Xbox 360 Kinect Bundle Is Now $99, Kind Of

Microsoft has revealed an interesting deal for the Xbox 360. Starting today, consumers in the US can pick up a 4GB Xbox 360 Kinect bundle for a mere $99. As you might expect, there's a catch.

In order to get your new console, you'll also have to sign up for a 2 year subscription to Xbox Live Gold membership. You'll have to pay $14.99 per month for Xbox Live Gold. The total cost for two years of Xbox Live Gold at that rate is $359.76, bringing the total price tag up to $458 before taxes. Also, you're committing to the monthly rate of $14.99 regardless of whether or not Microsoft decides to lower the normal Xbox Live fee at a later date.

You're not actually saving any money, here. If you wanted to buy the 4GB Kinect bundle and two twelve-month Xbox Live Gold subscriptions from GameStop, it'd cost you $420.00. The advantage of the new deal, though, is that you're essentially paying for your console in installments. That might be appealing to people who don't currently have enough money to pay full price for a new 360 - or people who suck at math.

I'm guessing that most of you are already thinking, "I'll just buy the console through this deal and then cancel the Xbox Live sub, fuck the police, etc." However, Microsoft has anticipated that. As they outline in the discount's fine print, they'll charge you an Early Termination Fee if you cancel your subscription without returning the console. The fee's steep enough that you won't be saving much, if any money through your schemes.

If you're interested in this deal, head here and print it out. You'll have to redeem it at a Microsoft Store. Hopefully you can do it online; it's not like there are a lot of Microsoft Stores out there. The fact that Microsoft is restricting the deal to such a small number of locations suggests that this deal is a test of sorts. If it does well, maybe we'll see more of these installment plan offers from them.