Microsoft's Project Natal to Cost $149

[Zingam]

Wow $150 for a gamepad 😀

 

[hellwig]

[citation][nom]back_by_demand[/nom]Interesting that almost everyone is dissing this project, regardless of price.Yet.A motion controller was also panned universally as a kiddy fad and Nintendo have sold bucketloads and put the Xbox and PS3 into 2nd and 3rd place in large parts of the world.It makes good business sense.If it's such a stupid idea, how come both Microsoft and Sony are copying it?Hardcore FPS gamers will not buy it, but that's no reason that it shouldn't be made for the people that will, because even if you don't want to pay for it plenty of others will.[/citation]
Natal's biggest flaw is the mobility of the user. Since you have to move your whole body for Natal, this might be a problem. Anyone with a non-standard body shape, or people who have limited mobility will have issues. I can't imagine Natal is going to be able to properly detect people in a wheel chair, nor people missing a limb. The simplicity of Wii, while not perfect, still allows some limited use of the Wii Motion sensor to those individuals.

I mean, I can see the commercial now, 3 able-bodied friends playing the latest Monkey Ball rip-off on the 360, while their fourth, wheel-chair bound friend sits to the side, unable to participate. Seriously, that single image getting out to the general public would not only kill Natal, but possibly the entire XBox line. What's the new slogan? "X-Box 360, it ain't for cripples!"?

 

[MrKKBB]

150 is not bad for what you get (if it is as promised). Compare that to the HD-DVD drive price, or hard-drive expansion. Though, I hope that the Natal will at least be bundled with a good game.

 

[Strider-Hiryu_79]

This device is so smart you only need to stand in front of it for it to recognize your actions.

Put your right hand out in front of you, put all your finger tips against your thumb's tip so your index and pinky finger form a circle on both sides of your hand, then move you hand left and right like your rolling dice.

What will natal recognize that movement as? Why as anyone would suspect it would detect it as if you were rolling dice at a crap table or will it?

 

[tyko]

I think one important thing people are forgetting is that this type of stuff is typically more of the realm of the casual/family gamer. One of the attractive points of the Wii was the fact that it came out at 200 dollars opposed to 300 and whatever the PS3 was 500? You can practically buy a Wii at 150 dollars and 200 dollars to 300 dollars is still a large difference to the casual gamer, not to mention the fact that Wii game are also cheaper. I'm not saying that it's going to fail but these are all things that will be working against it. Someone posted earlier that everyone was making fun of Nintendo with their motion controller but I just wanted to point out that this is not an apples to apples comparison, considering Microsoft has negated some of the perks that attracted casual gamers to the Wii in the first place.

 

[alchemy69]

Anyone with a non-standard body shape, or people who have limited mobility will have issues.

This is also true for a pogo stick.

 

[stromm]

[citation][nom]stm1185[/nom]Well Hardcore FPS gamers don't play on a console to begin with.[/citation]

slight correction

 

[JTWrenn]

Won't be enough great games for it because it will only sell to the people who buy the add on. Same problem with every system add on that has ever come out.

 

[Euphoria_MK]

Overpriced gimmick.

They should sell it for $20 - $40, since people will have to pay more money to buy new games that support it...

So in order to use it you will have to buy a new game that supports it and then it will come up to $200.00

Ripoff

 

[prince_david]

150$? Heck no!

 

[touchdowntexas13]

[citation][nom]hillarymakesmecry[/nom]I'm glad you all know it's going to fail ahead of time. What if it's totally awesome and the $150 is justifiable? None of us have actually used it so calling it overpriced is a stretch.People on forums are sooooooooooo negative. Be happy people![/citation]

I'll agree with you on that we have no idea on how awesome or not it will be, so we shouldn't bash that part of it.

However, I feel perfectly comfortable calling it overpriced. Seeing as how you can get an entire Wii console for $200, it just seems overpriced to me. It probably wouldn't seem so high if there hadn't been so much speculation months back that the price would be around $60-$80.

I was mildly interested in this product, but at or around $150, I will probably stick with my "traditional" gaming. That is my prediction at least.

 

[pharge]

hmmm.... I thought few months ago they were talking about

 

[pharge]

ugh... they it cut my post.... >_<

anyway... hmm... I thought few month ago they were talking about

 

[pharge]

ugh... they it cut my post again.... >_<

anyway... hmm... I thought few month ago they were talking about sub $100 price point... not we are talking about a hardware upgrade which will cost more than half of the price you paid for the console.

They'd better make the gaming experience as good/fast as they claim on the Ad/trailer. And they'd better have 10+ A games supporting it in the very near future (sometime this year). A bunch of throw away C games or even few B games are not going to be good enough to justify these kind of investment.

 

[bv90andy]

100£ is pricey but if good games come out/old games get update for it then it's ok. Also it should be compatible with xbox 720.

 

[apoq]

Overpriced? It probably includes a Time-of-Flight camera which in itself now runs for a few grand. I know a low price makes for fast market adoption which in turn will drop the price of production, but still, there is no mass use of ToF cameras yet, which kinda makes it a bit harder to sell it for nothing.

 

[hakesterman]

I am sure they will include accouple of great games in it at $ 150.00. I am sure after about 6
months you will see a big price drop. I think this i a good package, but they need to come up
with a Bluray add on drive if they want to keep up with PS3.

 

[descendency]

It's too high to get mass market appeal, so I wouldn't buy this within the first year. I would wait for a price drop, unless a game you really want comes out for it.

 

[razor512]

ripoff, it probably only cost like $20 to make (which includes the paying of the workers)

microsoft is known to rip people off, look at their wifi adapter, that used to charge like $100 for something that you can get for $8 on amazon.com

many people ended up getting a cheap router then installing tomato or dd-wrt on it then using a wireless bridge to get wireless support on their xbox 360, and guess what, it actually performed better for downloading content, it was faster


While I understand that research for that new controller cost money, it only hurts them to use such a high price especially if it doesn't initially come out with a ton of good games. People just don't drop $150+ into a device in the hopes that games will come out for it that are actually worth playing.

 

[alextheblue]

[citation][nom]soldier37[/nom]Why is the outdated crapbox even still being made...[/citation]To piss off fantrolls like yourself. Seems to be working! Have fun with your PS3motes.