Sure it may be a bit of old news by now, but late last week the word going around the Interwebz was that Microsoft would be selling the 4GB Xbox 360 AND Kinect Sensor at a subsidized rate of $99, with the buyer having to sign a two-year contract at $15/mo starting sometime this week

Now doing some investigation on the subject… That same bundle now costs roughly $300 + $100 for a 2yr Xbox Live subscription. So at $99 a pop, they’d be roughly $300 shy if they sold it at normal rates but again with that $15 contract, they’d make it up in about 20 months and then stand to make an additional little bit that they could chalk up to “interest”. And then that doesn’t even include the long term projections of what it would mean to further increase Xbox’s install base, Kinect’s install base and additional revenue that would inevitably come from owners buying content on XBL.

So IF this all is true (“IF” because it doesn’t seem like anything more tangible on the subject has come out yet), it looks like this is a decent deal for both Microsoft and consumers. On the consumer’s side of the ball, it’s not like they’re being pillaged for money (unless you call $40 an outrage vs not owning an Xbox on XBL for two years) and again for Microsoft, it’s another great opportunity to position their machine as the primary media device in homes.