5million .... no 8 million kinects sold !

My local EB got about 40 kinects when their shipment came in. Of course they sold most of them quickly, but when you count in transit and other stores (like best buy which gets 100 at a time) and 10,000 + total retail locations (gamestop, walmart, target etc). There's going to be a significant difference in actual sell through vs shipped, probably more than 100k units in any event.

I have no problem with them using shipped numbers,and I'm sure they are fairly close to sell through but they are not the same regardless of what they would like you to believe.

The diffrence is those are not normal shipments. Gamestop is getting them because gamestop sells them before the next shipment. Once they no longer sell what they get in shipments will shrink. PS3 is about 2 systems per week for gamestops in my area
 
In fact, what struck me the most was how decimated the software sections were for the 360 in all of these stores, much more so than the other consoles. Which leads me to believe that people were buying a lot of Kinect bundles and then picking up some other 360 software as well.

I can confirm that we have the same situation here in Hungary. Every Kinect sensor is sold as soon as it hits the shelves, retailers can't build up stock, some have already pre-sold every unit they get until february. A lot of consoles are sold too, and the customers buy games like crazy as well.

And people want Kinect and not the X360, most of the units are sold as standalone upgrades to either existing consoles or non-bundled new purchases. Our art director says that every retailer reported the same, people are crazy for the Kinect and if they can't get one right now they'll buy anything that's green (ie. Xbox related).

Seems like they've managed to turn their entire product strategy around and might have the new Wii on their hands.
 
Also, while it is true that software is needed, let's just think back about Nintendo and what they've managed to do with the Wiimote... not much! As far as I can tell it's still the same basic stuff, with WiiFit's new possibilities also covered by what Kinect can do.

So it seems that even with a simple basic set of "new and exciting" games it is possible to sell a lot of hardware and software. If MS can go further with Kinect and get some good core games too, then it can become more then a one trick pony and a real system seller.
 
Also, while it is true that software is needed, let's just think back about Nintendo and what they've managed to do with the Wiimote... not much! As far as I can tell it's still the same basic stuff, with WiiFit's new possibilities also covered by what Kinect can do.

So it seems that even with a simple basic set of "new and exciting" games it is possible to sell a lot of hardware and software. If MS can go further with Kinect and get some good core games too, then it can become more then a one trick pony and a real system seller.

Yeah IMO Ninty really dropped the ball on that one. I was hoping for a lot more than what we have now after they announced Wiimotion+. It's not widely supported though which kind of makes it a waste.

I think most of the Kinect games announced at TGS can be considered core games, so lets hope they turn out good. I know I'm keeping an eye on Project Drago (aka Panzer Dragoon :p) and Steel Battalion
 
?

Gamestop has like 2000 stores. I fully expect they have more than a few thousand units of inventory.

An average of a dozen units of inventory at all retail locations could easily add up to hundreds of thousands of units.

Sure if it was sitting around gathering dust in stores, Gamestop itself would have inventory.

But as has been noted, Gamestop is having difficulty keeping Kinect in stock in their many stores and online. Sure there are stores here and there which many have inventory which isn't selling. However, over the holidays Gamestop as with all other retailers were selling them almost as fast as they were receiving them.

What that means is that the corporation isn't keeping inventory of product in a warehouse waiting until a store needs to be restocked. That inventory for most retailers is usually in the hundreds of units and up to 1-2k at most usually. The only time you'll generally see more than that is prior to a large launch before they start shipping product out to stores. And in this case, it's unlikely they are even holding a few hundred units, but rather shipping out almost all consoles to chain stores as soon as they are received.

So with Kinect. Basically the day Gamestop gets their shipment from MS for the week, they have a ton. All of it is them shipped except for a small number kept for online store fullfillment, and everything else is shipped to stores and sold before the next shipment goes out. In other words, Gamestop isn't keeping any Kinects in inventory in their warehouse waiting to resupply stores because product is selling too fast.

So, yes, technically the day after MS ships off the consoles there's a lot of unsold consoles. However, it's more likely than not, that every single one of those will be sold within one weeks time at which point another batch of consoles is shipped and the process repeats itself. There's no channel stuffing, no excess inventory buildup, etc...

Regards,
SB
 
Huh?

Is there a reason we have to have this conversation almost everytime we have major PR about numbers from one of the big 3?

I spit on the ground that MS walks on!!! I mean they decide to squeeze as many console as they can in quarter just to hype "10 million consoles". And now we get insinuations of channel stuffing or dust collection everytime we get major PR news on shipments.
 
This time, everyone's experiences point to Kinect selling as fast as MS can ship it, so there's probably no stuffing of the channels going on. It really is a phenomenon just like the Wii was, which by the way kinda proves that these things really can happen.
 
It seems like fortunate timing for MS also, now that the Wii phenomenon is starting to fade some. I thought they were missing the boat by not jumping into motion gaming earlier. Maybe they didn't. They took their sweet time and come up with something unique.
 
Kinect sell to different audience. I saw 2-3 moms going into GameStop getting Kinect. ^_^

I guess a bunch of you guys missed how Microsoft's marketing push also targeted pretty much ALL of the female oriented day time talk shows where pretty much they gave away free xbox with kinects to ALL audience members.

You can chuck those gifted consoles to the totals of numbers "sold"
 
I guess a bunch of you guys missed how Microsoft's marketing push also targeted pretty much ALL of the female oriented day time talk shows where pretty much they gave away free xbox with kinects to ALL audience members.

You can chuck those gifted consoles to the totals of numbers "sold"

So maybe .01% were given away? You're right, kinect is selling like crap, how did we all get fooled?
 
80,000 Kinects I think would be a bit generous. :D

Maybe 0.0002% of all Kinects. Although since those were given away and not sold to the retail channel, I'm not sure they even count those. Those Kinects would most likely go under PR and marketing.

Regards,
SB
 
I guess a bunch of you guys missed how Microsoft's marketing push also targeted pretty much ALL of the female oriented day time talk shows where pretty much they gave away free xbox with kinects to ALL audience members.

You can chuck those gifted consoles to the totals of numbers "sold"
Those are not counted as sold or even shipped, they're listed under marketing costs, and, in fact, they are a very effective and cheap marketing tool.
 
80,000 Kinects I think would be a bit generous. :D

He said 800, your example would be 16 Kinects... 0.01% =0.0001

Those Kinects would most likely go under PR and marketing.

Yeah Funny thing is Volkswagen did the same with the upcoming 2012 new Beetle.

http://www.autoblog.com/2010/11/22/oprah-reveals-2012-vw-beetle-silhouette-gives-cars-to-entire-au/

Considering that VW sells less cars in a year that Kinect has sold so far it's fair to say that ZOMG! VW is selling craply if there wasn't the Oprah giveaway :smile:

Would have been nice to be in the audience!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I guess a bunch of you guys missed how Microsoft's marketing push also targeted pretty much ALL of the female oriented day time talk shows where pretty much they gave away free xbox with kinects to ALL audience members.

You can chuck those gifted consoles to the totals of numbers "sold"

Weridly, those few thousand giveaways could be one of the reaons the Kinect's shifting in such huge numbers.

It's amazing just how much buying power is wielded by Oprah et al.
 
Can we get a number attached to "...pretty much ALL of the female oriented day time talk shows..."? How many is that? Oprah and Ellen are the ones I know of from the top of my head. Harpo, if I remember correctly holds ~300 would that be the largest audience? If so, MSFT is out 300 bundles.

This is a travesty, I mean, WTF are companies thinking by marketing their product and then after that...advertising it, what assholes and they had the audacity to advertise to...women...:oops:
 
Can we get a number attached to "...pretty much ALL of the female oriented day time talk shows..."? How many is that? Oprah and Ellen are the ones I know of from the top of my head. Harpo, if I remember correctly holds ~300 would that be the largest audience? If so, MSFT is out 300 bundles.

This is a travesty, I mean, WTF are companies thinking by marketing their product and then after that...advertising it, what assholes and they had the audacity to advertise to...women...:oops:

yea, the gall of some corporations. :devilish: :LOL:
 
Can we get a number attached to "...pretty much ALL of the female oriented day time talk shows..."? How many is that? Oprah and Ellen are the ones I know of from the top of my head. Harpo, if I remember correctly holds ~300 would that be the largest audience? If so, MSFT is out 300 bundles.

This is a travesty, I mean, WTF are companies thinking by marketing their product and then after that...advertising it, what assholes and they had the audacity to advertise to...women...:oops:

I, for one, will be happy when gaming is no longer a misogynist sausage party, dominated by embarrassing female characters and pubescent male rage.

I think Kinect is just generally fun to play with, for people of all ages and genders, and that's why it's had success.
 
I, for one, will be happy when gaming is no longer a misogynist sausage party, dominated by embarrassing female characters and pubescent male rage.

I think Kinect is just generally fun to play with, for people of all ages and genders, and that's why it's had success.

I have to admit when I first heard about the Kinect Dance games, images of this came to mind:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28269391/ns/technology_and_science-games/

Hopefully it does change things a bit and boys and men can be a bit more mature.
 
I'd be interested to hear how many (%) were returned (or are now collecting dust) due to room issues...I have a fair sized front-room yet it's struggles with 2 player gams - I'm going to try sticking it on the wall behind the TV
 
Back
Top