Microsoft has just posted a new listing on the Microsoft Store for the Kinect for Windows v2. Basically, it’s an Xbox One Kinect not packaged with an Xbox One. This will go hand in hand with Microsoft’s new attempt to sell the Xbox One at a lower price point without the Kinect included.
The Xbox One Kinect bundle costs a whopping $499 in stores. By removing the Kinect, Microsoft was able to get the Xbox One’s price down to $399, 100 dollars cheaper which is a lot more in the price range that gamers are willing to spend.
However, the weird thing is that the Kinect itself costs $199, nearly twice the difference of the Xbox One Kinect bundle and basic bundle. That being said, this Kinect isn’t being aimed at consumers. Instead, it’s aimed for use with the Windows SDK (Source Development Kit) 2.0, to allow users to build brand new motion controlled applications. In fact, this Kinect doesn’t ship with any software at all!
On one hand, the availability of the Kinect for PC development means that we will likely see some awesome new things comes out of the indie sphere. On the other hand, however, two hundred dollars is pretty expensive for a peripheral, and without a cheaper non-developer model, we likely won’t see many Kinect V2s connected to people’s desktops.
Source: Gamespot