A week ago videogame retailers were reportedly annoyed with the £129.99 price tag that Microsoft has whacked onto the Kinect. Many chains were expecting it to sell for less than £99.99 while a few even said that if it sells for any more than £100 it’ll flop.
Seven days later and their tune has suddenly changed. Despite a higher price than expected, retailers claim that pre-orders are flooding in with advance orders now expected to topple half a million in the UK by launch.
Grainger Games’ sales director Phil Moore had this to say: “The feedback we’ve had so far from our customers is that they feel the price is appropriate to the product. We have taken a large number of deposits for Kinect already and it is set to become our biggest pre-order to date. This tells us the device’s appeal has not been affected by the price pointâ€
Sarah Jasper from The Hut Group agreed: “Based on our orders thus far, customers are clearly excited by this offering and price – and quite rightly so.â€
In order to drum up even more pre-orders Mircosoft are taking the Kinect on tour round the UK. Dates are as follows:
Alton Towers – 31st July– 31st August
London Zoo – 7th – 22nd August
The Thames Festival in London – 11th – 12th September
Chessington World of Adventures – 21st – 31st October
Clothes Show Live in Birmingham (NEC) – 2nd – 8th December
Microsoft will also be setting up shop in Covent Garden which opens tomorrow (31st July) and will be open daily 10am-8pm. Rumours of Bill Gates making an appearance to serve cups of tea are currently unfounded.
