Wal-Mart Honors $249 Xbox 360, Kinect Until Sept 5

Last weekend Wal-Mart mistakenly advertised a Microsoft Xbox 360 and Kinect bundle for $249, considerably less than its actual retail price. Despite the slip-up, it seems the ubiquitous retailer will honor the bundle's mistaken price.

We've seen a number of price errors in recent months. The most glaring and embarrassing error was made by Sears, which in July accidentally advertised an Apple iPad 2 for just $69, or 86 per cent less than its typical retail price. Sears later apologized for the error, but only credited the accounts of those who had scrambled to take advantage of the deal.

Xbox Bundle Mistake Likely Tied to PS3 Drop

The Wal-Mart Xbox 360/Kinect mistake is far less damaging, though it's likely the giant retailer is hoping to set itself apart from competitors like Sears by honoring the deal.

The advertisement in question appeared in many Sunday newspapers offering a 4GB Xbox 360 video game console and Kinect hands-free gaming peripheral (along with a controller and one month Xbox Live subscription) for $249, $50 less than its usual price. (Source: gamerevolution.com)

It's believed Wal-Mart somehow got confused by Sony's recent decision to drop the price of the 160GB version of the PlayStation 3 (PS3) console from $299 to $249 and applied that price change to the Xbox package instead.

Deal Available Through September 5th

For its part, Microsoft has said it had nothing to do with the price drop, meaning it hasn't officially cut the price of its console. "Walmart made an independent decision to implement this temporary price cut," the Redmond-based firm said in a recent statement. (Source: joystiq.com)

The good news is that Wal-Mart will continue to offer the $249 Xbox 360/Kinect deal until September 5, 2011. However, the retailer says it won't offer any rain checks.