All’s well for casual gamers. Confirming recent reports, Microsoft has declared that they will be launching a $199 slimmer version of the Xbox 360 this fall and has also stated that they will offer Kinect bundled with this new product.

According to the retailing document obtained by Kotaku, Microsoft answered the question “Will you sell a $199 version of the new Xbox 360?” with a taciturn “We will offer a $199 Xbox 36 this fall.” This news comes soon after a report that Microsoft was slashing the prices of the Elite and Arcade models of the Xbox 360 to $149 and $249, respectively, after deciding to retract the old Xbox 360 models from retailers. In the document, Microsoft said Kinect would be available as a standalone device and as “part of a bundle with the newly designed Xbox 360 console,” but “we have no additional details about pricing or retail strategy to share at this time.”

During E3 last week, it had been announced that the new Xbox 360 Slim was going to cost us $299, including Wi-Fi and a 250GB hard drive a pretty steep figure for newcomers. Thus, a $199 Arcade model, even with cheaper internal components and design, makes a lot of sense. It is hard to conceive, though, that the spacious hard drive or WiFi would still be retained.

Other features I cannot vouch for, but you can surely expect a lot of bundle options. Though Microsoft refrained from divulging any more details on the new $199 SKU, a lot of offers did come up at GameStop earlier this week. Suggestions are on that Kinect would come as a standalone model for $150, as well as in Arcade and Elite bundles for $299 and $399, respectively.