Kinect will be $150, include game

Ending a month of speculation, Microsoft today announced pricing for Kinect, its innovative gamepad-less motion control system for the Xbox 360, and it’ll go on sale this fall for -- are you ready? -- $149.99.

The news might have come as more of a surprise if the price hadn’t been widely advertised on a number of retail websites over the last few months. Including Microsoft’s. Oops.

Nevertheless, there were still some (small) surprises in Microsoft’s announcement. Kinect games will retail at $49.99, instead of the $59.99 more typical of Xbox 360 releases -- and the basic Kinect unit will come bundled with multiplayer outdoor game Kinect Adventures.

But if you’re in the market for a new Xbox, and you’re curious about this Kinect business, we’d suggest not taking the plunge just yet. Instead, hold out for fall, when Microsoft will release a bundle that includes the just-announced 4 GB Xbox 360, together with the Kinect hardware and Kinect Adventures, for $299, a $50 saving on buying the kit individually. And while $150 seems rather steep for an unproven control system, we can see that bundle turning up under plenty of trees this holiday season.Microsoft also took the wraps off a new Xbox 360 model, which’ll fill a gap in its range left after the retirement of the old-style Xbox Arcade. The new unit will match the design of the new “slim” Xbox 360 announced in June, but will come with 4 GB of internal storage instead of a hard drive, and a matt black finish. It’ll set you back $200 -- $100 cheaper than the hard drive-equipped model. Expect to be showing up in stores next month.