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Microsoft Kinect

Asura

By Asura,
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Broker

Broker

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There is no advertising yet. Have you seen a mention of Move in the non-videogames press? Have you seen an advert in a games shop?

Gamestation in Nottingham have replaced about 4 of the shelves of PS3 games with a massive Move poster.

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stefcha

stefcha

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Not only is it obviously impossible, why on earth would anyone think it was a good idea. I just tried pretending to hold a controller and play a game. You just would not be able to do it.

I can only imagine it being like the equivalent of using the Nigel Mansell F1 controller on the ST/Amiga (or whatever it was). Or in other words, like holding that excreable Mario Kart wheel but without any sensory feedback to your hands whatsoever. I'm an arcade racer at heart always have been always will be but after a flush month I gave the MS FF wheel and Forza 3 a go and it changed the way I feel about the games that really make you feel the drive. Kinect can never achieve that, in fact it can't even replicate any sensory feedback that you'd get from Samba de Amigo or even Wii Sports - you need to feel that you're holding something no matter how slight for it to work - so I can't understand in any way how they're hoping this'll be a commercial success. And that's what it's all about.

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Cthulhu Steev

Cthulhu Steev

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Cba reading through this topic...and this is an incredibly daft question that was brought up at a night out. What happens if an amputee tries to play using Kinect? Will it just laugh at them?

It's okay, they can shout the moves out and Kinect will get Milo to do the controls, if he's around.

It's a bit like those phone games on Going Live.

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mushashi

mushashi

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The Windows 7 launch was, by all accounts, astonishingly successful - 150 million licences in 8 months?

Every launch of a new Microsoft product in a market they have a vice like grip on is going to generate big numbers, be nice if they ever gave you a breakdown of how many people who already owned a Windows OS actually ordered an upgrade copy, versus the amount they sold via bundling on new PCs and to big corporations running huge networks who skipped Vista.

There's a pretty awesome bit of self congratulations from someone in the Microsoft marketing department related to the Win7 sales numbers, where they compare some of their sales figures and $$$$ to their various competition, no mention of the games division unfortunately.

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Transient Curse

Transient Curse

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Every launch of a new Microsoft product in a market they have a vice like grip on is going to generate big numbers, be nice if they ever gave you a breakdown of how many people who already owned a Windows OS actually ordered an upgrade copy, versus the amount they sold via bundling on new PCs and to big corporations running huge networks who skipped Vista.

Do companies jump on new iterations of Windows immediately? I'm under the impression that companies hold off in case there are massive faults or bugs which could ruin business.

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Stanley

Stanley

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So throughout history almost every launch has been lacking games. This has got 1 so far for the hardcore and that's Dance Central. So there you have it. Kinect, officially as good as PS3 but massive bag of shite compared to the Dreamcast.

It's the only game anyone is interested in, but it's hardly a hardcore title.

And Rock Band wasn't a hardware add-on, it was a game. People bought it to play the game, they didn't buy it hoping the games would follow.

The history of videogame hardware add-ons is one big long list of pure fail.

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A Hen

A Hen

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Not only is it obviously impossible, why on earth would anyone think it was a good idea. I just tried pretending to hold a controller and play a game. You just would not be able to do it.

And why would you want to? Aside from saving money buying multiple controllers, I can't think of any advantage whatsoever.

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Stanley

Stanley

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Like the terrible selling Wii balance board?

Yeah I must admit I was surprised at its success. I mean when I went in the shop to look for Wii Balance Board, they were completely out of stock. All they had was Wii Fit, which comes with a balance board. Is that the same thing?

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Tom_B

Tom_B

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Yeah I must admit I was surprised at its success. I mean when I went in the shop to look for Wii Balance Board, they were completely out of stock. All they had was Wii Fit, which comes with a balance board. Is that the same thing?

Indeed. Wii Fit has been a massive success, but support for the peripheral has been extremely disappointing. There's over 20 million balance boards out there and still no third parties want to make games for it. I think that's the same problem Microsoft is going to have to deal with: how exactly do they get publishers to support Kinect rather than just the standard 360?

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Beertiger

Beertiger

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Yeah I must admit I was surprised at its success. I mean when I went in the shop to look for Wii Balance Board, they were completely out of stock. All they had was Wii Fit, which comes with a balance board. Is that the same thing?

So Kinect will be a success if it sells well initially but then new releases dry up because Kinect Adventures sold well. Got ya.

Indeed. Wii Fit has been a massive success, but support for the peripheral has been extremely disappointing. There's over 20 million balance boards out there and still no third parties want to make games for it. I think that's the same problem Microsoft is going to have to deal with: how exactly do they get publishers to support Kinect rather than just the standard 360?

It's a shame. Shortly after it's launch the add on was quite well supported with that Rabbids game, Shaun White's and Family Ski. I guess they didn't sell very well. A shame as I had a lot of fun with Shaun White's Snowboarding and Family Ski.

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angel

angel

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I dont think the Wii Fit comparison is really valid, Wii Fit is a package. Game and board, marketed and shown as one clear product. Kinect is twice the price, and the games are packed-in. Wii Fit is a product, Kinect is a peripheral.

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Stanley

Stanley

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So Kinect will be a success if it sells well initially but then new releases dry up because Kinect Adventures sold well. Got ya.

Clearly my sarcasm is lost on you but not to worry, the other person who replied didn't get it either so it's probably me.

Wii Fit wasn't marketed as the 'Wii Balance Board' - a new platform from which many games would be launched. No, it was marketed as "Wii Fit" - the game sold the peripheral not the other way around, same with Guitar Hero, Rock Band, SingStar etc.

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Jolly

Jolly

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The below is entirely based on idle thoughts and anecdotal evidence, but didn't Wii get a bit of hand targeting the Mummys and Daddys by first selling it to us? I would have thought that a large proportion of those sold in the first few months were sold to videogame fans finding out What Nintendo Did Next. Were we the only people willing to stump up £180? I suspect so. That first Christmas, I must have given Nintendo plus 3 or 4 sales just by taking my Wii to a family gathering and showing it off. Would they have got one eventually? Possibly, but it was the large installed base that helped the mega Mario Kart and Wii Fit sales.

Which begs the question, if none of us are going to buy a Kinect, how are the Wii masses every going to get a go on one?

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tobert

tobert

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The below is entirely based on idle thoughts and anecdotal evidence, but didn't Wii get a bit of hand targeting the Mummys and Daddys by first selling it to us? I would have thought that a large proportion of those sold in the first few months were sold to videogame fans finding out What Nintendo Did Next. Were we the only people willing to stump up £180? I suspect so. That first Christmas, I must have given Nintendo plus 3 or 4 sales just by taking my Wii to a family gathering and showing it off. Would they have got one eventually? Possibly, but it was the large installed base that helped the mega Mario Kart and Wii Fit sales.

Which begs the question, if none of us are going to buy a Kinect, how are the Wii masses every going to get a go on one?

From VGsales.com

How many people on this forum brought a Wii at launch for Wii sports? yes that game eventually snowballed into a behemoth but I think that happened because the hardcore, the early adopters, brought Wii's for Zelda then showed their girlfriend, mum, gran, dog Wii sports which came free with the machine. Everyone who played that enjoyed this new kind of gaming immensley and went out and brought their own Wii

This is obviously a massive simplification but I do think this type of product needs word or mouth and I think MS will have to work very hard to get a big enough initial install base to generate this kind of word-of-mouth sales.

I still think the early adopters made a huge different to the Wii, it was the spark that made the fire and, whilst I think it would still be successful without the hardcore, I think it would have taken a lot longer if they didn't have the nintendo faithful evangelising this "new way of playing" to everyone

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Jolly

Jolly

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I think it would have taken a lot longer if they didn't have the nintendo faithful evangelising this "new way of playing" to everyone

Sorry for missing your earlier post, but yeah, totally this. Of course the flipside is that the vast majority of the core videogame audience aren't exactly overflowing with praise for Kinect. It's ten steps behind in the promotional game before it's even been released.

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Stanley

Stanley

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I still think the early adopters made a huge different to the Wii, it was the spark that made the fire and, whilst I think it would still be successful without the hardcore, I think it would have taken a lot longer if they didn't have the nintendo faithful evangelising this "new way of playing" to everyone

They could always rely on the Nintendo faithful buying the console, but it's success was down to Wii Sports which perfectly demonstrated what the new console does. They had massive amounts of media presence and, just look at the attach rate of Wii Sports in Japan (something like 40 odd % at launch time which when you consider retailer forced bundles is no mean feat). It also launched worldwide right before Christmas, instantly giving it that must have status.

It's without a doubt the best planned and most successful launch in console history.

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