Gamestop? Nope. Amazon? Nuh-uh. It looks like it’s Walmart that will be kicking off the Kinect bundle preorder madness.
The retailing giant is betting that Microsoft’s Kinect motion non-controller for the Xbox 360 be a hit and has already put together a bundle months before it hits shelves (November 4, 2010). While the preorder page is currently buckling under the strain, the package includes the Kinect hardware peripheral, a $30 eGift card and one of the following six Kinect titles: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Kinect Adventures, Kinect Dance Central, Kinect Joy Ride, Kinectimals and Kinect Sports.
At $199, it’s a steal, considering that the Kinect hardware alone retails for $150. But is Walmart jumping the gun a little bit? After all, it’s still summer in (in the U.S.) and the holiday shopping season is months away. One analyst, at least, believes that the Kinect will be a hot item.
Caris & Co. analyst Sandeep Aggarwal is bullish on the Kinect’s chances in the video market. He forecasts that Kinect can help Microsoft generate a cool $1 billion in its first year with an attach rate of just 15 – 25 percent on 40 million Xbox 360s. So maybe gamers will want to lock in their Kinects four months and some change ahead of the release date, unless they prefer to be flailing Wiimotes or PlayStation Moves during the holiday season.
Now, where are those new Xbox 360 plus Kinect bundles?
