Shake your money maker, Microsoft
$150 with a game doesn't seem so bad now
Early in Kinect's life – so early it was only known as Project Natal, in fact – there were rumours floating around of the unit costing just £50, or around $80. Such reports turned out to be a little of the mark of course, but there's a good reason for that: Microsoft refuses to sell Kinect at a loss.
Microsoft's Don Mattrick spoke to the New York Times, revealing that the first prototype of Kinect cost the company a massive $30,000 to build, but after spending hundreds of millions of dollars to develop the technology it's managed to squeeze the price below $150 including a game.
Each Kinect sold will still earn money for Microsoft, with the company refusing to sell at a loss to convince consumers to pick up the sensor. That said, it'll still have to sell millions of Kinects in order to make back the money spent on developing the unit – will Kinect ever be profitable for Microsoft? We'll see in a few years.
User Comments
1. danschemen
29 Oct 2010, 01:31 BST
now it doesn't look like $150 is so much
2. Token Girl
29 Oct 2010, 06:35 BST
Hopefully Kinect will be awesome enough that all that money was worth it.