aspleme said:
I wouldn't mind getting a Kinect for the PC if there are programs that use it. On the other hand, $250 is awfully expensive for a webcam. What is in the PC version that makes it cost the same as 2.5 XBox Kinects?
Part of it would be what Guest explained about the lens. The other part that the article failed to mention is that the Xbox 360 version's price is lower because it is subsidized by the games you will buy for Kinect. Surely everyone will buy *at least* one game. So Microsoft still gets their money back after selling it so cheap.
With the PC version, Microsoft has no idea what people may or not buy after they have a Kinect, and since it's Windows Microsoft would never get any money from the software that people would buy for it anyway. Therefore, they have to sell the PC Kinect at a higher upfront price to make up for the money they would have made back through game sales with the Xbox version.
If the Xbox Kinect was offically compatible with Windows then people buy the subsidized Kinect (Xbox Kinect) and then use it with Windows, and never buy Kinect games, and Microsoft would never get that subsidization money. I think the reason they did it this way was mostly to protect themselves financially.