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Xbox has revealed the release dates for the much awaited Xbox hands free motion control system – Kinect. Kinect will now become available for sale on 5 November in the United States (US) and 10 November in the United Kingdom (UK). The new device will make it possible for users to control Xbox game play by using their body movements and voice instead of the traditional buttons and triggers thereby rendering the Xbox controller obsolete. It functions by using 3 cameras and a microphone to register movements which are then translated into game play.
The announcement was made ahead of Gamescom 2010 – Europe’s largest video game conference in Cologne, Germany – by Xbox vice-president, Chris Lewis. The organisation hopes that the launch of Kinetic will boost the sale of Xbox games and Xbox consoles. There is already a high level of expectation in Europe and America with sales of the Kinect-ready Xbox 360 250GB hard drive (hdd) said to be creating an all-time record weekly market share and Kinect games such as, Kinect Adventures, Kinectimals, Kinect Joy Ride, Dance Central, Your Shape Fitness Evolved and Kinect Sports, expected to sell in high numbers. Perhaps, it won’t be long before the excitement generated by Kinect begin to spread on the Internet in the form of Xbox (360) reviews,cheats, cheat codes, emulators, walkthroughs and so on (as is normally the case when new game products are released in the market). Gamers who already have the Xbox console will be able to buy Kinetic for around £129.99 with a bonus of one free game.
Stiff competition is expected to come in from Sony whose new control system PlayStation Move should go on sale in September and Nintendo whose new 3DS handheld console is expected before Christmas. Meanwhile, Xbox Live games is expected soon on Windows Phone 7 and Microsoft will be unveiling Age of Empires Online and a new Flight Simulator game (Microsoft Flight) in any moment.
Talking Point
Do you see Kinetic as a game changer for the Xbox?
This is a great information, but the November release date is too long for me to get the Xbox Kinetic. Well the count down have start any way, I hope it will not be postpone.
I’ve testing the playstation Move, but i’m osrry the little blue ball controller felt silly and unresponsive. I’ll wait for the kinect personally!
Personally, I can see the 3DS having the most impact. In years to come the first 3d console will be remembered more than a controller that recognises movement.
The first Stereoscopic 3D console was Virtual Boy from Nintendo and it was completely forgotten!
But even before that, Sega Master System had stereoscopic goggles.
The Kinect will always get beat over the Wii…. just my theory. The Wii will just adapt with all the features the Kinect has and more. They were the first ones out of the gate, so they have the brand loyalty imo.
I personally don’t like the kinect because it is very limited in it’s use.
We have already seen this with the eyetoy on ps2 and now the ps-eye.
It is great for casual gamers but not for hardcore gamers. You can’t play battlefield 3 with it for example.
It is still a huge success. Especially in America. It probably is because it’s so gimmicky.
It is like many applications on your smartphone: really cool to impress your friends with, but after that you barely ever use it.
The playstation move is more difficult to adopt for new gamers because you don’t just buy one thing and then you are done. So people who are new to this don’t know what to buy.
It does have more potential because it is very accurate and it can be used for first person shooters like killzone and battlefield 3. But games like that are mostly played online and it will probably be difficult to compete with someone who is using an ordinary controller.
Both of them as with Nintendo’s Wii, will probably end up collecting dust next to your console.
But still I am glad that both Sony and Microsoft are trying to innovate and I will get my ps move controllers from the dust when I have friends come over.
The Kinect is definitely a good invention and is amazing on the XBOX. I also think Wii has a good motion sensor.
Not really. It would be a game changer if it recognizes movements in the games and not merely in the consoles.
This is honestly of the best additions tp the xbox! Thank you!! The kinect even rocks the socks off of PS3.
kinect is coming to the PC. Windows 8 will have kinect built in
It’s surprising how long Kinect has been around, I remember getting it on the release date.
Microsoft must be thinking about the next step though, so I guess we’ll have to see what great technology and software that they have in store for us 🙂