Microsoft will make a profit on every Kinect sold

The head of Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment division, Don Mattrick, has revealed that the Kinect motion control system will make a profit for the company with every unit sold.

In other words, Microsoft isn’t subsidising the spread of Kinect to consumers, something one might question given the noise made over the device’s price point of £130 in this country.

Don Mattrick explained the situation to the New York Times. He said the first Kinect prototype cost $30,000, and now “hundreds of millions of dollars later”, the company can sell it for $150 a pop and “still turn a profit”.

And that’s despite the $500 million marketing budget behind the motion controller. It must be said that the £130 price tag doesn’t seem as much of a deterrent as some first thought (us included), with pre-orders of the Kinect selling out quickly at many major retailers, over here in the UK at any rate.

Several recent surveys have also put the Kinect ahead of Sony’s rival Move in terms of predicted sales on the run up to Christmas. But we’ll only know for sure when the peripheral is actually launched, which won’t be long now.

Kinect is coming out on November 10th, with some 19 titles behind it, mostly aimed at the more casual gamer with dance and fitness games well represented.