Mountain House (CA) - OCZ’s Neural Impulse Actuator (NIA) could become one of the most sought after computing peripherals this year. So far, the price of the device was somewhat a mystery, with estimates ranging from $99.99 to $299 – more than what you would currently would pay for Nintendo’s Wii console (if you can get one). It turns out that OCZ will bring the NIA for $159 to the U.S., TG Daily has learned.

To clear up the confusion surrounding the NIA, we talked to Ryan Petersen, co-founder and CEO of OCZ Technology. Petersen said that the suggested retail price of the NIA will be $159. “We want people to buy the thing, not to just look at it and think that they cannot afford it,” he told us.

That number is substantially lower than our initial estimate and almost 50% cheaper than Emotiv’s EPOC, a device with similar functionality. Less money is always a good thing and we don’t mind that OCZ is in fact able to bring the NIA for just $159 to market. “We don’t care about making money off it, we care about making people love it,” Petersen said. Of course, he did not tell us how much profit margin is left in the NIA at this price point.

$159 is still a significant expense for an input device, but it doesn’t look quite as bad if you consider that Logitech charges $150 for its admittedly fantastic MX Air mouse and you could pay substantially for a fancy gaming keyboard/mouse).