Kinect passed 20 million !!! Who would have thought?!

[JWeinCom]

With stores stocking up for the holidays, it's entirely possible that there are several million Kinect sensors, and X-Box Kinect bundles on store shelves.

I'm actually not very impressed by the Kinect. Microsoft was boasting that it had sold 8 million units just 60 days into the console's lifespan way back in 2010. So, this means that after selling 8 million in about 2 months, the Kinect sold another 12 million in something like 1 year and 9 months.

Whether the Kinect has been impressive or not really depends on your perspective. If we look at Kinect as a simple add on, it's done very well for itself. 20 million is nothing to sneeze at, and that puts Kinect in the upper echelon of add ons.

If we look at the Kinect as a console (which is not unreasonable considering the massive 500m marketing budget Kinect had), it's been unsuccessful. Overall sales of the device slowed down immensely, and the number of successful Kinect games post-launch can be counted on one finger. Software support in general is dying down, and most people seem to prefer their X-Box 360s to be Kinect free. Out of 180,000 X-Box owners who bought the console on the week of the 20th, only 36,000 chose to buy it with the Kinect. Bear in mind for people looking for the 4 GB option, the Kinect is only 50 dollars more than the standard 4GB and comes with multiple games in the US. The Kinect is actually selling slightly more than the PSP and less than the Vita. Maybe it's not entirely fair to compare the 360 to the Vita, but when you're looking at things from the perspective of a developer who needs an install base for their game, it kind of does make sense.

With all this in mind, I'm a bit baffled by the executive's comments. Does he actually believe that the Kinect is resonating with core gamers? Does he really think that the Kinect is the reason people are going to buy the 360? Does he still think that the Kinect is a device that will attract casual gamers to the Kinect? Because if he, and Microsoft, truly believe these things, Microsoft is going to be in some trouble.