Heading toward Black Friday, Microsoft appears to have a hit on its hands in the important home-gaming sector with the Kinect motion-sensing controller. On Monday the software giant boasted it has sold one million of the devices, which work with its Xbox 360 video-game console, in just 10 days on the market.
Microsoft now projects that five million Kinects will be sold by year’s end, up from an earlier projection of three million.
Hands-Free Fun
The Kinect is Microsoft’s answer to Nintendo’s Wii platform, but does one better by sensing the gamer’s movements and speech without wireless handheld controllers.
The device, which sells for $149 or comes bundled with the Xbox 360 for $299 or $399, depending on storage capacity, launched Nov. 4 in North America and Nov. 10 in Europe. It is slated for release in Asia Thursday and Japan Saturday.
Its success comes at a time when video-game accessories are expected to rank high on this season’s consumer electronics wish list.
“Among consumers planning to buy CE this holiday, 26 percent plan to buy some type of video-game accessories,” said Steve Koenig, director of industry analysis for the Consumer Electronics Association. “Clearly there are many, many accessories out there. But we expect the Kinect and Move, from Sony, to do very well as they add the motion-sensing aspect of game play to the Xbox and PS3 platforms.”
Wii Shall Overcome?
But Koenig said it’s too early to say game over to the Wii. “Do not count Wii out — it is being promoted in several Black Friday ads and continues to capture sales,” Koenig observed. “Rumors are they will have something new in the controller arena soon, but not [in time] for holiday [sales].”
Michael Inouye, a digital-home analyst at ABI Research, expects the Kinect to end the year “on a high note” for Microsoft.
“Besides being sold…