Report: Microsoft to Trick Poor People Into Buying Xbox 360 Consoles

An Xbox360 that comes with Kinect for $99 sounds good, especially since a low-end mode costs twice that. Microsoft is reportedly sticking that price tag on Xbox 360s, with a huge catch: Suckers who buy it have to sign up for a $15 monthly fee for two years.

Little money down and mandatory monthly payments sounds like rent-to-own to us.

The payment scores you Xbox Live Gold access, and may include some free games, but the service only runs about $5 a month. Anyone who takes this deal will end up paying more than they would if they just bought a normal console at full price.

We always spent math class catching up on our sleep, so we’ll rely on The Verge to do the calculations for us. They say those who choose this silly deal will end up paying $459 when the two years come to an end. If you pay for everything straight up, you’ll spend $420. The difference between the totals is enough to score you a ton of downloadable games or a copy of Gears of War 3.

The deal will supposedly only be available at Microsoft Store locations.