Project Natal to Cost $200, Double What We Thought It Would? [Some Stores in Sweden to Charge $200 for Project Natal, Microsoft’s Motion Controlled Gaming Solution]

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A week after the new iPhone gets unveiled we’ll see Microsoft announcing Project Natal at E3. The motion control gaming peripheral is expected to arrive later this year and it will probably sell like hot cakes by Christmas 2010. But how much would you be willing to pay for it?

For quite a few months now we were led to believe that Project Natal will only cost $100 and it will be compatible with any Xbox 360 gaming console out there. Today we find out that the price of Project Natal could go up all the way to $200. That’s definitely annoying but also harder to believe.

A few Sweden-based retailers are already showing a price for Project Natal, 1,499 SEK, which, when converted in US dollars, translates in about $200. Surely that price must include various taxes but it’s still a lot more than what European customers could end up paying for Project Natal. On the other hand the stores in question don’t have the controller in stock and it will be a while until they get it. They could be testing the waters in order to see how customers react to this proposition, but gamers will surely hate that price tag.

On comparison, the competition, and I do mean Sony here, is apparently going to charge $60 for the PlayStation Move in the USA which means that Microsoft would already be asking too much for Project Natal at $100, let alone $200.

Not to mention that Nintendo’s Wii is already selling for $200 which is one more reason for Redmond to try to make Project Natal as affordable as possible while keeping it profitable for the company.

We also expect the first Xbox 360 motion controlled games to be a little more expensive than regular games, which means regular gamers will end up paying some serious cash for being able to enjoy Project Natal.

So how much are you ready to pay for Project Natal?