Codebreaker

Hide the Family, Dog, Valuables, Kinect is Here

Kevin Bunkley Nov 12, 2010

Microsoft will have a happy holiday season, based upon early sales estimates for its Kinect motion-control device for the Xbox 360. Cnet News and others are reporting that Microsoft is expecting no less than 5 million units to sell this quarter, beating the Playstation 3’s Move motion-control device that was released in September (it sold 1 million units that month) by a healthy margin.

The Kinect is a big launch for Microsoft, and can be big competition for the Nintendo Wii’s grip on the family video games market.

“Gamer moms” may be flocking to the new Xbox toy, but their impact may be greater than just big sales. Kinect has already provided a horde of YouTube videos documenting the device’s propensity to cause injury to humans, pets, and furniture/televisions.

On top of that, reports are circulating around the internet that the software isn’t working quite right, failing to recognize people’s skin color, or calibrate properly, and the microphone accidentally broadcasting private conversations over Xbox Live.

There’s a lot happening in the world.  Through it all, Marketplace is here for you. 

You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible. 

Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.