Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer narrowed down the "early 2012" launch window for Kinect on the Windows PC during Microsoft's CES 2012 keynote today: February 1, 2012. The software development kit has been available to programmers and designers since back in June, but of course people have been doing interesting things with Kinect and PCs since the peripheral's launch back in November 2010.

Ballmer didn't divulge pricing, but Amazon is currently pegging Kinect for Windows at $249.99, a full $100 more than the current price of Kinect on Xbox 360 -- hey, there's a different camera in the Windows version, remember?

Microsoft's Major Nelson says Kinect for Windows will only work with computers running the SDK. Neither have commented on compatibility with Windows 8, but we've got troops on the ground in Las Vegas and will try to find out more.