Since landing on store shelves November 4, Microsoft has sold 10 million Kinect sensors worldwide. In addition, Kinect drove significant game sales with more than 10 million standalone Kinect games sold worldwide to date. It’s true–the sensor does come bundled with a free game called Kinect Adventures; but notice that the company specifies so many standalone Kinect games have been sold, so they’re not cheating us with that number. Guinness World Records has stepped in to name Kinect for Xbox 360 the “fastest selling consumer electronics device.” We all saw this feat coming; 1 million sensors were sold during its first 10 days on the market and then over 2.5 million of them were reported to have been sold in 25 days. To say this motion accessory is a wild success is quite the understatement. Sony, your move.
Microsoft has announced a new Kinect-specific update for Xbox 360 owners. Here’s out the makers explain it: “With Avatar Kinect, you can control your avatar’s facial expression, head, and arm movements. As you talk, frown, smile, or scowl, your voice and facial expressions are enacted by your avatar, bringing your avatar to life!” In other words, the update will give you a more detailed level of control over your avatar. Right now the Kinect captures basic movements, such as arm flails, moving side-to-side, jumping, and ducking. With Avatar Kinect, the sensor will be able to recognize a new slate of physical actions. Microsoft is highlighting a virtual hangout where you can meet up with up to seven friends and converse with them using your avatars. You’ll be able to select from 15 virtual environments. Think of it as Wii’s Mii Plaza, except this space will allow for broader interaction (detailed avatar movements performed by you, voice support). Avatar Kinect will hit Xbox 360s later this spring. Look after the break to see it in action.
In related Kinect news… At CES 2011 Microsoft announced that they sold 8 million Kinect sensors worldwide during its first 60 days on the market; they sold 3 million more devices than they had predicted they would during that launch window. More news… In a spring update, Hulu Plus will be joining Netflix, expanding users’ options when it comes to TV and movie content. In addition, the two services will be Kinect-compatible.
Since its North American release date on November 4, Microsoft’s Kinect controller-free motion accessory has proved to be a boon for the open source community. Over the last month or so I’ve collated the most intriguing Kinect hacks and today is the day I’ve decided to let them live free inside this post. Tinkerers are constantly throwing up their latest creations online, so expect Kinect, hacked to become an ongoing series.
First up we have Yankeyan‘s Super Mario Bros. Kinect hack. Using OpenKinect drivers and NES emulation he’s figured out how to make the plumber’s on-screen movements mimic his physical jumps and arm flails. It doesn’t match up perfectly, but that doesn’t make the hack any less impressive.
Now go on, hop after the break to browse oodles of Kinect hack videos; I promise they are all super inventive! Continue reading Kinect, hacked.→
Last we heard out of the video game giants Sony had shipped 1 million Move controllers in one month, and Microsoft had sold 1 million Kinect sensors in ten days. Post-Black Friday, the companies were eager to share the latest sales figures for these products. As of November 2010 Sony has shipped over 4.1 million units worldwide, and Microsoft has sold over 2.5 million Kinect sensors globally in 25 days. Now bear in mind that there’s a notable difference between units shipped and units sold. Unlike Microsoft, Sony is not reporting actual sales results; instead they are reporting the number of units shipped to retailers. A Sony rep says that the company won’t “disclose [their] exact sell-through number”, and that kind of chips away at their impressive and somewhat misleading stat. Nevertheless, there’s no denying that the new motion peripherals are happily riding the Wii’s coattails this holiday season.
Kinect for Xbox 360 released earlier this month. And when new super cool tech such as the motion sensing Kinect hits the mass market, you expect some astute attempts at hacking and laughable attempts at practicing to hit the interwebs at some point. This very post presents you with these videos. Let’s start with the hackers. Visualization researcher Oliver Kreylos has discovered a way to turn the Kinect into a 3D video capture tool. He describes the hack: “By combining the color and the depth image captured by the Microsoft Kinect, one can project the color image back out into space and create a “holographic” representation of the persons or objects that were captured.” Kreylos’ demonstrating is embedded above (left); is your mind blown yet? A man who goes by AlexP managed to hack the Kinect’s built in accelerometer in an interesting way; check out his batch of demos after the break.
And on to the wacky EPIC FAIL videos you’ve been oh-so patiently waiting for. Or maybe you haven’t and you already watched my personal favorite Kinect fail in the video embedded above (right). Salivating for more embarrassing moments like this? You know where to find ’em. Ahem, they’re sitting after the break.
Update (11/17): Hacker Chris Rojas has managed to make the Kinect communicate with an iPad. Click here to see the action.
Today Microsoft is happy to report that it sold one million Kinect for Xbox 360 units worldwide during the product’s first ten days on store shelves. Before the Kinect launched on November 4, Microsoft raised its worldwide sales forecast from 3 million to 5 million sensors sold by year-end; according to today’s official press release (which is posted after the break for your perusal) the company is still on pace to hit that higher mark before 2010 closes. President of the Interactive Entertainment Business Don Mattrick shares his excitement and reiterates what I just told you: “We are appreciative of the response we have seen from consumers that has culminated in sales of more than 1 million units in the first 10 days on the market for Kinect for Xbox 360. This is a great start to the holiday season, and we will continue to work with our retailer partners to keep pace with high demand and deliver against our plan to sell more than 5 million Kinect sensors worldwide by the end of this year.” I know what you’re thinking. How does this compare to the PlayStation Move sales recently reported? Well, it’s hard to say. And that’s because Sony did not post units sold; rather they publicly announced that they shipped over one million units during the product’s first month on sale. We’ll definitely have a better look at head-to-head sales figures when the companies decide to share post-holiday data.
Here we go! Microsoft has officially begun the marketing blitz for Kinect. At the center of all these commercials is the philosophy that you don’t have to have any previous knowledge of playing video games; you are the controller, so it all comes naturally. Look after the break for two more ads featuring flailing children in large, brightly lit living spaces plus an extended commercial highlighting Xbox Live with Kinect functionality.
With the launch of Microsoft’s controller-less motion capture accessory Kinect for Xbox 360 just around the corner (it releases November 4, people!) Xbox’s Major Nelson has spilled the deets surrounding the sizable launch lineup. Of the 17 new Kinect-enabled games, 4 of them come from Microsoft Game Studios and have that Wii-casual edge to them. These include Kinect Sports, Kinect Adventures, Kinect Joy Ride, and Kinectimals. Other notable launch titles includes Sonic Free Riders, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 The Videogame, Harmonix’s Dance Central, and Ubisoft’s Your Shape: Fitness Evolved. Look after the break for the entire “portfolio” of games, including pricing (ranges from $39.99-$49.99) and release dates (all available during launch month).
Holiday shoppers will have oodles of options to choose from when decision time comes to purchase Microsoft’s gesture-based motion tracking camera Kinect. In addition to the standalone version ($149.99) and Xbox 360 4GB bundle ($299.99), Kinect will also ship with the higher capacity 250GB Xbox 360. At a whopping $399.99 you will get the new “whisper quiet” shiny, black, and slim Xbox 360, Kinect, and a copy of a Kinect launch title, Kinect Adventures!. The two bundles will ship on Kinect launch day, November 4.
Lionhead Studios’ Peter Molyneux (creator of Fable) took the stage at TED last month to demo his artifically intelligent phenom Milo. His presentation has finally been uploaded to the Internetz and is ready for our enjoyment. The game utilizes Kinect for Xbox 360 to enable the player to interact with Milo and his virtual world with body movements, hand gestures, and speech. The first tech demo was featured at E3 2009, and since then Milo has grown into a more full-fledged game. This new 11-minute presentation explains Milo’s backstory (he has recently moved into a new home), his problem (he is having trouble acclimating to his new surroundings), and how the player factors into the game (you are there to befreind Milo and help him find his way in this new chapter of his life). Molyneux explains that Microsoft’s TellMe database brings Milo out of the depths of standard yes/no responses and into a new era of speech commands in gaming. The Kinect mic picks up your voice and the Milo software recognizes the intonation of your speech patterns. It’s pretty wild. Watch it unfold in the video above.
We finally have a release date and price to marry. Kinect for Xbox 360, the advanced motion-tracking camera that aims to get games off the couch and into the game (so to speak), will release on November 4 for $149.99. That’s a bit steeper than most had anticipated, but watchagonnado? Now let’s talk bundles. When you buy Kinect standalone for $149.99, the action/adventure game Kinect Adventures! comes packaged inside. Speaking of Kinect titles, Microsoft says that all first-party Kinect-supported games will run $49.99 a pop (that’s ten bucks less than “standard” retail games). In doing this Microsoft hopes to make this pricing standard for Kinect games, but they will leave third-party Kinect games up to the discretion of the developers. Only Dance Central, the exercise disguised as a dancing game from MTV Games and Harmonix, has followed suit with a $49.99 price tag so far. Kinect will also be bundled with a brand new Xbox 360 console. This new SKU is similar to the new 250GB Xbox 360 announced at E3; it’s still “whisper quiet” and comes packed with a WiFi N-adapter. What it lacks is the large HDD and shiny aesthetics. The cheaper SKU will feature 4GB of internal flash memory and a black matte finish (as opposed to the 250GB Xbox’s glossy finish). The new console will come with an empty HDD bay, leaving the option open for Microsoft to ship to market a HDD for expandable storage. The new 4GB Xbox 360 will cost $199.99 and release on August 3. The Kinect + Kinect Adventures! w/ 4GB Xbox 360 bundle will go for $299 and release alongside the Kinect standalone sensor on November 4.
Microsoft’s Aaron Greenberg shared the reasoning behind the bundle pricing scheme: “We’re currently a full $100 less than the PS Move bundle which is $400, which is a single player experience. Obviously if you add a second player to that they get well over $500 pretty quickly.” He also says that by setting the Kinect w/ console bundle price at $299 (fifty bucks cheaper than buying everything separately), this will help draw in new potential gamers and expand the market. Look after the break for the full PR.
Let’s start with Kinect Adventures!, shall we? This Kinect game includes a bunch of mini-games, and I got to step into two of them. “River Rush” puts you and a second player inside a raft that you must navigate through heavy rapids. Controls are simple: lean left and right to guide the raft and watch out for obstacles like big rocks; lean forward to make the raft go faster; leap into the air with your partner to make the raft jump off ramps to collect tokens for extra points. During the demonstration, the Microsoft rep instructed us to side-step left and right to steer the raft; I’m told it can be navigated either way. The second “adventure” I played was a mine cart obstacle course. While you’re traveling at a steady speed atop a mine cart you must jump (for speed), duck, and side-step to watch out for obstacles like metal padded bars. Collect tokens along the way by configuring your body into various positions.
Kinect Adventures! also includes a “camera moments” that pop up a number of times during the mini-games. A small camera icon alerts you when the game is ready to snap a photo of you in action. At the end of each game you are shown a quick montage of your jumping and spinning motions during peak moments of gameplay. They come complete with captions that relate to the action; if it catches a big jump it might say “impressive air”. Think of it like the pictures that are taken at theme parks during big drops on a coaster. Once the photos are saved, you have the option to share them with friends via email or Facebook. That’s right–now you can embarrass yourself in new ways!
Next up is Kinect Sports. This game is a Wii Sports knockoff for sure, but is it a worthy contender? It packs six sports in total–bowling, ping pong, volleyball, boxing, soccer, and track & field. Within the track & field section I did some running-and-hurdling. Ready for the controls? Run in place to make your avatar go and jump to avoid the obstacle beams. The fast your run in place, the faster your avatar will run on-screen. It’s like using the NES Power Pad but without the pad! This mini-game was a lot of fun, though it was frustrating at times. I had some trouble leaping over the obstacles; it’s all about the timing and I just didn’t catch on. My partner, on the other hand, managed to make almost every jump. Guess I need some practice. Besides that minor issue, I was whole-heartedly satisfied with my experience because it resulted in a great workout! By the end of the race my partner and I were almost out of breath and on the verge of sweating (it was hot in the Microsoft cube!). The results screen shows you a sped up video replay of your running and jumping action and then shows your avatars too with some Chariots of Fire playing in the background. Since I only got to the play a track-and-field game it would not be appropriate to say Kinect Sports is better or worse than Wii Sports. The verdict will have to wait until we all get our hands on the game this fall.
