I have linked to your original comment:

Your implied suggestion was that it would bomb and that it would be such a failure that they would need to clear stock. The signs actually point to this being far from the truth so the only other logical conclusion is you meant loss leaders which clearly you did not. If you honestly believe that Kinect will be sitting on shelves in December like an unwanted pet then you are deluding yourself.

I hear the first round of TV adverts hit US screens last night and they appear to be very good so now we see the casual market swinging into action. Already the kinect standalone devices are not longer available for Pre-Order in the usual online retailers in the UK not sure how many US retailers are also suffering so demand is strong but you could be referencing a market such as Spain.

I know your post history which is why your post was disappointing, it may be that I misunderstood what you were trying to imply.

You "cancelling" your pre order is a huge blow to MS. 

I can see the headlines now....

"Angry mob burns Kinects after being tricked into playing Dance Central while standing up for over 5 minutes!"

We interviewed Steve and he had this to say:

"All I wanted was a dance game where you could just sit down with a cup of tea for no more that 2.5 minutes at a time and melodically sway my buttocks. Kinect has been a nightmare on this front and each song lasts about 3 minutes. That's 30 seconds too long and one arse cramp too many."

His girlfriend was not amused.

"Kinect couldn't even track me after I went to all the trouble of wrapping it with a blanked for protection and taping it to the back of my cat. I'm not technomagically minded so at first I was embarrassed, but now I'm just angry!"

Sorry I'm just teasing mate =P

I honestly think most people realise these games will be tiring and such. It's not like people expect to be able to dance or run without fatigue just because they are in front of a Kinect.

Well I don't think the lack of supplying review kits to the game-reviewing media (if true) can be spun as MS having a great deal of confidence in the critical reception of the overall package (i.e. Kinect HW launch Kinect SW lineup).

Trying to equate this situation with the normal review embargoes that are part of the game and movie industries smells a little of desperation by those who want to put things in a positive light. Which kind of suggests there's a little bit of concern on that part of those who want Kinect to turn this generation on its head console sales-wise.

Also suggesting that either Kinect, or some of it's launch software, is still in the final tweaking phase a mere few weeks prior to launch as a reason why game review media haven't received review kits also sounds like a bit of a desperate spin. Surely you can't tweak the HW after some/all of the launch titles have gone gold, and surely all of the launch titles must have gone gold by now, otherwise getting all the SW distributed for the global launch would be in jeopardy. I might be wrong in how long it takes to get a global launch fully distributed, but I'd think this close to it you'd want both HW and SW in it's finished state and being mass produced already.

I don't think it's because MS thinks it's got a dog of a product on its hands. I think it's more likely that MS believe the game reviewing media wont "get" Kinect, or rather they'll "get" Kinect, but they won't "get" the SW line up. So I pretty much agree with people who have written along these lines. However I think MS are somewhat insulting the intelligence of a lot of the game reviewing media. I think the game reviewing media would, overall, give the Kinect launch line up a fair hearing and score the games appropriately. Taking the Move launch line up for example I think the Sports Champs meta score is reaonable, and threfore I think the Kinect Sports game, if it delivered an equivalent or better experience to Sports Champs, would get and equivalent or better meta score. In fact I'd be willing to bet (if I was a betting person) that the meta average of the Kinect lineup will be better than the meta average of the Move-required line up.

So, it's probably not so much a lack of confidence in the product (though some of the excuses raised in this thread suggest some of the fans might have lost a bit of confidence in the quality of the product) as it is a (unfair) lack of confidence / trust in the game reviewing media.

Unfortunately I won't be getting to try Kinect any time soon, because no one I know who has a 360 has the required space to be able to play it. Everyone either has it in their bedroom, or in a smallish room not hooked up to the main TV in the house. I'll still try to convince someone to buy it so I can have a go. They can always move their 360 to the main TV room when it's time to play Kinect, right?

I'd argue it a bit differently again.  Anyone who just loves one genre, horror movies or games, JRPGs or whatever, shouldn't be a reviewer.

To be honest I think videogames, as a new medium, has some of the least professional, inexperienced reviewers around.

But... I think taking the easy route - he likes shooters get him to review Halo - isn't the right way forward.  That's a closed loop that in the end will make reviews useless.

What we really need is to push back on poor reviewing standards and see the required change in the review community instead.

The idea of someone only suitable to review Kinect (and I guess by extension Move and Wii) titles and someone else only suitable to review FFXIII isn't very sustainable or useful.

Now, clearly there will always be some bias - I 'm sure Roger Ebert for example (using him just 'cause he's well know for good/bad reasons to gamers) must have some favourite genres, be it thrillers or whatever, but to be a good film reviewer he has to have a good ability to review everything from Transformers to Never Let Me Go.  And he does.

By the same token I'd say anyone who wants to be a professional videogame reviewer must be equally able of turning of bias and reviewing a Kinect game followed by Mass Effect 3.

The examples people are giving of reviewers talking about getting the experienced isn't I'd say proof we should have sub-sets of reviewers, it's proof that particular reviewer isn't very good at his job and his employer should be reacting to that.  I know the examples are true, and it is bad form.  But we should be curing the cause, not trying to handle the symptoms.

As a final, final on this.  If Move and Wii titles are going to get reviewed by potentially hostile reviewers then, in the interests of an even playing field of information, I'd argue Kinect titles absolutely must face that same gauntlet.  Again, I say this from a consumer perspective, in terms of being able to source reviews and opinions from multiple, fairly consistent sources across the different consoles and peripherals.

Okay, I lol'd. Well done good sir.

Also, if people can be expected to get tired after just five minutes, 1) that is an obsecenely pathetic point on our nature as modern humans, and 2) Dance Dance Revolution wouldn'r have sold a copy in it's life. While 1) might be true, 2) is most certainly not.

You know, there is going to be someone stupid enough out there who will buy Kinect then complain they didn't know you actually had to move about to play the games...

Double lined cups A Whole industry born out of the fact that somebody did not realise that the coffee was hot.

does anyone know the Calvin and Hobbes cartoon, where Calvin orders and waits for his propeller beanie?

i can't help but see a lot of similarities in the hype for Kinect.

OT: i think users should have the chance to inform themselves  from Independent sources about a product the want to buy.

I didn't know that Dance Central was the only Kinect game. Sure, if you look at what Kinect games people say they are interested in it may seem so, but I thought there were games like "Joy Ride" as well. Some reviewers might not see why it's necessary to play a game standing up while your avatar is sitting in a car...