With Microsoft having started taking pre-orders for its Kinect motion-controller that plugs into its Xbox 360 gaming console, the company’s online store has now revealed that the device’s price – which remained undisclosed during Kinect’s unveiling at the E3 show this month – is $149.

According to the information forwarded via the store, the shipment of the Kinect – which is Microsoft’s motion-gaming response to rival products like the Nintendo Wii and the Sony PlayStation Move – will begin on November 4 “or after.” The key features of the Kinect include a camera, audio sensors, and motion-sensing technology which can track 48 points of human body movement.

Other than the revelation of the Kinect price tag from the Microsoft online store, three bigwig gaming retailers - Best Buy, Wal-Mart, and Amazon. com – have also listed the price of the device at $150 on their respective Web sites.

However, since there is still no official confirmation of the Kinect price tag from Microsoft itself, despite repeated requests for price confirmation, it is quite possible that the price tag may change before the peripheral is launched.

An inadvertent substantiation of the speculations of the Kinect price change before release came through a Monday tweet by Stephen Toulouse, Microsoft’s director of policy and enforcement for Xbox Live, who said that “all prices now, no matter what the retail source, are placeholders.”