Something went wrong. Try again later
Giant Bomb is under new ownership. Log in now to accept new terms and conditions and transfer your account to the new owner!

demontium

This user has not updated recently.

5084 1801 215 151
Forum Posts Wiki Points Following Followers

What's Microsoft gonna do with this mess?

Hold on'a sec..... We need to upgrade some hardware.... the 360 has been out for about 5 years now. The Kinect  just came out, which tells me that the Xbox 360 console won't get an upgrade for at least another two years. But dude, that system needs some more ram than it has, it takes 13 seconds to load even the dashboard sometimes. And its not like the Kinect is some great technology that will be big on 360 gaming (it sold well, but not what MS wanted... or even needed).  
 
This is how I see it: MS banked on the fact that Kinect would sell like crazy, a bunch of third parties would jump on board to develop for the the next 2 - 4 years, and then they'd celebrate with tea, crumpets and money. But, no.  
 
So what now? The Kinect is boned raskulls style...

62 Comments

62 Comments

Avatar image for demontium
demontium

5084

Forum Posts

1801

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 7

User Lists: 5

Edited By demontium
@animathias said:
"

...

8 Million units sold in 2 months is a failure? 15-20% attach rate for a console addon at $150 is "kinda pathetic?" I'm not sure if folks are looking at it right.

Analysts are floored by Kinect's sales. Sony is quite pleased with the 4 million or so Moves they sold (as they should be,) yet Microsoft blew them out of the water. Failure is far from the wrong word for both companies. Motion control is here.

"
Yes, because they needed a shitload more for its total budget. They were shooting for at least 10 million by the end of 2010. 
 
AND... Kinect is one of the most returned items this christmas - I suspect people getting bored of it or it not working in certain houses.
Avatar image for deactivated-5b531a34b946c
deactivated-5b531a34b946c

1251

Forum Posts

7

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 1

@demontium:

When did they say they were shooting for 10 million? An analyst said Move and Kinect would sell 10 million each by 2011, and that was the most outrageous estimate out there. Microsoft's Steve Balmer said they were predicting 5 million by 2011 (which was "in line with the company's early predictions,) and they did that.

"Yesterday we announced that we have sold 1 million Kinects in the first 10 days," said Ballmer."We expect to sell five million units by the end of 2010."

There's also:

"The demand for Kinect for Xbox 360 is exceeding expectations," a Microsoft spokesperson wrote in an e-mail. "So we're increasing our forecast from 3 million sensors sold this holiday to 5 million. That's bigger than any launch in Xbox history."

AND... Companies have to expect losses on hardware. It happened with the 360 launch, and it happened with the PS3 launch. It's all a major gamble, and this one is far, far, from failing them yet. At least they're making money on the Kinects sold, and they'll be one of the leading software supporters for the device in 2011.

I suspect the only reason Kinect is being returned is because it doesn't work in certain houses. Saying people returned it from getting bored with it after only having it for 2 weeks is absurd. I'm sure there are some people who returned it for that reason, but it's clearly the minority.

Kinect is a major success. Move is a success. They never would have bothered making either if they had to penetrate 20% of their entire user base in 2 months, or 50% to 75% in a year to make it profitable.

You're basically saying that it's completely impossible for them to ever make any kind of money from the system if such amazing numbers aren't good enough, and if that was the case the entire product would have been scrapped before we heard about it. Had it sold 3 million or less, it could be considered a failure. 5 million is considered a lukewarm response. 8 million blew everyone's expectations out of the water.

Avatar image for skytylz
Skytylz

4156

Forum Posts

9

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 6

Edited By Skytylz
@GS_Dan: I think the wii is just so wide spread in the U.S. that it is what people compare it too.
Avatar image for mikkaq
MikkaQ

10296

Forum Posts

52

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 2

Edited By MikkaQ

They've been saying was going to be a much longer generation than usual. Frankly I'm fine with that. We don't really need much more than what it's givin'. It'll be cool to see an upgrade, but I don't expect to have a new console in my hand until late 2013 at the very very earliest. 

Avatar image for supermarius
supermarius

1223

Forum Posts

821

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 1

Edited By supermarius
@DoctorTran said:
" @pakx
this is why those console allegiance colours are so wonderously useful.
This is why I didn't assign one. "
i dunno. im pretty sure the most devious fanboys will intentionally hide their system allegiance by not choosing a color so that they can complain about the other system more without being called out.
Avatar image for demontium
demontium

5084

Forum Posts

1801

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 7

User Lists: 5

Edited By demontium
@animathias: I swear that same guy you quoted predicted and said MS was shooting for 10 million after seeing week 1 sales.... I will find this article no matter how bad IGN's search is.
Avatar image for valkyr
Valkyr

746

Forum Posts

1196

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 37

Edited By Valkyr

8m sensors sold but how many of those owners are going to invest in more than a few games?. I see a lot of people buying Dance Central and a mini game collection and then coming back to their usual games that don't use Kinect at all. It's the same problem of the Wii, it sells a lot but only the AAA first party games sell well, it has very few third party quality titles. Remember that the greatest part of the profit is based on the % that MS get from every game sold, not just the hardware.

Avatar image for shiftymagician
shiftymagician

2190

Forum Posts

23

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 2

User Lists: 3

Edited By shiftymagician
@GlenTennis said:
" @Khann said:
" @demontium said:
" Hold on'a sec..... We need to upgrade some hardware.... the 360 has been out for about 5 years now. The Kinect  just came out, which tells me that the Xbox 360 console won't get an upgrade for at least another two years. But dude, that system needs some more ram than it has, it takes 13 seconds to load even the dashboard sometimes. And its not like the Kinect is some great technology that will be big on 360 gaming (it sold well, but not what MS wanted... or even needed).   This is how I see it: MS banked on the fact that Kinect would sell like crazy, a bunch of third parties would jump on board to develop for the the next 2 - 4 years, and then they'd celebrate with tea, crumpets and money. But, no.   So what now? The Kinect is boned raskulls style... "
How do you know the Kinect isn't doing exactly what Microsoft wanted it to? How do you know a bunch of third parties aren't going to jump on board for the next 2-4 years? How do you know the Kinect is intended for this generation only? Who says it won't carry over to the next? "
WHAT DO THE NUMBERS MEAN? "
You won't believe what happened 2 years ago...
Avatar image for grilledcheez
grilledcheez

4071

Forum Posts

906

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 8

User Lists: 9

Edited By grilledcheez

I'm not worried about it, I'll just let the devs focus on gameplay and maxing out the current console.

Avatar image for iam3green
iam3green

14368

Forum Posts

350

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Edited By iam3green

i think you might need to clear the cache on the hard drive man. it doesn't take me 13 seconds for the dashboard to load. kinect has sold well, the xbox 360 is going to last for like another 4 years or so. i am happy with that.

Avatar image for williamrlbaker
WilliamRLBaker

4941

Forum Posts

1420

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 3

User Lists: 0

Edited By WilliamRLBaker

um Its never taken 13 seconds to load up the 360...
Avatar image for cramsy
Cramsy

1293

Forum Posts

158

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 1

User Lists: 3

Edited By Cramsy
@demontium said:
" Hold on'a sec..... We need to upgrade some hardware.... the 360 has been out for about 5 years now. The Kinect  just came out, which tells me that the Xbox 360 console won't get an upgrade for at least another two years. But dude, that system needs some more ram than it has, it takes 13 seconds to load even the dashboard sometimes. And its not like the Kinect is some great technology that will be big on 360 gaming (it sold well, but not what MS wanted... or even needed).   This is how I see it: MS banked on the fact that Kinect would sell like crazy, a bunch of third parties would jump on board to develop for the the next 2 - 4 years, and then they'd celebrate with tea, crumpets and money. But, no.   So what now? The Kinect is boned raskulls style... "
Kinect sold very well. 
 
They released the slim model.