Edge magazine reported recently that Microsoft plans to charge $149 for its Project Natal body-control system for the Xbox 360 when it goes on sale in October. If that’s the price, it’s higher than what many industry pundits had been expecting. Sony’s Move, another gesture-control system, is likely to be $50 cheaper.
IndustryGamers got in touch with a few analysts to get their respective takes on the situation. Michael Pachter, analyst with Wedbush Morgan Securities, has been fairly bullish on Natal, but he acknowledged that pricing could be a problem. If the $149 price tag is accurate, Natal could face similar adoption problems as PS3 did initially, he said. “Without knowing which company’s software lineup is better, I have to assume that software is not the deciding factor, which means that price will be. A 360 owner doesn’t have a choice, nor does a PS3 owner, so price will only impact the ‘whether to buy’ decision, not ‘which one to buy.’ Fewer people will buy at $149 than will buy at $79, quite obviously.”
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