14 DAY TRIAL // Hardware maker and video game publisher Microsoft has announced that Kinect, its motion tracking system which was launched on November 4, has managed to sell 2.5 million units all over the world in the first 25 days it was available for sales.
This comes just after Media Create said that the new device has had a quiet first few days on the Japanese market, managing to move just 26,000 units during the weekend, probably because of the small install base that the Xbox 360 has in the country.
Don Mattrick, who is the president of the Interactive Entertainment Business division st Microsoft, has stated when the numbers were announced that, “We are thrilled about the consumer response to Kinect, and are working hard with our retail and manufacturing partners to expedite production and shipments of Kinect to restock shelves as fast as possible to keep up with demand.”
The sales of 2.5 million in less than one full month of availability in the United States and significantly less in other territories shows that Kinect is on track of selling the three million units which were said to be delivered to gamers before Christmas.
Aaron Greenberg, who is the director of Xbox products at Microsoft, made the prediction back before the device was released in September.
Analysts expected Kinect to sell even better, managing to move more than 4 million devices before 2010 is done.
Sony has claimed that after one month on sales the PlayStation Move, the device for its own home console that enables motion tracking, has managed to sell about 1.5 million units on the European market and ship 1 million in the United States.
Both companies are aiming to sell as many of the new devices as possible in order to built as large as possible a player base that can then buy the motion enabled video games which developers will create and Sony and Microsoft will publish.