Hmmmm...I think it's too early to decide this definitively, at this point.  I think the huge marketing push (at whatever the cost was…but I’m still skeptical of that $500M figure), helped launch it as broadly as it did, and it is going to be hard to correlate it to say, you sold XXX units per $$$ spent.  I think if Kinect continues to sell solidly into E3, and we get another boost, based on what new titles are announce, then we will be able to better clarify the ramifications of marketing dollars spent. 

I completely disagree. Most everyone has tried it before they just plopped 150 or 300 down on it. I had people come over just to try it and then stayed hours playing it. then once they could afford it, they bought it.

More plan on buying it. ALso another case, everyone is broke and watching every penny they spend. So at the price tag everyone said it would fail. Now what, IT'S THE ADVERTISING.

You wish, give it up Wagram you try too hard.

OT: Yup seems to be getting crazy word of mouth, havn't met a person yet who hasn't enjoyed it apart from the odd 1 or few dozen PS3 members on this site.

I'll throw my anectodal evidence in by saying that I brought Kinect and Dance Central to three different Christmas parties (one office party and two family parties) and at each one of those I had people asking me about the price and where they could buy it.

So I'd say word of mouth is going to go lots of good for Kinect.

I think without the $500 million ad campaign, Kinect still would have sold well but not nearly what it is doing now.

It's pretty naive to think a $150 product that the general public knows very little about would sell as well Kinect actually has. Microsoft must have known this, hence the enormous campaign to make people aware to what Kinect actually is. A controller and not just some useless video camera thing.

Ummm no I'm not wrong.  KINECT hype train has been going strong for a year and a half before any ads were shown.  People saw the product at two E3's and loved it. 

Obviously KINECT will be around for decades in one form or another

HAHA! So true!  People from sony HQ and their legions of internet dwelling fans are threatened by kinect.  They seem to be at the vanguard of the hate kinect parade

I agree with you, but you are using the wrong point to proove it. Amazon is not a place to really read reviews, they are mostly made up and just by ignorant people.

Kinect is popular because it has a good buzz and is a terrific product backed up a great marketing hype using Oprah, Ellen to sell it.

BEST BUY REVIEWS

Best buy reviews are EXCELLENT as well.  I know amazon has some made up reviews which is why i only trust VERIFIED REVIEWS

Well thats not right. It's definitely selling because of the ad budget.

Not due to the ad budget, but one of the reasons is selling because of the ad budget. Theres nothing wrong about advertising a product and expecting a margin of sales from it. Heck, at the beginning of the generation Nintendo alledgedly spent twice the ad budget as Microsoft spent on the 360.