The Microsoft Store at Microsoft.com has now joined Amazon.com, Best Buy and Walmart in listing Kinect for $149.99, but if you think that means the price is official, think again, because as far as Microsoft's PR team is concerned $149.99 may just be shot-in-the-dark guess right now.
"We haven't announced a price for Kinect for Xbox 360," a Microsoft spokesperson told G4 when asked about the new listing.
I don't know what that means in terms of what Microsoft plans on doing with your $149.99 after you add the Kinect sensor pre-order to your cart and initiate a transaction, but according to that statement the price is not real just yet. PR phrasing and official announcements are an odd language game to navigate sometimes, but situations like these just make you scratch your head.
It's one thing for a major retail chain to list a pre-order price in accordance with what they've unofficially been told or accidentally leaked ahead of schedule, but when you company's own website corroborates a price in its own store, it might not be a bad idea to take the listing down, post a little warning message that this may or may not be the real price, or just give in and admit, "Hey everybody, this is actually what we're going to sell this piece of equipment for." Otherwise, you're just sending mixed signals to your audience, and nobody really wants that, do they?
Do you think Kinect will sell at a price other than $149.99 from any major retailer? What's your prediction for the final price point? Share your expectations in the comment section below.