Microsoft announces prices, dates for Xbox 360 peripherals

Clever Microsoft's been stringing us along since May with the pricing and release dates for the launch of their new 360 peripheral line, but it looks like we've got the final details, announced today at the Leipzig Game Convention. The Live Vision camera will launch September 19th in the US and October 6th in Europe, either "alone" (for $39, which includes one month of Live Gold service, a headset, and Uno and TotemBal;) or bundled in the Video Chat Gold Kit (for $79, which includes 1 year of Live Gold service, headset, Uno, TotemBall, Robotron, and 200 Microsoft points); the Wireless Racing Wheel will go for $149 and comes bundled with a force-feedback edition of PGR3 when released in November; the Wireless Headset will launch at $59, also in November; the Wireless Gaming Receiver for Windows will go for $20 in late December (remember, this is the one that lets you use your wireless 360 devices on your PC). Still no word on the grandaddy of all 360 peripherals, the HD DVD drive, but we think it's pretty clear by now what kind of price it should retail for, and when.

[RP @ Aug 23rd 2006 11:52PM]

The camera seems to be pretty crappy, in image quality. The thing is only VGA..while the PSP's eyetoy is 1.3mp :|.

[Rax @ Aug 23rd 2006 11:58PM]

Wow, expensive.

The cheaper peripherals like the camera($39-79) and wireless headset($59) are as expensive as 360 game.

The racing wheel ($150) costs as much as a DS lite and a copy of Brain Age($130+$20)

[l3ftonm3 @ Aug 24th 2006 12:05AM]

The image quality didnt seem too bad in this video
http://www.gamevideos.com/video/id/5201
although it is vga it does take 1.3mp still photos.

[papercut7982 @ Aug 24th 2006 12:16AM]

Well xbox.com shows the HD-DVD Player for the release date of Holiday 2006.

[Alex2x3 @ Aug 24th 2006 12:18AM]

Hmm, pretty cool. Only think I'm upset about is that the wheel comes with PGR3, which I already have. Maybe without it, the price could go down to 120. I hated PRG3. :

[wasp @ Aug 24th 2006 12:39AM]

i could cereless for these peripherals and the hddvd I want a bigger hard drive. 100gb would be nice

[S.A. @ Aug 24th 2006 1:04AM]

Thats a pretty good price for the camera. I was thinking it would be quite a bit more.

[nowhere @ Aug 24th 2006 2:20AM]

@Rax

I don't get the comparison between the price of the racing wheel and a DS+Brain Age. One is a wireless racing wheel meant to be used with a console, the other is a handheld with a game that trains your brain. Usually people compare things with other things that are similar, like another racing wheel perhaps?

That being said, it is pretty expensive and for people that already own PGR3 it's going to suck if there's not a package without it.

[Russell @ Aug 24th 2006 3:05AM]

The PGR3 adds no $$$ to it. the force feedback patch for PGR3 would be too large to fit on non-HDD 360's so they have to ship it with PGR3 because right now that's why you would buy it... I have PGR3 and would be pissed if I had to buy another copy just to work with the wheel.

[Alcoholic Zombie @ Aug 24th 2006 10:42AM]

I just wish the camera would help me at optimizing my brain eating..

*gurgle gurgle*

err.. I mean learning innovative things..

[Ted @ Aug 24th 2006 10:44AM]

Really upset on the price for the wireless headset. They should have it priced cheaper after torturing us with that piece of junk standard headset. The camera's price is perfect and the wheel isnt that bad when you think of all the features.

[sputnik @ Aug 24th 2006 12:24PM]

Read on the net that MS is requiring that all Car racing games from here on out are made to be compatible with the racing wheel. This makes the wheel a good investment as you will absolutely be able to use it for all future racing titles.

It would be cool if they built in functionality into non racing games...such as controlling the Warthog in Halo3 whith this thing.

The wireless adapter for PC's is a huge deal. You will be able to use all of your Xbox 360 controllers, Wheels and I'm sure there is a flight stick on the way with both the 360 and your PC.

With XNA and folks having the same controls on both PC and 360...shouldn't be long before we see cross platform games.

[greg goode @ Aug 28th 2006 2:05AM]

What about digital video out?

[Dennis @ Aug 24th 2006 4:05PM]

This is a pic from the camera used on my PC. The image is not the best. I wasn't in the mood to adjust the focus, or lighting, but the 1.3 mega-pixel is there.

http://digitaldennis.net/XboxLiveVision.jpg

or the 640x480,

http://digitaldennis.net/xlvision.jpg

Looks better than my $120 Logitech camera, so I'm satisfied.

[Vironex @ Aug 24th 2006 5:37PM]

"It would be cool if they built in functionality into non racing games...such as controlling the Warthog in Halo3 whith this thing."

Yeah, because switching back and forth would be so fun...

[SirPasta117 @ Aug 24th 2006 7:45PM]

@dennis
wow those are sum red eyes....

[XTrek @ Aug 24th 2006 9:00PM]

The racing wheel sounds like a rip. You can buy an RC car remote control for less and have a nice ergonomic human/car interface. These guys keep pushing these cumbersome giant steering wheels with bogus foot pedals. Just go watch the expert RC car divers control their modles... This is what these game box manufactures should be selling!

[homerojay @ Aug 24th 2006 9:52PM]

"The camera seems to be pretty crappy, in image quality. The thing is only VGA..while the PSP's eyetoy is 1.3mp :|"

Actually, it's much better than the eye toy in quality.

[Xbox360 @ Aug 25th 2006 2:36AM]

Yup, sucky VGA camera