Microsoft Announces 2.5 Million Kinect Units Sold Within Its First 25 Days in Retail

You may consider motion controlled gaming devices like the Wii, the Move, or the Kinect to be the next step in innovative console gaming or a gaming fad that causes players to wave their arms like air traffic controllers. In either case, there is something appealing about them that is getting people to buy one or more of them to entertain themselves in their houses. As the latest motion gaming console, the Microsoft is proud to announce that not only has it sold one million of the motion capturing and voice commanding Kinect consoles in the first days of release, it has now sold 2.5 million of the sleek buggers in only 25 days since its market release. That is about 100,000 units a day. With Christmas coming in about another 25 days, who knows how much that number will balloon.

"We are thrilled about the consumer response to Kinect, and are working hard with our retail and manufacturing partners to expedite production and shipments of Kinect to restock shelves as fast as possible to keep up with demand," said Microsoft's President of Interactive Entertainment Business Don Mattrick said in a statement.

With such perfect sales numbers being reported, the conspiracy theories about how Microsoft may have controlled supply start to arise. Sony has also shipped 2.5 million Move units to the markets in the United States and Europe but its sales figures are nowhere near as high as the Kinect, which would indicate that inventory is still high. Meanwhile, Microsoft can be controlling its supply and limit the number of available units in stores. Limiting the number available in stores would reduce the available stock, which would result in quicker sales and sell-outs. The quicker sales result in increased demand, which in turn leads to even more sales until Microsoft reports selling 2.5 million Kinect units in 25 days. It does feel like shady marketing
practices and a heavy-handed Microsoft maneuver to generate an inflated demand for Kinect units. Pretty much the only winners are Microsoft profits while the gaming consumers suffer from empty shelves and higher prices set by scalpers able to get their hands on those gaming devices. Never mind the fact that Kinect fans could still wait for the device to upgrade to the point that so much room is required to actually play in-a potential problem for dorm or apartment dwellers-or allow players to actually play wearing skirts.

Then again, perhaps there is a simpler and less cynical explanation for such a good sales record for the Kinect: These things are just selling like hotcakes.