MS really pulled off an amazing feat with the Kinect. I thought it would sell, but not this well.

Now they need to keep their momentum up and release some great games to keep shoppers buying them.

I have had a chance to play it recently with 4 titles, and it was fun but not worth $150 to me yet.

I would be interested in knowing which games the early adopters actually bought... I think the only interesting title on Kinect thus far is Body and Brain Connection, with research by Dr. Kawashima. Even then, that game's developers did not strive to delve too far beyond the efforts already done on the Nintendo DS. I think everything else is either shovelware or child's play.



Granted, you need pioneers to demonstrate the technology... but it really is amazing how their marketing push could successfully convince so many consumers to buy a $100+ peripheral almost 6 years into the life of a console, crucial to prolonging it's lifespan... that tactic has rarely been successful until now.



Don't be mistaken- the current generation's longevity is not the key factor to Kinect's success. Even the Wii repeated history with the Motionplus peripheral- it never took off, despite a good tech demo. There must be something about webcam controls that entices casual players... Playstation 2 and 3's Eye, both similar in core function to Kinect, have sold millions; most of their games are similar in nature to Kinect's launch lineup. However... they were not meant to be the focal point of longevity in their host systems... and sold for less than $100.



Nevertheless, there are definitely some interesting upcoming titles for Kinect:



Child of Eden, by Tetsuya Mizuguchi and Q Entertainment

Codename D, by Suda51 and Grasshopper Manufacture

Project Draco, by Yukio Futatsugi and Grounding Inc.

Rise of Nightmares, by Sega



Ironic, isn't it? All the really interesting upcoming games are Japanese, not American.

By the way, for reference:

- XBox 430 attach rate at launch was 4

- PS3 was 1.5 (criticized for being alarmingly low)

One thing people need to know when buying this is that you can't expect much support. When the install base of the balance board was being tracked back in 2009 it was close to world wide PS3 install base. The device did not get much support though. Their may be about 50 games that support it in about 7 genres, so it is not because the device is limited to just fitness games.



Kinect has a wider range of uses but it still stands that add ons do not get a lot of support from third parties. The reason is the add on has a lot smaller userbase than the console. It is not worth the cost to support it or even make a game that only uses it in most cases.



Still it is great for MS that it is doing well.

I think they make money on these units. But I do agree that lots of people are buying these with no plans of plugging them into a 360.



I look at this like the early days of the DS, where no one was really sure how the software would shape up. I think developers will find cool things to do with it, and the attach rate will rise.