14 DAY TRIAL // A prominent analyst of the video game industry has stated that the Microsoft made Kinect motion tracking system for the Xbox 360 home console might sell more than 4 million units from its November launch date to the end of the year.
The biggest hardware launches of the fall on the Western market are Microsoft's Kinect and Sony's PlayStation Move, two motion tracking peripherals that will expand the range of gaming experiences available to those who own the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3.
But both systems can be pretty pricey, with the Kinect setup retailing stand alone for 149 dollars and with the Sony solution varying in terms of costs depending on the hardware the player is interested in and the number of players who will play together.
But it seems that despite the price the Kinect will be a best seller when it is launched in early November.
Colin Sebastian, who is an analyst of the video game industry working for Lazard Capital Markets, has sais, “Based on updated channel checks, we believe that production quantities of Microsoft’s Kinect motion sensor could exceed our original expectations - suggesting to us potentially more aggressive launch plans for the device.”
One reason for the big sales might be that Microsoft will push retailers to prominently promote the bundles that include the Xbox 360, the Kinect and a video game developed specifically for it, for a price of 299 dollars.
Sebastian seems to believe that a better price point for the stand alone Kinect would be 99 dollars, with the wide adoption of the device depending on when Microsoft drops the retail price for its device.
Kinect is designed to read the movements of the players, using an included camera, and transform them into inputs that the Xbox Live interface and video games can recognize.
Initial experiences for the device are more in the mini game collection genre. Fable III from Lionhad was supposed to offer Kinect support but an announcement was made that it was delayed.