With many critics having a pop at Kinect’s price tag, and Sony re-confirming the price of its Move motion control system to be £50 for the Starter Kit, Microsoft has been defending the cost of Kinect.

Its own motion control system weighs in at £130, although it does come bundled with a full game (Sony’s kit just has nine demos). But the crux of the matter is, as a Microsoft spokesman told TechRadar, that the one Kinect unit is all you need to buy.

For that, you get a peripheral that supports two player games (and tracks up to six people). If you want to go two player on the Move, MS points out you’ll need not only the Starter Kit (£50), but another motion controller (£35), to make a total of £85, without a game included.

And furthermore, if you factor in the sub-controllers which are required for an optimum Move experience with some games, that’s an extra £50 for two of those, to make £135. Although Sony points out a normal controller can be used in place of the sub-controller at a pinch.

We can see Microsoft’s point here, but looking at the bare prices and bottom line, £130 for a peripheral just looks expensive, and Sony’s £50 looks cheap in comparison, even though that isn’t the full story.

Some experts believe Microsoft will drop the price of Kinect soon enough after the launch period, which is usually the way after the company has its money from the keen early adopters.

However, these systems will ultimately stand or fall on the quality of the games for them, and currently Kinect is targeting the casual market, with many of the more hardcore Xbox’ers out there expressing little interest in it.

Kinect could open up a new market for Microsoft’s console – or it could prove to be quite a flop, but either way, we’re still not convinced the £130 tag is going to help it make its mark.

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Microsoft defends the cost of Kinect

Sony has clarified exactly how much its Move motion control system will set back PS3 owners in the UK, and spilled the details on the contents of its starter pack.

The Move motion controller itself will cost £35, with the PlayStation Eye camera £25, and the sub-controller £25 (though you don’t have to buy this, Sony points out it’s optional, as a normal controller can be used instead).

The Move Starter Kit will contain both the motion controller and Eye, and will cost £50, which will save you a tenner against the price of buying them separately.

The starter kit also comes with nine playable demos to give this motion malarkey a try-out, which include Sports Champions, Start the Party, The Shoot, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 and others.

Okay, so there’s no full bundled game here, but that’s because of the basic £50 price tag, which is likely to be an enticing prospect when it comes to the motion controller’s adoption. People often look at that bottom line, and then go on to buy extras like the sub-controller later…

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Sony PS3 Move pricing confirmed for UK

Some good news for Nintendo handheld fans – it won’t be too long before the exact launch date and asking price for its next-gen gaming device is revealed.

The Nintendo 3DS, which boasts 3D technology without the need for any eye-wear, will have its launch date revealed on September 29th, the Japanese arm of Bloomberg reports (via MCV).

So you could call September 29th the launch date of the launch date for the 3DS, if you wanted. Although it might just be a date and price for the Japanese market that’s unveiled, we’re hoping the Western world will be covered by the announcement too.

The current estimated release date for the 3DS is April 2011 at the latest, although it could well be out before then.

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Nintendo 3DS soon to be dated and priced

Sky Sports has been the centre of news attention for a few weeks now and not for any good reasons either, as the main story is the wholesale price cut forced on the company by the media regulator Ofcom.

But it seems that the while subscribers to other pay TV services will be getting cut price Sky Sports, BSkyB’s customers who subscribe to the Sky Sports package will be paying for these changes.

As from the 1st September, the cost of the basic subscription and the Sky Sports package will change from £26 per month to £29 per month.

Normal business practice would have seen BSkyB lower its prices in order to compete with its rivals, but in this case, it seems that it has done the complete opposite and is forcing subscribers to take up the slack.

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BSkyB raises the price of Sky Sports

The weekend saw the battle lines drawn up in the High St when it comes to 3D televisions.

John Lewis will go down as being the first retailer in the UK to offer 3D televisions to the public, but hot on its tail was electrical retail giant Comet.

Not only is Comet offering the Samsung UE40C7000 3D television online, but also the price has been slashed to just £1,656 and that includes delivery.

However, there are some fine points that the consumer should be aware of.

First up, they must enter the promotional code 81000AW during the checkout process to access the £144 discount.

The other point is that John Lewis appears to be offering an additional four year guarantee, which is not to be overlooked as that could represent a substantial saving.

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Comet cuts the price of 3D Television