Kinect for the Xbox 360 is now available in the UK, following a big Microsoft launch event at the Natural History Museum. The star studded gathering was fronted by singer Leona Lewis and popular beat combo The Wanted. (If you can tell us who the latter actually are, it’d be much appreciated.)
Attendees at the Natural History Museum got to have fun ice skating, and of course, they got to play games using Kinect, the new hands free motion controller for the Xbox 360.
Meanwhile, thousands of people queued up outside games retailers across the country to be among the first to buy Kinect.. It marked the second midnight launch in as many days, with Call of Duty: Black Ops having launched at the same time on the previous night.
Microsoft have been quick to hail the success of Kinect, with Kinect product boss Kudo Tsunoda claiming the release of the peripheral has been bigger than the launch of the Xbox 360.
“This is as big a launch as any console launch we’ve ever done,” said Tsunoda.
“And the amount of events, the amount of people, pre-orders… all coming down for Kinect; it’s the biggest thing than Xbox has ever done.”
The Kinect product boss also told CVG that Kinect will evolve much like Xbox Live has.
“We look at Kinect in a lot of the same way we look at Xbox Live,” he said. “Xbox Live obviously looks a lot different today than it did when it was first released and I think that’s the same approach that we take with Kinect.”
He said Microsoft will “constantly be building new innovative experiences, new features and new things for people to do all with the same hardware”.
Tsunoda also added: “We’ve got lots of great stuff available at launch. You can see what we’re doing with the games, the great voice stuff with movies and Sky – but I do think it’s going to be the kind of thing we’re going to continue to build on and continue to deliver new features, so that anyone who buys the Kinect sensor now will be able to get all those types of fun things to do over time as we deliver new types of platform features.”
The comments from Tsunoda echo previous remarks made by Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President in Charge of Microsoft Game Studios, Phil Spencer who told GameSpot that Kinect is as core to the Xbox 360 as Xbox Live.
To some, the launch success of Kinect for the Xbox 360 won’t come as a surprise, with Microsoft reportedly having half a billion to spend on marketing the new device. The hype seems to have worked with retailers apparently suffering from Kinect shortages. Stephen McGill, boss of the Xbox business in the UK, told CVG:
Lots of the retailers closed their pre-orders a good few weeks ago for launch night allocations and obviously the responsibility for us now is just to keep on replenishing that stock.”
“We’re manufacturing 24 hours a day, seven days a week – lots of planes, boats and trucks are planned and lined up ready to get regular replenishment stock out there. I think a lot of people are going to be enjoying this for Christmas this year.”
Microsoft are definitely confident about Kinect for the Xbox 360, however, analysts suggest that it’ll be the PlayStation 3 that wins the console war this Christmas.
So Train2Game, have you got your hands on….or not on as the case would be…Kinect yet? If so, what do you think about the new peripheral? Is it worth the hype? Or have you found the Kinect experience to be somewhat underwhelming?
And ultimately, do you think it’ll be Microsoft or Sony that comes out on top this Christmas?
You can leave your thoughts about Microsoft’s Kinect here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.
Kinect for the Xbox 360 is now available in the UK, following a big Microsoft launch event at the Natural History Museum. The star studded gathering was fronted by singer Leona Lewis and popular beat combo The Wanted. (If you can tell us who the latter actually are, it’d be much appreciated.)
Attendees at the Natural History Museum got to have fun ice skating, and of course, they got to play games using Kinect, the new hands free motion controller for the Xbox 360.
Meanwhile, thousands of people queued up outside games retailers across the country to be among the first to buy Kinect.. It marked the second midnight launch in as many days, with Call of Duty: Black Ops having launched at the same time on the previous night.
Microsoft have been quick to hail the success of Kinect, with Kinect product boss Kudo Tsunoda claiming the release of the peripheral has been bigger than the launch of the Xbox 360.
“This is as big a launch as any console launch we’ve ever done,” said Tsunoda.
“And the amount of events, the amount of people, pre-orders… all coming down for Kinect; it’s the biggest thing than Xbox has ever done.”
The Kinect product boss also told CVG that Kinect will evolve much like Xbox Live has.
“We look at Kinect in a lot of the same way we look at Xbox Live,” he said. “Xbox Live obviously looks a lot different today than it did when it was first released and I think that’s the same approach that we take with Kinect.”
He said Microsoft will “constantly be building new innovative experiences, new features and new things for people to do all with the same hardware”.
Tsunoda also added: “We’ve got lots of great stuff available at launch. You can see what we’re doing with the games, the great voice stuff with movies and Sky – but I do think it’s going to be the kind of thing we’re going to continue to build on and continue to deliver new features, so that anyone who buys the Kinect sensor now will be able to get all those types of fun things to do over time as we deliver new types of platform features.”
The comments from Tsunoda echo previous remarks made by Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President in Charge of Microsoft Game Studios, Phil Spencer who told GameSpot that Kinect is as core to the Xbox 360 as Xbox Live.
To some, the launch success of Kinect for the Xbox 360 won’t come as a surprise, with Microsoft reportedly having half a billion to spend on marketing the new device. The hype seems to have worked with retailers apparently suffering from Kinect shortages. Stephen McGill, boss of the Xbox business in the UK, told CVG:
Lots of the retailers closed their pre-orders a good few weeks ago for launch night allocations and obviously the responsibility for us now is just to keep on replenishing that stock.”
“We’re manufacturing 24 hours a day, seven days a week – lots of planes, boats and trucks are planned and lined up ready to get regular replenishment stock out there. I think a lot of people are going to be enjoying this for Christmas this year.”
Microsoft are definitely confident about Kinect for the Xbox 360, however, analysts suggest that it’ll be the PlayStation 3 that wins the console war this Christmas.
So Train2Game, have you got your hands on….or not on as the case would be…Kinect yet? If so, what do you think about the new peripheral? Is it worth the hype? Or have you found the Kinect experience to be somewhat underwhelming?
And ultimately, do you think it’ll be Microsoft or Sony that comes out on top this Christmas?
You can leave your thoughts about Microsoft’s Kinect here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.
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