Xbox 360 Project Natal coming in October for $150; may be renamed to 'Wave'

It's been a long time since something out of Microsoft's stables has left us agape with the high level of innovation. That's all the more reason we have been looking forward to the imminent release of the Xbox 360 motion-control gaming kit, dubbed Project Natal. A few new tidbits of information have surface on the Web in the past few days, the most important of which being the price and release date. Edge magazine has it from a “trusted source” that the motion-sensing camera unit – which does not require any controller to interact with the user – will be launching in October for about $150. This goes against previous predictions that put the launch somewhere in mid-November 2010 for a price of around $50-$75. Obviously, a $150 add-on kit for a console that costs $200 in the US is extremely steep. IndustryGamers got in touch with a few analysts who all were unanimous in their opinion that the $50-$75 segment is where the market lies and the predicted cost could prove too high for Microsoft to make enough sales. Meanwhile, NowGamer has it from two sources that Project Natal will officially be renamed to 'Wave' at the E3 gaming expo next month. It would obviously have some prefix, such as Xbox Wave or Microsoft Wave. If you ask us, it's about time they changed the name from something that meant “of or relating to the buttocks”.