Microsoft has some pretty high hopes riding on the Kinect, their new motion-sensing gaming device for the Xbox 360.
Xbox product director Aaron Greenberg recently sat down for an interview with industry website Gamasutra to discuss the Kinect, which is set to launch this November, and how it will extend the life cycle of the Xbox 360
Greenberg pointed out that this launch will not merely be another hardware add-on, but will be treated as somewhat of an all-new platform or generation for the five-year-old console.
“We’re five years in. We think we have another good five years-plus, but that remains to be seen – but easily there’s another five years’ life,” he told Gamasutra.
Microsoft certainly isn’t skimping on the marketing budget for the Kinect. They have spent hundreds of millions of dollars thus far on the launch, more than what they invested for the release of the Xbox 360 itself, and the company is hoping to see some very large returns for their efforts.
“We believe this will be the biggest launch in our history, for Xbox. We will sell more Kinect sensors than we did [systems] at Xbox 360 launch,” Greenberg said. “Our estimates that we will sell in excess of 3 million units this holiday,”
While the Kinect will only have 15 titles available during the initial launch, Microsoft feels that this will be enough of a draw to meet their sales goals. They also believe that a planned second-wave of games next year from Japanese developers will be even more of a positive boost for the system.
But at $150 plus another $50 – $60 per game, will consumers really be that eager to buy this holiday season? Indeed, that does remain to be seen.
