Microsoft vindicated as innovative controller finds its feet, quashing initial fears over high £129.99 RRP

Despite initial scepticism over its price, Kinect looks set to be a big hit.

Retailers are reporting high pre-order numbers for the device, which will be available in November for £129.99 bundled with Kinect Adventures.

In fact MCV understands one large chain has encouraged stores to secure 10 pre-orders for Kinect a day. Sources says they expect advance orders to topple half a million in the UK by launch.

It’s a U-turn for retail. Key voices previously declared sub-£100 as the only way to capture Kinect’s target market (MCV 593, 25/06/10). Now these firms are hailing the high price tag as “reflective of the product’s playability and appeal to a wide range of customers”.

Grainger Games’ sales director Phil Moore told MCV: “The feedback we’ve had so far from our customers is that they feel the price is appropriate to the product.

“We have taken a large number of deposits for Kinect already and it is set to become our biggest pre-order to date. This tells us the device’s appeal has not been affected by the price point.”

The Hut Group’s head of business development Sarah Jasper agreed: “Based on our orders thus far, customers are clearly excited by this offering and price – and quite rightly so.”

Retailers are also confident any remaining cynics will be won over, provided Microsoft is able to showcase the experience of playing Kinect effectively.

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/40209/Kinect-pre-orders-boom

GAME Group’s UK MD Martyn Gibbs told MCV: “Kinect is a fantastic piece of technology and we believe that once people actually try it for themselves, they will understand the full scope and value of what it offers them.”

Yup i expected that from the UK, we just have to see how other markets follow really. Maybe 360 can beat the Wii this holiday season after all?

MCV "understands" that they are increasing by 10 a day, and "sources" say they expect preorders to topple 500k?

Do they actually link to the said sources in the article?

Will be interesting to see if it matches these expectations.

I foresee some large crow eating this holiday season O_o

UK is a 360 country, but even there are 500k pre-orders massive.

You can at least add one million pre-orders in NA. I think half a million pre-orders in continental Europe and Japan combined is not impossible. Then there are areas like Latin America, South America, Australia and the Asian region. So 2.5 million preorders could be possible.

Didn't Pachter predict 2-4 million Kinect to be sold in 2010? If the numbers in the article are true, the lower end of this prediction could be preorders only.

Another example to show how massive this is: Kinect would outsell the iPad by quite a big margin in the first month. I think Apple reported 3.7 million iPads shipped in the first 3 months. MS could do this in 2 months. Sure, not compareable, different markets, different time of the year etc but a success anyway.

Note: I don't know if these numbers are accurate. MCV is a reliable source though.

Thats a Very Big Number..If this turns out to be true, Sony and Nintendo Better come up with something quick.

but i wonder..will it be front loaded? 

I can say that in Belgium (small country, I know) it isn't even making a blip so far :-/

What no. Latin america will not eat the prduct at all since the prices are high, and influence is often late there. Plus you cant compare the purchasing power of EU and NA to latin america and other regions. 

However i do expect huge numbers for Kinect, question is if it gets a good word of mouth too... I actually think the 360 could top the Wii this holiday season(maybe definitely if it werent for japan)

Wooow Big Numbers... if 360 was big in japan it woud beat wii this holiday!