MCV is this morning reporting that pre-orders for Microsoft’s camera-based motion control device, Kinect, are “booming“, claiming retailers are reporting “high pre-order numbers”, squashing current internet chatter that the £129 price point is pitched too high.
The site continues, saying that it’s heard “one large chain” has been encouraging their stores to secure 10 pre-orders for the device every day, and claims sources are saying they expect advance orders to break half a million in the UK before it’s out.
Apparently, the £129 price point is “reflective of the product’s playability and appeal to a wide range of customers”, with Grainger Games saying that the feedback they’ve had so far from our customers is that they feel the price is “appropriate to the product.”
“We have taken a large number of deposits for Kinect already and it is set to become our biggest pre-order to date. This tells us the device’s appeal has not been affected by the price point,” said director Phil Moore.
“Kinect is a fantastic piece of technology and we believe that once people actually try it for themselves, they will understand the full scope and value of what it offers them,” echoed GAME’s Martyn Gibbs, who also appears to be behind Kinect 100%.
monkeyspoon
There is still no mention that Kinect doesn’t have a single decent game that uses it.
TSA should do an article comparring move and kinect games.
Raen
…How? They’re not out yet.
monkeyspoon
Just a list of each game with move support and kinect with a few details of each. Just to show what kind of gamers each cater for.
STILLCANTTHINKOFAGOODPSNNAME
do it yourself you lazy sod
Apnomis
I bet Sony wish they would have thrown their weight behind the EyeToy or even PS3 Eye a bit more when they launched. Yes I know Kinect is a better camera but when you look at how excited people are getting by the ‘you are the controller’ concept it’s like they didn’t even realise the technology existed.
It appears to me that Microsoft have collected a range of existing, relatively unexciting, technologies and put them in a single device for the first time and suddenly it’s the biggest technological breakthrough in decades!
* Webcams – never took off as a control method and we’ve been using them to chat to others remotely for years
* Microphones/voice recognition – never took off as a control method (and I could do this on my PC 15 years ago)
* Motorised camera stand that tracks you – standard in any good quality PC webcam nowadays
* 3D/IR depth perception – never really used in gaming but again nothing that new or revolutionary
* Body tracking – would KungFu Live have set the PSN store alight if Kinect didn’t exist?
But add them all together and mix well with a generous quantity of marketing money and suddenly it’s like we’re seeing these things for the first time!
DrNate86
This doesn’t surprise me in the slightest with the amount of high profile advertising being done. Get on it Sony!
STILLCANTTHINKOFAGOODPSNNAME
“encouraging their stores to secure 10 pre-orders for the device every day” <– this
TSBonyman
It’s probably true, recently kinect was in top 50 Amazon pre-orders while Move only made top 200.
a inferior race
To be honest I am more interested in Kinect than the Move. I don’t really see how the Move brings anything newe to the table aside from having different games to the Wii that support motion control. Whereas the concept of Kinect merging voice and motion control into one device does interest me greatly. However, I would need try to Kinect before I purchased it as it could easily be rubbish.