How well is Kinect really selling?

[HappyTree]

After reading this quote

Of course, Xbox 360 is still selling, and Kinect is performing well with over 8m units sold.

and reading a few forums I'm wondering it it's actually true. 8 million Kinects sold? That can't be right. Already? Why isn't Kinect being hailed as the greatest thing in the world, in that case? Or is it, and I'm reading the wrong forums?

Anyone know any real performance figures for Kinect?

I can't see 8 million people having big enough TVs and being able to rearrange their living room to meet Kinect's requirements. I would get it myself for a laugh if I had room, I guess. But with my couch 2m away from the 40" screen I'd be too close when standing up. And I'm not moving the telly.

Kinect can't be doing that well, can it?

[Zero Gravitas]

I can't see 8 million people having big enough TVs and being able to rearrange their living room to meet Kinect's requirements.

7 million realised this after they got home.

[jutl]

8m is fewer than one to every six Xbox's sold, which seems feasible.

[madhair60]

Kinect is fucking shit and caused my best friend to say the most ludicrous thing I've ever heard.  I played one round of Kinect Sports then sat down, bored.  He, scoffing, turned to me and said something along the lines of "Do you really get nothing out of the magic of seeing your actions on screen?"

Yeah, twat, in 2003 when the Eyetoy came out and it was the fucking same.

£100 of his money down the shitter, more fool him.

[Big Jack McBastard]

<waits for Neil to stop dancing to Lady Gaga and pour scorn on madhair>

[Big Jack McBastard]

I've not bought one or actually played anything on one but then I don't really care to, my gaming sessions are usually long and fraught I don't need to be knackered 20 minutes into one of the buggers from flailing about.

Plus the whole 'basic/kids games' that dominate it have no draw for me.

[Penfold]

7 million realised this after they got home.

this. is.

my housemate got a Kinect but had to do some rearranging of furniture to get it work.

low ceilings hurt.

8 million isn't really a lot though, i'm sure there are plenty of living rooms big enough down south.

[madhair60]

Augh, I don't begrudge people enjoying it, if they like it they like it.  I just have no time for these motion games.  I'll play Eyetoy with my brother (one of the few games he's able to play) sometimes, but overall the whole movement (no pun intended) just clashes with my tastes in gaming.  I find when I play Wii or Kinect or whatever, around 10/20% of the time there's no fucking correlation between my movements and want happens onscreen - it's not even slightly immersive, since I'm constantly trying to compensate for the shit sensors.  Also, if I wanted to flap my arms and legs spasmodically I'd set myself on fire.

[Still Not George]

I watched a really irritating video at The Escapist earlier that chuntered on and on about how the casual market and the new input methodology would combine with the first generations that have grown up with gaming to mean the potential for "the universally appealing game". I almost yelled at the screen that they'd just explained why that ISN'T going to happen - Kinect/Wii etc is presenting people who don't much like games with an avenue in, but not any real capacity for complexity, while the new generations of game-savvy consumers are exactly the people who WANT complexity in their games and aren't afraid to put up with abstractions to get it.

[mobias]

Kind of on topic. Sony have just announced that's its killing off a number of projects currently in development at their own in house studios with possible job losses. Rumour has it they were all Move based games and have been killed off simply because the hardware isn't selling. I know nobody that's bought the Move set up for their PS3.

http://www.psu.com/SCEE-trimming-a-number-of-small,-UK-based-projects--a010934-p0.php

[Penfold]

I watched a really irritating video at The Escapist earlier that chuntered on and on about how the casual market and the new input methodology would combine with the first generations that have grown up with gaming to mean the potential for "the universally appealing game". I almost yelled at the screen that they'd just explained why that ISN'T going to happen - Kinect/Wii etc is presenting people who don't much like games with an avenue in, but not any real capacity for complexity, while the new generations of game-savvy consumers are exactly the people who WANT complexity in their games and aren't afraid to put up with abstractions to get it.

YO WRONG

I want a game where i can use my mum's wiimote to shoot a guy in the neck and then my mum can use her wii fit to curb-stomp that fucker.

mission complete.

[VegaLA]

MS targeted sales for 5M, and overshot that figure for that time period* with the 8M figure. As a regular reader of Engadget I get the impression that most of these were bought by hacker boffin types as every other week somebody has hacked it to do something MS didn't design it to do. MS will be releasing the Kinect for Windows so maybe there is some unlocked potential these guys may have unearthed?
I've said this many times before but the whole using your body as a controller and jumping around the room does not interest me, but then thats me, and i'm pleased people like Neil are getting some good gaming experiences from it.
The Gurl wants one for the TV in the bedroom for viewing Netflix with it. The ability to wave her hand to select titles tickles her fancy. I wonder if the controller would override Kinect, which might lead to some amusing japes in the future.

*First 3 months I think.

[Jemble Fred]

Augh, I don't begrudge people enjoying it, if they like it they like it.  I just have no time for these motion games.  I'll play Eyetoy with my brother (one of the few games he's able to play) sometimes, but overall the whole movement (no pun intended) just clashes with my tastes in gaming.  I find when I play Wii or Kinect or whatever, around 10/20% of the time there's no fucking correlation between my movements and want happens onscreen - it's not even slightly immersive, since I'm constantly trying to compensate for the shit sensors.  Also, if I wanted to flap my arms and legs spasmodically I'd set myself on fire.

For what it's worth, although there's no denying that the software so far released for Kinect is pretty damn Wii-smelling and there's yet to be anything close to a killer app for it, it's still pretty weak to damn Kinect on the basis of experiences with Wii, Move, Eyetoy or any previous motion controller, really. It's definitely a more impressive piece of kit than anything else currently available by a very long chalk. And no shitty bits of plastic to leave lying around.

I'm hopefully getting to grips with Yoostar 2 next week – again, it's a party game, but damn impressive when you get into it. I still have hopes that the Kinect will eventually inspire developers to create something totally unexpected, fresh and addictive.

If they could only somehow get an FPS experience working on it, I reckon they'd double their sales right away...

I wonder if the controller would override Kinect, which might lead to some amusing japes in the future.

Not so you could do it without immediate detection, I fear.

[Neil]

I've said this many times before but the whole using your body as a controller and jumping around the room does not interest me, but then thats me, and i'm pleased people like Neil are getting some good gaming experiences from it.

Yes, I still adore it, and play mine pretty much every day.  I got an Xbox HD and Sports with the Xmas bonus I was kindly given by you lot, and they are getting hammered constantly.  I'm just about to stick CaB Radio on now and do some more Sports challenges - I think I might try and make this the first game I 100%.  I bought Dance Central, too, and that's the best implentation of Kinect so far, and a great example of how far the technology has moved on since the EyeToy. 

Can't bloody wait for the next wave of games.  I want more boxing games, as the online version of Sports boxing is totally flawed.  There's that Star Wars game coming out, and the music conductor thing, plus Dance Central 2 already under production.

2 meters might just be enough, HT, rent or borrow it and try. 

[jutl]

Hang on, it's 10m now.

[madhair60]

It's still pretty weak to damn Kinect on the basis of experiences with Wii, Move, Eyetoy or any previous motion controller, really. It's definitely a more impressive piece of kit than anything else currently available by a very long chalk. And no shitty bits of plastic to leave lying around.

I'm damning it on the basis of having played it and it being the same.  Rarely-functioning minigame shit.

It has potential to impress, but it won't.  I just can't get on with it.

[HappyTree]

Yeah, but I'd have to stand in front of the couch, so that reduces it to about 1m, with room for leaning back. I guess I could angle the TV to the right a bit and stand in the corner. Ok looking at it I probably would have the room, but I'd have to swivel the TV unit round every time. Not such a hardship I guess.

I'll think about it. At the moment there don't seem to be any decent games. I once played Wii bowling and tennis. That was fun, but only because I was on holiday visiting friends in Marseille, it was summer, we were in the garden, the guy had a cool projector projecting massively onto the white outside wall and we all played together.

Oh yeah and we were drinking and smoking the 'errrrrb, that might have helped.

Somehow standing alone in the corner of my living room waving my hands about sounds less fun, unless there's something better to play than "Wii Sports for Kinect". I'll have a look at some Youtubes and see what's available.

[Jemble Fred]

I'm damning it on the basis of having played it and it being the same.  Rarely-functioning minigame shit.

Wow, did you have a freak experience with it... Rarely functioning? Not in my experience. The same as the other tacky motion toss, despite the obvious differences? That's not the Kinect I know. Are you sure your friend had it set up right?

I can understand just not being into motion controllers and the kind of games out there for it, but that's not a problem with the hardware, it's just personal taste.

[HappyTree]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mf44bWQr3jc

Oh man, look at the size of their living room! O.M.G.!!! They watch tv from about 5 miles away.

I looked at Dance Central and have to admit that I don't have the self-confidence to prance around like a tit and not shoot myself from embarrassment just after. It doesn't help that Poker Face causes insane rage to bubble up from my belly, due to having a neighbour who played it 35 times in a row one fateful night until 5am, full blast out his open windows.

I'll wait for Kinect 2, I think.

[madhair60]

Wow, did you have a freak experience with it... Rarely functioning? Not in my experience. The same as the other tacky motion toss, despite the obvious differences? That's not the Kinect I know. Are you sure your friend had it set up right?

There aren't any obvious differences.  The principle of your physical motion translating into the game is the same, and the amount of actual control you have over it is negligible - anything that isn't basically a substitute for a standard button press is woefully clumsy.

And no, it was set up fine.  There's no real sense of immersion.

Yes, it is personal taste - and I really don't mean to shit on people who enjoy it - but it is certainly not responsive 100% of the time, which well-programmed joypad controls are (and let's face it, even if the game is shit the buttons usually work).  There are other "casual" games I like, such as Beatles Rock Band, but I get put off when I fail at a game due to anything besides my own cack-handedness and Kinect/Wii/etc seem to facilitate that frustration.

[Jemble Fred]

Well I was always massively turned off by all the other motion gaming doohickeys which have preceded it – and I have to admit I barely play any games on it myself at the moment, all I have is Kinect Adventures and it's shit – but Kinect has just never failed to impress me as a piece of technology which just seems to do pretty much everything it promises to. As I say, if only the software was there to make the most of it.

[madhair60]

Absolutely, I think it has good potential but I just doubt it will be realised.  It's so much easier to just make FuckDance 4: The Twattening

[MojoJojo]

It's a shame no really good FPS were made for the Wii - and they had the stupid shake controls going on. The few there were - Red Steel, Metroid and Resident Evil 4 all clearly benefitted from having a pointer. And I'd like to see more of that, but with a controller which had enough buttons on it that you don't need to shake it.

And on Kinect sales - I gather a lot of it's sales have been in the US, were it was marketed especially heavily. Also, US houses tend to be quite a bit bigger so the whole space thing is less of an issue.