Did Kinect's Times Square launch go well?

By Robert Purchese Published 4 November, 2010

Queues for three blocks, apparently.

Last night Microsoft hired out New York's iconic Times Square to launch Kinect to North Americans. And with such an audacious event came the need to put on a bloody good show. By all accounts, that's exactly what happened.

Kotaku took pictures of rapper/crooner Ne-Yo leading hundreds of dancers in a choreographed routine. You could say he was the controller. Those pictures also showed how not only all traffic through Times Square was blocked for the evening, but how all of Times Square's gigantic televisions flaunted Kinect-based advertising throughout.

Xbox Live's Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb shared pictures via Twitter of the Kinect stockpile moments before launch and Xbox 360 boss Don Mattrick selling his new motion-sensing camera to the first person in line.

The queue was said to stretch for three blocks.

Microsoft US bigwig Aaron Greeberg was astounded by what he saw. "Kinect has taken over all of Times Square... Never seen anything like it," he tweeted. He too shared a picture from the event, this time of a Kinect advert on a Times Square telly.

Website Broadway World also shared some snaps, this time of surprise guest, actor Mark Wahlberg. He looked muscular in grey.

Kinect is on sale now in North America. Expect statistics and a Microsoft PR cacophony when they wake up.

Microsoft has set a target of 5 million Kinect sales by the end of 2010. (What we need now is a Blue Peter-style fund raising tube-graph to keep track of Kinect's progress on.)

With the US launch of Kinect came a global lift of the embargo surrounding the device and all related games. You can find Eurogamer's comprehensive platter of Kinect analysis elsewhere.

Kinectimals - mammal kill me for getting it.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (23) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • layleeloo #1 2 years ago

    Nowt like elaborance. Just playing The Fight on Move at the mo but looking forward to picking Kinect up - even after reading the mediocre reviews today

  • TOOTR #2 2 years ago

    'He looked muscular in grey.'

    An often overused phrase in gaming journalism, yet, used here simply with devastating power.

  • Fab4 #3 2 years ago

    Congratulations MS. The last person to completely block Times Square was Faisal Shahzad ;) :-D

  • altitude2k #4 2 years ago

    @Fab4

    I really hope terrorists realise how much we all laugh at them.

  • myiagros #5 2 years ago

    Didn't Microsoft offer the gift few hundred people £150 worth of extra stuff bundled free?
    If so its hardly surprising people bothered to show up.

  • MiniAmin #6 2 years ago

    No matter how cynical or sceptical you'd like to be, much of this information is impressive. Look at that picture of Times Square!

    Hopefully this sells loads so that MS can plough more money into new games for core gamers and renewed investment in Kinect tech.

  • layleeloo #7 2 years ago

    @MiniAmin "Hopefully this sells loads so that MS can plough more money into new games for core gamers "????

    Im a so called "core" gamer. I bought Move and I have Kinect pre ordered. So am I not "core" becasue I appreciate all new gaming tech then? Hmmmm.

  • Psychotext #8 2 years ago

    "What we need now is a Blue Peter-style fund raising tube-graph to keep track of Kinect's progress on."

    Do it! :D

  • davisorle #9 2 years ago

    Post deleted at 15:13:13 09-05-2012

  • captain_Carl #10 2 years ago

    "Kinect has taken over all of Times Square... Never seen anything like it,"

    Money talks.

  • jaywalker3010 Verified Mastering Manager, Square Enix #11 2 years ago

    From the Kotaku pics love the main one with the Sony Logo clearly displayed in the background, would have thought MS woulda been up there covering it ;)

  • drxym #12 2 years ago

    The only reason to attend these launches is the possibility of free shit. Otherwise why not just order online or walk into a store during normal waking hours to complete a purchase?

  • TopKatt #13 2 years ago

    See, if you have enough cash, you CAN polish a turd!

  • des #14 2 years ago

    and on the sdf side move launch was a ghost town...

  • patch #15 2 years ago

    Wonder how many Kinects they'll have to sell to pay for the launch.

  • kitsuneyo #16 2 years ago

    @MiniAmin - How will the success of non-'core' gaming encourage MS to invest in 'core' games? (It won't.)

  • MiniAmin #17 2 years ago

    "Im a so called "core" gamer. I bought Move and I have Kinect pre ordered. So am I not "core" becasue I appreciate all new gaming tech then? Hmmmm"

    No offence intended. I'm not particularly interested in flaky honorifics such as "core gamers", I simply mean that I'd love to see more titles which cater towards the "traditional" gaming market.

    "How will the success of non-'core' gaming encourage MS to invest in 'core' games? (It won't.)"

    I didn't argue that its success would encourage anything. I expressed a hope that it will be successful in the hope that there's more investment. Davisorle summed it up quite well really:

    "More money, next gen of tech + games quality = best for us as gamers."

  • jonsaan #18 2 years ago


    Is that very far in NYC though?

    Within Manhattan, a north/south block (i.e. 49th STREET to 50th STREET) is 1/20 of a mile.

    East/west blocks (i.e. 7th AVENUE to 8th AVENUE) vary in width. Between avenues with NUMBERS, they are approx. 1/6 of a mile. If an avenue with a NAME is involved (i.e. Park Avenue), they are 1/10 to 1/12 of a mile.

  • Goodfella #19 2 years ago

    Here's Mark Wahlberg looking thrilled to be part of the launch.

    http://view.picapp.com/pictures.photo/im...

  • vmanb #20 2 years ago

    @goodfella. That's going to be most kids response on christmas day i would think.

  • vmanb #21 2 years ago

    @goodfella. Is it me or do them 2 kids look as if they don't want to be there, they look almost terrified.

  • Sid-Nice #22 2 years ago

    Thank God that the majority of the crowd outside of ToysRus in Times Square are MS staff and dancers, it's an insult to hardcore gamers associating a hardcore gaming console with a kids toy store. "The Xbox 360 is NOT a toy it is a marvellous piece of technology.”

  • terminalterror #23 2 years ago

    I'm genuinely curious how much it costs to hire nearly all the advertising screens in Times Square for a night. Can't be cheap!