I'm really not sure where anyone would get the idea that the Kinect launch wasn't anything but a success.
That borders on reality denial, much like those who said the same thing about the Move launch after the corrected numbers were available.
While I believe there is a pretty fair amount of speculation going on (meaning consumers buying up stock to flip on Ebay at inflated prices), the fact remains that the initial shipments of standalone kits reached close to 100% sell through. Retailers with standing stock are few and far in between.
And for anyone who wants to believe that the 500k number is "poor," retailers can't sell what they don't have in stock. That number is essentially what was available for sale during launch week.
But the more important number is still the number of 360/Kinect bundles sold, which should be reflected in the hardware bump for release week. That will provide better information as to who is buying Kinect: current 360 owners or new 360 owners to include those previously in the Wii demographic, who are presumably the consumers MS has been trying to attract with Kinect.
