Hopefully a simple question.
Was the free game with every Kinect / 360+Kinect bundle essential for Kinect to be as successful as it is, and hence was worth the cost of giving away a game?
Or was it a waste of money because the Kinect would have been just as successful if there was no autobundling of Kinect Adventures?
IMO the auto-bundling of Kinect Adventures was key to Kinect's success. As was Wii Sports autobundling (in most markets) a factor in Wii's success. I think Kinect would be probably 30% or more down on it's current sales without the free game.
In like manner, I think part of PS Move's underwhelming sales is because of a lack of autobundling in most markets. A demo in the Move starter kit outside North America was a big mistake by Sony.
I don't really regard Kinect Adventures sales figure as sales i.e. to me MW3 is the best selling game on Xbox 360. But in another light, if Kinect would only be at about 12 million if it didn't come with a game packed in then Adventures deserves some sort of credit for being a significant seller. I still wouldn't call it the best selling 360 game (neither would I call Wii Sports the best selling Wii game), but their importance is not properly recognised if their sales figure is completely discounted.
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