Kinect Sales Reach 10 Million Units Worldwide - News
by Miles Taven , posted on 23 May 2011 / 9,184 Views
With the recent financial report released by Microsoft revealing 10.4 million units of Kinect shipped, and with current estimates of Kinect sell-through to consumers at 9.94 million, VGChartz forecasts Kinect to pass the 10 million sell-through mark around the 30 week mark (28th May 2011).
For the purpose of this article I'm going to extract from a previous Kinect sales report to shed light on some of the comparisons you see here.
'There is some debate over whether Kinect can be considered as a videogame system or whether it is an accessory - this is certainly a grey area and Kinect exhibits characteristics of both. For the argument as a system, the fact that Kinect has it's own library of games which can only be played on Kinect certainly distances it from a typical accessory like a Guitar Hero guitar or even the Wii Balance Board, both of which are only supported by a handful of games, many of which can be played without those accessories. From a consumer perspective, Kinect is actually limited (in terms of potential sales) by the fact that you need an Xbox 360 to use it. Therefore, the two options available are to purchase in a hardware bundle starting at $300 or you effectively get a Kinect at a discounted rate of $150 if you already own an Xbox 360. So from a consumer perspective, Kinect is a very real competitor to the likes of Wii as a platform as it costs a similar amount and has a distinct library of games that can only be played on Kinect.' - Brett Walton.
6th Generation Hardware Sales at the 28 week mark.
Back in January, Kinect almost had a 2:1 lead over the Wii, however since then the gap has closed in favour of the Wii, thanks to Nintendo sorting out supply constraints the Wii had over Christmas, and lower interest in Kinect due to lack of new software. Kinect still leads, but unless it sees significant software support in Q3/Q4 and perhaps a price cut, it could fall behind the Wii later this year, which stood at around 15 million at its first birthday. Given the massive Christmas Kinect had last year, though, it's unlikely Kinect won't sell another 5 million units up to November.
The Move figure is based on our estimated userbase for Move, and so Kinect still has a very healthy lead. At this point it's very unlikely Move will ever take the lead.
Going forward it's difficult to judge how well Kinect will sell this year until we get past E3 and see if Kinect and/or Xbox 360 get a price cut, and by how much, and what software Microsoft have coming.
Best case scenario is Kinect gets a $50 price cut, X360 gets a $50 price cut and so the Kinect bundles become priced at $199 and $299 for the premium model. With a slew of software releases from August to November, Kinect would most definitely be up year over year in Q4 and would likely pass 10 million shipped in that quarter alone, with anywhere from 2-4 million shipped in Q3. Along with Q2 shipments (which at this point are looking sub 1 million without any intervention at E3), shipments could reach beyond 25 million by the end of the year.
However, if Microsoft feel their software support for Kinect this Christmas is strong enough to sell the system alone, and Kinect and Xbox 360 don't receive price cuts, Kinect is likely to be at best flat year over year, but likely down, so around 5/6 million in Q4 and 1.5 million the Q before. This would put shipments in the region of 18/19 million by the end of the year.
Along with the bundled Kinect Adventures, Kinect software is at an attach rate of 2.1 games per unit.
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1 attach ratio outside of Kinect adventures and most games aren't really good, plus they are all launch games. Looks like Kinect is gonna become huge, even though i and many Hardcore gamers stay away from it like its plague.
VME, that was shipped.
Didn't they say Kinect reached 10 million months ago. Hmmm
And in the other corner we have Sony - "Sony has shocked the market by reporting the second biggest loss in its history, following the Japanese earthquake tragedy and the PlayStation Network (PSN) hacking crisis. The company behind VAIO computers, PlayStation consoles and Bravia TVs today reported a 260 billion yen (£2bn) net loss for the financial year ending March 31, 2011, instead of an expected profit of 76bn yen." - http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/digitaltv/news/a321016/sony-reports-second-biggest-ever-loss.html
299, whatever. still inflating #'s was my point. This is 2011 most people can't live with less than 20GB on their phones, how can some people justify having 4GB on their home console? I know I have 220G of my 250GB hard drive filled on my gaming console.
@Raider84 You do realize that it is being sold for $299 not $199.
When Kinect is bundled with a 4GB 360 for $199.00 what do you expect? Of course it is going to have huge numbers. Anyone who is going to buy a new 360 is going to buy that bundle, and if they need to they will just cheaply upgrade the HDD. So th Kinect #'s are going to be massively inflated. Not knocking on it, just pointing out something that must of us probably already know. All of my friends who have Kinect stopped playing it about a week after launch. It reminds me of when the Wii first came out, everyone was so intrigued and infatuated... but as we learned with the Wii that wears off quickly and it is left collecting dust. Anyways I'm sure this will upset some M$ fanboys who, for some reason, feel the need to die defending a multi billion dollar corporation. Let the nerd rage commence!
@ Hephaestos, yes Adventures is bundled with every single Kinect.
"Kinect is actually limited (in terms of potential sales) by the fact that you need an Xbox 360 to use it." - And therefore it is more of an accesory. Can you play kinect without an xbox 360? NO. So I approve "@amsterdream comment: 10 million brainwashed."
huh, i thought it already hit 10M. i must just be thinking of a shipment number i guess?
10 Million brainwash ;-)
Raider doesn't sound happy does he?. I own all 3 consoles, and whoever does well I will benefit from it. I havent used my Wii in ages as the software is too old, my PS3 PSN hasn't worked, so all my online/games have been changed to Xbox Live so I can use something that actullay works!. so far I'm fine with the Xbox 360, while my PS3 and Wii gather dust!
keep crying raider
@Raider84 - I am really not sure what your point is you make comments about fanboys whilst sounding like the worst kind of fanboy yourself.
If Microsoft make a $50 price cut on both the 360 and Kinect like this article says, then I think Microsoft has a shot at outselling PS3 for total 2011 sales. Fall is likely given to 360 as holiday sales are strongest in Americas (360's strongest region). Anyway, 2 weeks till E3, I hope Project Dragon turns out to be an interesting Panzer Dragoon game, so then Kinect will have at least 1 exclusive I'm interested in (Forza is not kinect exclusive).
Here we have a Guiness world record for consumer electronics, yet noone is celebrating...4 Chan much people?
wow raider, I guess you aren't a gamer at all if you dont understand the logic that people play different types of games then you do. Kinect blew open the door in terms of real innovation of a prior product rather then just copying it and making it yours ala Sony and Move. I never brought any games into the equation, just the tech and potential it has behind it. Also, so what if I played kinectimals, it's a game on a console/toy which is just like any other game you play on any other toy. Grow up a little.
Didn't they announce 3 million shipped for kinect sports just a couple weeks ago? Or if it was actually sales (which seems a bit unlikely), then Dance Central would be undertracked since it was at 2.5 million.
Isn't everybody excited over the debut of Kung Fu Panda 2 Kinect tomorrow? Guess not.
"and lower interest in Kinect due to lack of new software. Kinect still leads, but unless it sees significant software support in Q3/Q4 and perhaps a price cut, it could fall behind the Wii later this year" - Kinect's got plenty of games coming: http://123kinect.com/kinect-games/upcoming-kinect-games/
@ Raider84 - Stupid logic. I'm primarily a core gamer but Kinect is a blast. Its by far the most enjoyable casual/party gaming experiences I've ever played.
@ Raider84 - As mentioned you got the Kinect bundle price wrong. You make it sound like Wii was some sort of fad but it still does amazing amongst the casual audience. The Kinect's goal was to bring a casual audience to the 360 and it did so extremely well. The Move was also intended to appeal to casuals but it failed.
@Raider84 Just because some people may enjoy those games doesn't make them less of a gamer.
If Kinect is "blowing the rest of the door open" you have very very low standards. Having fun with 'Kinectables' or w/e its called and Kinect Adventures?? Are you not a gamer? I guess that explains it, sorry about that chief.
Kinect deserves every bit of these sales and more to come.
Nintendo opened the door, sony snickered then copied, microsoft blew the door the rest of the way open. Bravo for Nintendo and Microsoft, shame on sony for being a douche most of the time.
I'm genuinely surprised Kinect has sold this much. Not THAT surprised since its getting a marketing frenzy near the same level of the original XBOX console itself. I still wonder if MS is making money on the device based on how much forced marketing it has. But at least you can't say its an outright failure.
MS would be crazy not to support Kinect with these numbers. We're going to be seeing a lot of Kinect Software at E3. Hopefully a good amount of that software caters to everyone and not just the casuals.
to think there was actually people who thought that Sony's PS Move had a chance against Kinect?...lol
Yea it is possible to play Kinect without an xbox 360, you also can play Kinect with a PC, I dont know if its already possible to play Kinect with pcs but Microsoft work definitely on an pc compatibility.
Microsoft get me excited with there amazing sales against ALL odds and rubbishing from dicks who think they know everything. Sony make me puke because everything they do, they F*** it up so badly.
@amsterdream: heh, there were times you were banned for such comments...
nice attach rade to adventure (was it bundled everywhere?), but that's the game i'm most interested in kinnect for anyways ^^.
Good to see it finally hit that 10 million number. But MS does need to make sure to get some software out for this bad boy as a lot of the momentum it carried out of the holiday season has died with software few and far between. Doesn't look like that issue will be solved until later this year, so MS needs to have a large focus of Kinect at E3. Tie that in with a 360/Kinect pricecut, and we are looking at another huge year for MS.
Well done, now that you got a nice base, how bout some great games for it? Some hardcore, adventurey, action pumped filled game! And how in Dance Central only at 2 mil? that's the best game Kinect has to offer.
I wan't a Black and White 3 or a Dungeon Keeper 3, both of which would work incredibly well with Kinect and the players "Hand of God" mechanic.
few things. first, its an accessory, end of story. next. good job kinect, now that you have a decent causual/kiddie game market make some real games for us gamers? i was thinking maybe an RTS where we can contron the units with out hands?
