Natal will cost under £50, says report

By Ellie Gibson Published 11 November, 2009

Said to launch next Nov with 14 games.

A report has emerged that Project Natal is due to launch in November 2010.

MCV quotes "sources" as saying around 5 million units will be manufactured for launch. Apparently you'll be able to buy the Natal camera on its own for around £50 or perhaps even as little as £30. It will also be available as part of a hardware bundle.

The report says 14 games will go on sale alongside the new tech and points out that Activision, Bethesda, Capcom, Disney, EA, Konami, MTV, Namco Bandai, SEGA, Square Enix, THQ and Ubisoft have all signed up to produce Project Natal games. A large proportion of the early titles are expected to be first-party though. It's not known whether that'll include Lionhead's Milo and Kate.

Microsoft has yet to respond to requests for comment.

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (71) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • jonsaan #1 2 years ago

    So £49.999999 confirmed then?
    Edited by 1 at 11/11/09 @ 11:22

  • altitude2k #2 2 years ago

    That is a lot cheaper than I would expect to have paid. If you work for MS don't read this next bit: I probably would have been happy to pay the best part of £100, to be honest

    I thought Epic was one of those developers that was doing games for Natal too? Although maybe that was more of an intention, rather than actually having something specific in development.

  • stevethemeat #3 2 years ago

    Cant be true, great news if it is.

  • MrFlump #4 2 years ago

    Given the price of the wireless adapter, i'd be stunned if they can release this it at this price point. I'm more than happy to be proved wrong though!

    I'd also have been happy to pay a bit more if there is a strong software lineup and support for it on release.

  • mcmonkeyplc #5 2 years ago

    That sounds waaaaaay too cheap.

    Altitude2K, Epic is developer not a publisher.
    Edited by 1 at 11/11/09 @ 11:29

  • Oddly #6 2 years ago

    I'm not sure about the wisdom of letting Microsoft have a camera in my living room.

  • uglygamer #7 2 years ago

    That would be a great price but it might difficult to get one at launch. The demand at the price could make it the hottest new gadget for late 2010
    Edited by 1 at 11/11/09 @ 11:30

  • GiarcYekrub #8 2 years ago

    So No TerraByte Hard Drive :( probally not get this

  • deanimate #9 2 years ago

    In other, although related news, the games for Natal will be shockingly bad.
    If I'm wrong I will be genuinely surprised.

  • Malek86 #10 2 years ago

    Makes sense to use a low price, if they don't want to see it flop.

    And even then, making an "extension" successful is never easy. Look at the WMP, it's only 20€, and still it hasn't seen much use between developers. Same for the BB, despite there being 23 millions of those things out there, not too many games use it properly.

    MS needs to find a way to make Natal a "requirement", or it's never gonna reach its full potential. Launching it together with their next console might be a good idea, but I don't think that's in their plans.

  • cianchristopher #11 2 years ago

    Misprint methinks. More like £500 with a lowball figure of £300.

    This is MS we're talking about, the only company in the world that sells 120gb hard drives for..... one million dollars

  • dadrester #12 2 years ago

    didn't that analyst fella 'Patcher' reckon something like this? I happen to think he's got it the wrong way round but who knows.

  • Wolverfrog #13 2 years ago

    I was expecting it to be £100; but this is brilliant. Nice to see Microsoft not being totally monolithic for once.

  • symmetry #14 2 years ago

    Fantastic news if true! Would be an impulse purchase for definite.

  • Bazfrag #15 2 years ago

    Until I see a working game my personal jury is out on whether this will ultimately sink or swim, as with Sony's wand.

  • skillian #16 2 years ago

    Hard drives and wireless adapters are sold to people already locked into MS' system. Natal is about encouraging new users to join the party.

    Pricing strategies of the two are obviously completely different, and I don't think it's that surprising if Natal ends up costing not much more than an official gamepad.

  • c780162 #17 2 years ago

    this 50quid pricepoint isnt exactly confirmed by microsoft though...but it'll be interesting to know how much it cost them to make each one

  • Stu #18 2 years ago

    So a console-changing device is £30-50, but a slightly improved wireless adapter is $100?

    What's going on in Microsoft's marketing department?

  • danathjo #19 2 years ago

    hopefully that would included thier version of Wii Sports/breakout clone too

  • NorUraeus #20 2 years ago

    Wonder what that 14 games number mean, could easily be like all those games having the sixaxis logo on the back because they use it for a tiny gimmick.

  • Widge #21 2 years ago

    Has to be a low price, regardless of any loss being made. If this doesn't get into loads of front rooms, devs will not make games for it.

  • altitude2k #22 2 years ago

    @ mcmonkeyplc

    Read your comment, then read my original comment again ;)

  • rprince #23 2 years ago

    I reckon this is a great marketing ploy: leak a rumour that it's £50, to get more people interested and considering buying it. Then when it's confirmed at £70-100 (after all £50 was a ridiculous rumour) those people who wouldn't have normally considered it at that price will have read about it and become excited about it (as they thought it might be £50) so will buy it at £70-100.

    Actually, that sounds like rubbish, but I'll leave it here for posterity...

  • peteb #24 2 years ago

    It really has to be this cheap if they are hoping for existing owners to pick up whilst pushing it to the mass market. Any more expensive and it will just become HD DVD external drive, or Xbox Live Vision.*


    *(I do have both of those things though)

  • mcmonkeyplc #25 2 years ago

    @Altitude2K, yeah you know it's a dev but this article just mentioned publishers not devs :)

    Also people need to realise the difference between POUNDS STERLING denoted by the £ symbol and US DOLLARS denoted by the $ symbol

    £1 DOES NOT EQUAL $1

  • WinterSnowblind #26 2 years ago

    £50 would be fine with me, as long as there are some actual decent games.

    Viva Pinata 2 and Black & White 3 would be more than enough to keep me happy, games that would actually benefit from a control method like this, rather than simply having tacked on gimmicky features.

  • jonbwfc #27 2 years ago

    @mcmonkeyplc

    Tell that to Microsoft.

  • Eraser #28 2 years ago

    Watch the XBox 360 games library descend into the realm where developers build their game around the input method, rather than the game itself.

  • miiiguel #29 2 years ago

    @ Eraser: 360 library's amplitude is already wide enough to cover everything. Don't worry.

  • GamerG #30 2 years ago

    At that price its a no brainer, look froward to having a play if only for the minority report menu's!!!

  • interceptor #31 2 years ago

    Considering the Wireless N apaptor is £49.99, I doubt they would sell Natal for £30. However, if it was under £50, then that would be very welcome.

    As the Xbox 360 is now so far into its life cycle, they need to sell the Natal hardware for cost or less than cost, and then make the money on the games if they're going to get the take-up that the 3rd Party publishers would need to recoup their development costs.

  • ParanoidZombie #32 2 years ago

    Good pricing, mightt be a purchase for me if fable3 makes good use of it.

  • andijames #33 2 years ago

    Personally i think it makes sense launching it at this price. This will encourage more people to get it who own a 360 plus bring in others who haven't. Then people will obviously buy a game or 2 with the hardware so i guess Microsoft will make their money back from the software.

    All in all good news for all concerned if true. Cheap new hardware.

  • makememoo #34 2 years ago

    whatever the price is, knowing Microsoft, it will be subsidised as a loss leader and then every game will be Normal Game Price + £10 for being "Natal Enabled"

  • penhalion #35 2 years ago

    Like most here, I don't believe this for a minute. If they are selling an 802.11 n wireless adapter for 100 dollars/pounds then no way is Natal going to somehow be on sale for a fraction of that!
    Edited by 1 at 11/11/09 @ 12:32

  • kangarootoo #36 2 years ago

    "If I'm wrong I will be genuinely surprised"

    What, surprised that you aren't clairvoyant? You must get surprised a lot (which is rather ironic when you think about it).

  • finexi #37 2 years ago

    If it's true (£50), it doesn't surprise me at all. I think MS strategy is to sell it as most as possible as quickly as possible in order Natal to become the standard on both hardcore and casual "cores". And they know that only with a low price they can achieve that. The price strategy between Natal and those HD DVD, wireless adapters and Live cameras has to be different...

  • Beano #38 2 years ago

    "sounds like a collection of garbage mini games... "

    Me-Too Bowling, Me-Too Tennis, Me-Too Golf... surely that would be a true revolution? :D

  • kangarootoo #39 2 years ago

    The price doesn't seem that unusual to me.

    What people (edit: except for finexi :) ) seem to be missing is that MS want to make profit on each wifi adapter sold, so they price it accordingly and for that reason its not a fair comparison.

    The Natal controller needs serious market penetration for it to be worth any developer's while making games that support it, so MS will initially take a hit on every Natal sold just get them out there in large numbers (exactly the way they and Sony did with the consoles themselves).


    Personally, the price is neither here nor there at this stage. As others have said, I want to see a selection of games before I form an opinion. If the games are awesome £50 might be a massive bargain, but if the games blow (or are few and far between) it would be quite the opposite.

    £50 is cheap for a car, and expensive for a bag of chips. It all depends what you get for your money, and at this stage we don't really know (marketing fluff and tech demos don't count in my eyes).
    Edited by 1 at 11/11/09 @ 12:44

  • WinterSnowblind #40 2 years ago

    @penhalion
    People who want the adaptor are likely to shell out the money anyway. Here they're trying to sell this to as many people as possible, they're trying to take on the Wii, remember. Anything more than £50 would definitely turn people off.

  • Kazzahdrane #41 2 years ago

    @svd_grasshopper:

    No one said it comes with 14 games, it's (allegedly) being launched "alongside" 14 games. So 14 launch titles for the Natal sub-console, if that makes sense.

  • DefdumBlindkid #42 2 years ago

    still think it will be crap no matter the price

  • IneptPercy #43 2 years ago

    I may not sell my 360 now, as much as most gaming in done on the PC now the 360 is around for exclusives. This may be a very big exclusive.

  • kangarootoo #44 2 years ago

    @svd_grasshopper

    "they knocked up 14 games in the time it takes developers to make one"

    Read the article dude. Its not out till Nov next year, so the games won't be out till then either will they.

    And they didn't have one studio making every one of the 14 games. Again, if you read the article you would see lots of dev companies named.

    Seriously.

  • Beano #45 2 years ago

    @kangarootoo : But svd_grasshopper has a point - I don't expect 14 full games for Natal at launch either.
    Edited by 1 at 11/11/09 @ 13:03

  • Syrette #46 2 years ago

    Woah, under £50?

    100% definite purchase if that's the case.

    I'd be willing to pay £20+ more if it's worth it. Over £100 and I'd probably wait.

  • Beano #47 2 years ago

    Good for you.

  • JonFE #48 2 years ago

    Keep the price low, bundle it with Halo Reach and/or Fable 3 and watch it fly off the selves, I say :D

  • Beige_Alert #49 2 years ago

    Are analysts ever right about things like this though?

  • Beano #50 2 years ago

    "Keep the price low, bundle it with Halo Reach and/or Fable 3 and watch it fly off the selves, I say :D "

    You are scaring me! .... hopefully Halo Reach won't be ruined by gimmicky Natal features :o

  • Bigglesworth #51 2 years ago

    Not an unexpected pricepoint: push the hardware out at a loss in order to establish a firm foothold.

    edit: d'oh, already pointed out by others
    Edited by 1 at 11/11/09 @ 13:54

  • WinterSnowblind #52 2 years ago

    @Beige_Alert
    No, but this isn't from an analyst.

  • JonFE #53 2 years ago

    Beano, given the rumours that both projects target the same release window (around November 2010), the possibility of Halo Reach utilizing Natal in some way (head tracking anyone?) is really high, in my mind at least.

    Actually, it might be a fail-proof way of making Natal interesting in the eyes of hardcore gamers, who may otherwise not bother at all with it.
    Edited by 1 at 11/11/09 @ 14:14

  • midnight_walker #54 2 years ago

    I assumed it was called Halo: Reach because it had something to do with Natal.

    I don't want a new console yet :(

  • canIdoyabombsforya #55 2 years ago

    WTF has the price of Natal got to do with the wireless adapter?
    I can't believe how many regular posters are happy to look like idiots, by not considering Microsoft's business strategy before moaning in two different articles today.

    Nobody has mentioned the console was sold to us at a $200 loss, but MS *knew* they would claw that back with license fees, wireless adapters, hard disks and live subs.

    There's a good chance they are making very little on Natal (think of the millions in dev costs too) and will also claw back profit from, yes you guessed it, license fees, wireless adapters, hard disks and live subs.

    If Natal can bring in some of the Wii market, or keep existing owners going a few more years, you've got a whole load of profit to be made on 'extras'. Extras that are indeed cheaper on other platforms, but other platforms are by no means better value when everything is added up. These 'overpriced' extras also have an excellent resale value, which is testiment to the platform that Microsoft have built.
    Even if you hate MS, there are a lot of savvy gamers posting deals where you will never need to overpay for anything on the platform, including Live subs and points.
    As it happens, you still dont need a bigger hard disk, wireless or even Live to enjoy some of the best games on the market right now.

  • muscleblade #56 2 years ago

    If its great im willing to pay 500£+

    If its not. I dont want it even if its free.

  • mrmonkey1980 #57 2 years ago

    i really expected it to be at least 150 quid.... more likely around 200

  • WJF #58 2 years ago

    Wow, very clever move by MS. £50 is a golden price point for this sort of accessory.

    Even if those 14 games aren't up to full release standard (which they won't be, they'll be minigames), it should certainly compete well with Wii Sports.

    Edit: What an idiot. I thought it came with 14 games, not there will be 14 compatible games.

    I should learn to read the full story before commenting next time :-(
    Edited by 1 at 11/11/09 @ 16:05

  • cheekyjay #59 2 years ago

    As long as Sainsbury's and Morrisons keep up the Christmas loss-making price wars on big releases, who cares what the RRP is going to be - it's not like that will actually equate to being the best price anyway?!

  • RobTheBuilder #60 2 years ago

    Microsoft aren't (add gag here) stupid.

    They know that to attract the Wii market to 360 it needs to be mass market cheap. One camera for £50 or 4 Wiimotes for £100?
    If it has the right games at that price it could (repeat could) kill off PS3's comeback year. I think Milo will be the free "wow look what this can do" game, every new tech needs this and if it works it could seriously sell the kit.

    I think MS might also pitch Natal as 'the next step' for Wii owners, Natal as HD Wii if you will.

    MS have learnt from Nintendo here, make good use of cheap tech; instead of great tech that costs a fortune.
    Edited by 1 at 11/11/09 @ 16:01

  • davisorle #61 2 years ago

    Since it was announced someone that was savvy with tech and gadgets had estimated around this price in another website through an interview ( might be DF in here and im confusing it ) so I did expect it to be cheap but not THIS cheap. This is great news for gaming and specially the 360 owners. At that price i bet way too many aware of Natal would be more than tempted to go buy it.

    Me ill go buy it no matter since im a new tech sucker plus the fact im amazed from the possibilities and how promising this Natal is. So its great news in all. Just left to get a reply from MS or something to see if its nothing to do with reality.

  • Les #62 2 years ago

    "And they didn't have one studio making every one of the 14 games. Again, if you read the article you would see lots of dev companies named.

    Seriously."

    The article also says "A large proportion of the early titles are expected to be first-party though." Those publishers that are listed in the article are the ones who have signed up for development of Natal games. That doesn't mean Natal launch games...

    So, have you actually read the article? Seriously.

    :p

  • canIdoyabombsforya #63 2 years ago


    With more and more Blu-Ray 264s and ISOs apperaing on easynews and bittorent, hard disks getting bigger and cheaper, Sony are going to have to come up with a way of making some more profit.
    Good to see Microsoft havn't been resting on their laurels. Should be interesting times ahead with a Wii HD rumoured.

  • ronuds #64 2 years ago

    lol - at some of the comments. "If it's so cheap, that must mean it'll suck!"

    Good stuff.

  • byakuya83 #65 2 years ago

    Microsoft aren't going to attract the Wii market as those people will need to buy the console and Natal. A japanese developer mentioned recently that motion controls won't be a big deal on 360 or PS3 and I agree. It's too late to attract the casual market and I don't see enough take up from the more seasoned gamers. If it was a tight month and you could buy the latest 360 game or Natal which are you most likely to buy?
    Edited by 1 at 11/11/09 @ 21:47

  • Negotiator #66 2 years ago

    Natal is the future of gaming, and with this price point it will fly off the shelves. I like the way they are taking their time with this, so they can launch with amazing game's, like Petes genre busting Milo and Kate.

  • man.the.king #67 2 years ago

    I don't think Natal for only 50 pounds is going to happen - good for MS if it does though...
    Edited by 2 at 12/11/09 @ 01:35

  • 3william56 #68 2 years ago

    "amazing game's, like Petes genre busting Milo and Kate"
    You've played it then? Thought not.

    It will be interesting to see whether they will be allowed another loss leader. The 360 has been a great success, but sold at a big loss, and the original Xbox lost MS buckets of cash over it's life. It would be interesting to know if the total Xbox project over both consoles has actually made money yet - sure the 360 is now making good cash year on year from games, but it's had a huge initial money hole to fill. Gouging that hole even bigger won't be popular with the market, and at 30 quid the loss on Natal will be close to that on a full console if the amount of support hardware used by the demos is anything to go by - this ain't no simple webcam.

    Sony definitely have a financial risk edge here - much more Ninty-like with basic cheap tech - half a sixaxis, a couple of LEDs and a basic webcam, and let the PS3 do the processing. That, for 30 quid I can believe.

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #69 2 years ago

    Microsoft aren't going to attract the Wii market as those people will need to buy the console and Natal

    And that's exactly why it needs to be so cheap. Arcade 360+Natal bundle for £180, equivalent to the price of Wii, but with the ability for 4 to play at once without spending an extra 60 quid or so?

    I could see that appealing to the Wii crowd.

  • RobTheBuilder #70 2 years ago

    "Microsoft aren't going to attract the Wii market as those people will need to buy the console and Natal"

    We all laughed when Nintendo showed us their marked up Gamecube with motion sensors named after a bodily function, look where that got us...

    (joke)

  • kongzi #71 2 years ago

    so that's gonna sell out in 1 day...
    still, that's dirt cheap for something like that, altough I think the actual unit isn't all that expensive to produce.