Kinect System Topples Sales Records

By Lucy Mitchell
Nov 30 2010

Microsoft announced this morning that sales of their Kinect gaming system toppled all sales records in the US.

Thus far over 2.5 million Kinect controllers have sold to consumers in the US. This is a tremendous boost for Microsoft who needed a consumer hit this season. Microsoft has been struggling to keep their Xbox360 gaming system relevant to the younger crowd.

The Kinect controller, which tracks body movements, has forced the hands of other gaming console makers. Motion gaming was first introduced by Nintendo with the Wii System. Playstation answered the call with Playstation Move.

Xbox360 was the last system to develop a motion gaming protocol. However, the Kinect system seems to have taken gaming to a whole new level. Rather than the user having to hold a controller, the Kinect system tracks motion with a camera. It is able to track 48 points of movement on the human body.

Recently the sales of the Kinect were boosted when it was discovered that it was built with an open platform. This has allowed hackers to develop new systems that will work within the gaming controller.

Google and other companies have offered open bounties to anyone that can develop the best game and user platform for the Kinect system.

The developers of the Kinect said that they intended to keep the controller open for development on other platforms and so on. However, thus far the Xbox360 has been the top gaming system with the Kinect system.