so much for a few nice little extras. In other words, although I really like those ideas, they'll only work as bonuses on top of Natal only games, so MS are still stuck with having to ensure there are killer apps first - we'll never get to see those interesting hybrid control schemes if they don't.
all disappointingly true...
:(
$149?? LOL!
no thanks.
Thinking about this, this could have the potential to kick start the next gen if ms have to make up ground if it turns out to be an expensive white elephant.
I still think MS is planning to release the next x-box Holiday 2011 and announce it at E3 next year. Natal is following an eerily similar trajectory to the Arcade launch the last year of the original x-box. MS has a long history as a 2.0 company ("rough around the edges" initial launch followed relatively quickly by a far more refined product).
I think this launch is just to get consumers and developers used to the idea of this technology, work out the kinks and buy some time until the technology becomes cheaper to manufacture as a standard feature in the next system.
I'm sure they have contingency plans that if this ends up being a huge success (certainly not at $149!) they can push out the launch of the next system, but I really think their existing plan is next Holiday. Time will tell.
Yup, that's been on my mind too. I'd love it to be great, I really would, but I just can't see it, especially at this price, or even anything remotely near this figure. I think sonys thinking long term, they're on a decent trajectory at the mo but MS...they're heading toward that 3rd place finish. If this dies a death then I expect we'll hear an announcement regarding new console hardware sooner than previously expected.
I've never really seen Natal as being a particularly mouth-watering proposition. I imagine that for the "core" gamers out there it will prove little more than an interesting diversion.
I'm looking forward to seeing the final version, but more out of curiosity than anything else.
Sub $100 or no sale. It will die a death like PSPgo at that price.
If it comes bundled with good software then it's not too much. That and lionhead annonce a Black & White natal control for a launch title. I think that this being used with a controller say, make a hand sign and your avatar does it in a FPS. More than remove the controller for more core games. I could then see more the competerive tea-bagers get one only to piss others off, making lewd gestures over my dead body.
Super Hi-Tech camera perhaps or SHiT Camera for short?
They should call it Play In Social Settings or PISS for short, worked for Ninty after all
As others have mentioned, that pricing is precariously close to the Wii as a standalone unit, let alone as a bundle. It'll have to offer something immediately and obviously different to stand a chance with either current or potential 360 owners, if indeed it even has one to start with.
Still, if that's the best price they can manage, it explains why they had to lose the on-board chip in favour of deferring the processing to the 360 itself!
I hope it turns out to be groundbreaking, but I haven't seen anything hugely convincing/impressive as yet. Good luck to them, looks like they're going to need it.
at that price - the fact that there is NO onboard chip is outrageous.
'trusted source' = Microsoft
There is no such thing as a Microsoft leak, because nobody cares enough about what the least innovative company in the world does to ferret out 'secret' or unannounced information.
A major marketing campaign will also play a key role in attracting and educating the expanded audience about Xbox 360’s controller-free revolution.
Seriously, does that sound like a 'leak' or like marketing brochure / press release copy straight from the horse's mouth?
Nice try, Microsoft and Edge.
I'm with you, mate. I don't think it will cost this at all. I think this "leak" came from MS then when everyone is expecting a high price point and they announce the real one everyone will marvel at how cheap it is. They will think they got a real bargain since they were expecting it to be so expensive. A valid strategy.
Actually they will probably announce the price at 179, 30 bucks higher than the 'leak', because people were already preparing to pay 150 for it so that is Microsoft's way of yanking another 30 bucks out of you.
I'm sure this product will start failing massively within the first few years of use and Microsoft will be forced to replace hundreds of thousands of them. That's why they just make you pay for two of them right away.
everyone is expecting a high price point and they announce the real one everyone will marvel at how cheap it is
I don't know; Edge seems to be trying awfully hard over time to establish in print an ongoing relationship with this 'trusted source' and having the actual price come out different from what's reported in this so-called leak would sort of tarnish the source's future credibility, wouldn't it?
Maybe Edge isn't in on it and is just getting fed info. Besides months from now who is gonna cry foul? Especially if the source comes through with some relevant info in the meantime. People forgive 'trusted sources' that are right at least some of the time. I really would be surprised if it was priced this high. They took the hardware chip out, have been sensitive to price this gen and so keen on beating the PS3 on price points. So a price point this high would be crazy. Taking all that in I have a hard time believing this is anything but spin to manage people's expectations.
Yeah, this has the odor of a company tossing out a feeler to see what the reaction is.
Do you think? Since when have our opinions played heavily on any of Microsofts initial pricing structures.
Only way that happens is if actual sales figures dissapoint.