Microsoft has announced that it is bringing the Kinect motion sensing tool currently available for the Xbox 360 to the Windows platform.
The announcement was made on the
Kinect for Windows blog:
Today, we are announcing that the new Kinect for Windows hardware and accompanying software will be available on February 1st, 2012 in 12 countries (United States, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Spain, United Kingdom), at a suggested retail price of US $249. Kinect for Windows hardware will be available, in limited quantities at first, through a variety of resellers and distributors. The price includes a one-year warranty, access to ongoing software updates for both speech and human tracking, and our continued investment in Kinect for Windows-based software advancements. Later this year, we will offer special academic pricing (planned at US $149) for Qualified Educational Users.
A question you’re probably wondering is why is Kinect for Windows more expensive than Kinect for the Xbox 360? Microsoft offers up several reasons for the $100 price hike:
- Kinect for the Xbox 360 is subsidized by gaming environment around the platform - games, Xbox Live and so on
- Kinect for the Xbox 360 is specifically designed for the 360 game console and is not licensed for general commercial use, supported or under warranty when used on any other platform.
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