[Official] Kinect - Over 4 million units sold!


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If anything big is announced feel free to create a new topic, but the MS section is flooded with smaller Kinect news right now. I think we should try keep it together in one topic for now.

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Kinect priced at ?129 and $149, bundles and 4Gb Arcade announced

July 20th, 2010 @ 17:20

By Johnny Cullen

Microsoft?s just confirmed a ?129 price-point for Kinect in the UK. The sensor will cost $149 in the US and ?149 in mainland Europe.

Microsoft has also confirmed the previously rumoured 4GB 360 Arcade replacement.

The console, Kinect and Kinect Adventures packaged together is to cost ?250.

Kinect Adventures, includes 20 ?adventures?: it?s the whitewater Indiana Jones thing used to show off the camera at E3.

?Kinect for Xbox 360 offers fantastic new ways to be entertained for the whole family,? said Xbox Europe boss, Chris Lewis.

?With full body, voice and multiplayer play straight out of the box, Kinect is a unique way for everyone to enjoy controller-free fun and entertainment.?

Kinect bundled with Kinect Adventures will cost ?130.

?More than? 15 games will be available at launch, Microsoft said today,

The 4Gb 360 is to launch on August 20 in the UK. It?s the Slim design with 4Gb of flash memory, basically.

Kinect games ? including Kinectimals, Kinect Sports and Kinect Joy Ride, will retail for ?40.

MS confident 360 owners will see value in Kinect

In the wake of the announcement, Microsoft?s Aaron Greenberg said the firm is confident consumers will see value in Kinect?s price-point, as it includes the $50 Kinect Adventures game as well as the camera, essentially making the sensor a $100 purchase.

Speaking with Eurogamer, Greenberg said marketing research conducted by Microsoft found consumers weren?t leery of the price, and Kinect shooting to the top of Amazon.com pre-orders was further proof the company has got it right.

?We obviously don?t make pricing decisions without doing our research. We?ve done a number of pricing studies on a global scale across a whole variety of audience segments,? he said. ?When we talked to consumers about the different types of experiences you get with Kinect, we found that that sensor with the full game at $149 does quite well.

?We?ve even seen some of the retailers put up some speculative pre-orders for just the sensor as a standalone at $149. On Amazon.com, for example, it jumped to one of the top two things in the videogame category coming out of E3. Now we?re saying it?s not just $149, but you?re also getting a full $50 retail game as part of that.

?That said, there?s a tremendous opportunity here to drive new console sales. There will be a whole new wave of consumers looking for all new ways to experience games and entertainment. To be able to do that with the console plus the sensor and the game at that value is pretty unprecedented.?

Kinect itself has no date for Europe, but Microsoft announced a US release of November 4 during E3.

Chris Lewis has said previously Kinect will launch during November in Europe across the key markets

----

Tuesday 29-Jun-2010 3:27 PM What can it do? What do you need?

Technical specifications for the 360 motion sensor Kinect have hit the net.

As far as requirements are concerned, to use the device you'll need an Xbox 360 (obviously) and any will do as long as it has 175MB of storage for drivers and other software, and a single USB port.

As for Kinect itself, here's the geeky stuff and what it allows the sensor to do:

Kinect Technical Specifications

Sensor

Colour and depth-sensing lenses

Voice microphone array

Tilt motor for sensor adjustment

Field of View

Horizontal field of view: 57 degrees

Vertical field of view: 43 degrees

Physical tilt range: 27 degrees

Depth sensor range: 1.2m - 3.5m

Data Streams

320x240 16-bit depth @ 30 frames/sec

640x480 32-bit colour@ 30 frames/sec

16-bit audio @ 16 kHz

Skeletal Tracking System

Tracks up to 6 people, including 2 active players

Tracks 20 joints per active player

Ability to map active players to Xbox LIVE Avatars

Audio System

Xbox LIVE party chat and in-game voice chat (requires Xbox LIVE Gold Membership)

Echo cancellation system enhances voice input

Speech recognition in multiple languages

We got our hands on the Xbox 360 Slim at E3 and reviewed it's sleek curves just for you.

You'll be able to test Kinect for yourself when it comes to HMV and Game stores up and down the country soon.

[ Source: Electronic Theatre ]

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=253794

Examples of gameplay & dashboard videos:

Kinect Dashboard beta:

Respond With Your Body: New Brain Training:

Sonic Free Riders:

Dance Central:

Kinect topics:

Kinect selling out, believe the hype

Microsoft planning a surprise for Kinect customers

Microsoft Kinect Selling For More Than ?200 On Ebay

14 Million Kinect Cameras Shipped

Rumor: Kinect beta testers can keep sensor

Wow. Kinect lag has been considerably reduced (VIDEO)

Kinect: There ?won?t be a correlation? between game reviews and sales, says Greenberg

Kinect the ?the centerpiece of our strategy,? says new Rare boss

Kinect will sell more units than Wii at launch, says Greenberg

Kinect on The Ellen Show

Business Insider: Kinect Pre-Orders Sold out At Amazon, Best Buy #1

Xbox Kinect the future of gaming?

Oprah Audience Explodes Into Hysterics Over Free Xbox Kinects

Kinect algorithm updated by Microsoft to better detect seated players

Microsoft "working hard" to meet Kinect demand

Microsoft opening up Kinect for indie developers soon

Kinect: Sold out at GAME, Amazon UK no longer taking pre-orders

Kinect confirmed to let you video chat with any WLM users

MS advises against "clutter" for Kinect

Kinect to work with Skyplayer

Dr. Kawashima trains brains on Kinect with Namco's 'Respond With Your Body: New Brain Training'

Tsunoda describes Kinect's object-scanning, controller-wielding future

New Ways to Kinect at TGS

Kinect beta kits going out

PDP announces lineup of Kinect peripherals

Microsoft denies Kinect voice control launch omission

Microsoft: Kinect to see Live-like evolution ?over the length of the entire Xbox platform?

No voice control for Kinect launch

Kinect Hands On

Kinect dashboard navigation works while seated

What If The Xbox Kinect Virtual Child Simulator Is Great?

Xbox Kinect Gets Its Fight Club

Kinect Beta Invites Going Out, Are You In?

Kinect can't read sign language after all

Microsoft?s Kinect Dismantled and Peered Into, Results Are Impressive

250GB Xbox 360 Kinect bundle tipped on 4GB packaging

Is This How Microsoft Will Fix Kinect's Couch Problem?

Kinect gobbles up ?less than 1%? of 360?s CPU

No Kinect support for Fable III at launch, says Molyneux

Kinect: Lag can be attributed to software choices, says Blitz

Molyneux: Motion will not cause ?the death? of standard controllers

Microsoft ? Kinect is competitively priced with Wii and Move

MS: Hardcore Kinect games within 18 months

Kinect price could drop next year - Codemasters

Kinect Limit at Two Players?

Kinect Priced, New Bundles, 4GB Slim Announced

Sign up with MS to get Kinect pricing as it?s announced

Close Up With Kinect's Purple Boxes

Microsoft: Kinectimals uses Milo & Kate tech

Microsoft?s Greenberg: Milo is a tech demo, no plans to release it

New Kinect dashboard shown in action

Microsoft Kinect-ing with public ? playable in stores

Retail calls for sub-?100 Kinect

SEGA: More sophisticated Kinect games within a year

Kinect - Inital Impressions

Kinect priced at $150 on Microsoft's own store

Kinect Can Sense Children, Adjust Difficulty on the Fly

Driving Forza cars with the Kinect: looks silly, feels great

ShopTo calls for lower UK Kinect price

UK retailer ShopTo has called for Microsoft to lower the price it expects gamers to fork out for Xbox 360 motion sensor Kinect.

ShopTo pre-orders for Kinect are open now with a £124.86 price tag.

The current RRP of £129.99 and release date of Friday, 19th November listed on ShopTo are "placeholder", CEO Igor Cipolletta told Eurogamer this morning.

However, Cipolletta guaranteed those who pre-order Kinect will get the Xbox 360 add-on for the listed price irrespective of whether Microsoft's trade price is higher.

"It's too high," Cipolletta said of Kinect's pricing.

"We believe that with this current economy it should be around £70. For £140 you can buy a Wii.

"Pre-orders are very low," he added.

Cipolletta doesn't expect Microsoft to bundle Kinect with the new Xbox 360 250GB model, set for a UK release on 16th July, although admitted that Microsoft may reveal such plans in the near future.

Last week Microsoft popped Kinect on its own online store priced $149, despite spokesperson Aaron Greenberg's repeated assertions that the $149 price tag put forward by US retailers is "purely speculative".

Cipolletta said that he has been told that Kinect's rumoured US pricing is correct, and based ShopTo's pricing on it.

Source: http://www.eurogamer...uk-kinect-price

It may be real then, WTF? At one point Edge was saying sub £50 now it's £130?

Cheers DM nice to have one place to talk about it.

?125 would be an absolute joke blink.gif

That has to be ShopTo making things up.

I've had several e-mails from other companies with ?129 as the price so I think that probable is right.

I'm just getting it for the UI movement.. there is no room for me to move around .. my bed is like directly infront of the TV. lol. :laugh:

I'm not 100% sure, but I think you would have to be standing on your bed for it to work, which is just a little awkward :unsure: . From what I hear Kinect doesn't work if you're sitting down or lying down.

Seems Kinect got nerfed quite a bit with the loss of that internal processor... didn't is used to be able to track over 40 points of upto 4 people at a time ? Still, I guess it's better than putting a processor in and jacking up the price up even higher than it already is o__O Hopefully the next-gen Kinect will bring it back in line with the original Natal prototypes.

Ah well, I'll probably be buying it anyway seeing as it's new and shiny and cool looking (: And hopefully some genius will be able to get some working Windows drivers for the thing and let us start doing awesome things with it on our PC's too :p

Molyneux on Milo technology: it ?actually does work?

June 30th, 2010 @ 12:25

By Johnny Cullen

Lionhead boss Peter Molyneux has told attendees at GameHorizon in Newcastle that Milo & Kate is still on the way from the studio.

Speaking at the conference on if the technology surrounding it worked, he said: ?All that technology that we showed at E3 last year actually does work.?

He was backed up by chair of the event Ian Livingstone, who said: ?I?ve seen it. It works, Peter. Honestly.?

Earlier during his talk, he said there had been some challenges in convincing people of its potential.

?Milo has been a really hard thing to do and a really hard thing to describe,? said Molyneux, who?s also creative director at Microsoft Games Studios Europe.

?I have real sympathy for the [Microsoft] people over in Redmond, because they understandably have some questions.?

He also admitted that Microsoft?s Aaron Greenberg, who said yesterday the game was just a ?tech demo? and would not be released at retail, hadn?t seen it in over a year.

Greenberg retracted his comments last night.

?Poor Aaron Greenberg ? he?s on the PR team, he hasn?t seen it since last year, so he came up with this stock answer that Milo is alive and well and living in Guildford but it?s still a tech demo,? said Molyneux.

?I feel sorry for him, he hasn?t seen the game since last year. If I had spent time with him and showed him the game recently, he?d know what was going on.?

Molyneux reiterated that it would be shown at his TEDGlobal talk next month.

Thanks, GI.

http://www.vg247.com/2010/06/30/molyneux-on-milo-technology-it-actually-does-work/

Microsoft?s Greenberg: Milo ?absolutely? still in development

June 29th, 2010 @ 20:14

By Nathan Grayson

Microsoft?s Aaron Greenberg has confirmed that Milo & Kate is still in development and is merely a product not slated for release this Holiday, despite earlier reports claiming the Kinect title would never ship.

According to Greenberg, the game is definitely still coming.

?Project Milo absolutely continues in development at Lionhead Studios,? he told Kotaku. ?It is just not a product we plan to bring to market this holiday. The team at Lionhead has always been a center of innovation and will continue to deliver against that charter.?

Earlier, a report from ABC TV?s Good Game quoted Greenberg as saying Molyneux?s mildly creepy virtual son would never be released.

?Milo; he?s safe and sound back in England. No? the Milo Project is something that Lionhead Studios in their labs had developed. Last year we unveiled the Project Natal technology, we showed a bunch of technology demos as part of that,? he apparently explained.

?And obviously [Milo] is a technology demo that continues to exist, but right now it?s not a game that we?re planning to bring to market.?

Molyneux told VG247 that we?ll be seeing more of Milo and his gal pal Kate next month.

http://www.vg247.com/2010/06/29/microsofts-greenberg-milo-absolutely-still-in-development/

Hardcore will buy Kinect at launch, but not for the games

http://www.vg247.com...in-development/

Hardcore will buy Kinect at launch, but not for the games

For what then? For the dashboard control? The one that I believe you have to be standing for if you want to use the gestures? Perhaps just for the voice control?

See that is the thing, The UI is already so streamlined to me, I really do not mind taking the few clicks of my controller. In fact I would argue I can navigate the UI just as fast, if not faster, with my controller than anyone with Kinect. So while it is a bit cool to me being able to control the UI with Kinect, it is only that, a tad cool, and nothing I need it for. It is step in the right direction, the start of Minority Report if you will, but that is all it is right now, a start, and nothing is powerful enough to me yet to even remotely consider getting.

So I really do not think the hardcore will be buying it at launch. Maybe the MS die hards will be, but there is a big difference between hardcore gamers and being a MS die hard IMO.

If people think Kinect is expensive, I hope they don't plan on getting Move then, LOL.

For what then? For the dashboard control? The one that I believe you have to be standing for if you want to use the gestures? Perhaps just for the voice control?

You can stand or sit. You choose.

So I really do not think the hardcore will be buying it at launch. Maybe the MS die hards will be, but there is a big difference between hardcore gamers and being a MS die hard IMO.

I am not an MS (nor Sony) diehard, and I will buy it at launch specifically for NXE control. Not a single Kinect game interests me that we have seen. I am one of the hardcore gamers.

If people think Kinect is expensive, I hope they don't plan on getting Move then, LOL.

You can stand or sit. You choose.

I am not an MS (nor Sony) diehard, and I will buy it at launch specifically for NXE control. Not a single Kinect game interests me that we have seen. I am one of the hardcore gamers.

Eyepet cost me ?17 (comes with Camera), and a move controller is currently ?35.

Total = ?52.

So I have no idea how that is close to ?130.

Eyepet cost me ?17 (comes with Camera), and a move controller is currently ?35.

Total = ?52.

So I have no idea how that is close to ?130.

I think he was thinking for 4 player ?157....either that or did his sums wrong lol, yeah kinect has the advantage of 1 device for multiple people move is gonna be cheaper for 1 person, but for a whole family "the casual game market" these are aimed at you're gonna end up with a similar price.

Eyepet cost me £17 (comes with Camera), and a move controller is currently £35.

Total = £52.

So I have no idea how that is close to £130.

But that's not the case for everyone or every game. Ftr I bought Eyepet on the cheap with the camera too, but it RRP's for £25 (for the camera alone, not everyone wants Eyepet). Move is RRP £40 and Navi is £30. Then some games will require two Move controllers per person. The price just shot up.

@Larry, they've already said Kinect will work while you are sitting. Nobody in their right mind is going to stand and watch movies giving orders to their 360. Can you honestly see MS suggesting it either?

Using Kinect also means anyone can control the dashboard and not having to pass a controller around. Small time save, but it also means that someone who has never used the controller before can work the Xbox now. They don't need to memorize that A is play/pause, Y is info, B is exit etc etc. Accessibility is what they are aiming for, not just with the games but the software too, which was Nintendo's mission as well with the Wii.

If the price is right I'm sure a lot of hardcore gamers will buy it, including myself. If Move was coming out at a different time I'd buy that at launch too, but buying both sounds like it's going to be expensive, so Sony take the short straw this time.

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This is a one-time entrance into astrology, and it won't become obsolete in one year like a smartphone. It's a thumbs up from me. The DWARF mini is available to buy right now in the U.S. and U.K. at the links below. DWARF mini for $399 on the official site DWARF mini for $399 on Amazon U.S. Use the NEOWIN5OFF coupon code for an additional 5% off at checkout (expires June 21) As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
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    • The name, you mean? If so, it's actually the objects common name. There's another one called NGC 7293 which is also known as Helix Nebula (because we're looking at a helix structure top down) but other times also known as the Eye of God. You'll understand when you see it
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