UK devs made 42% of Kinect games sold

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 24 January, 2011

Rare does the business.

42 per cent of all games sold for Xbox 360 motion-sensing add-on Kinect since launch were created by UK developers, new figures from UKIE/GfK Chart Track show.

The best-selling Kinect game by far is Kinect Sports, created by the Microsoft-owned, Twycross-based studio Rare.

Kinectimals, another Kinect launch game, was created by Cambridge-based UK studio Frontier Developments.

The UK accounts for 30 per cent of all PlayStation Move software unit sales since launch, UKIE said.

Meanwhile, UKIE points out that this week's number one game, LittleBigPlanet 2, was created by another UK developer: Guildford's Media Molecule.

Director general Michael Rawlinson said: "The array of strong products that our home-grown, UK talent is producing is something we can all be proud of. This just shows how our UK developer base remains one of the best in the world, and can continue to step up to the plate as the market develops and platforms evolve."

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About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (26) Latest comment 1 year ago

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

  • patch #1 1 year ago

    Have any new Kinect games been launched recently? None of the launch titles really appealed. Will there be anything big out in the next month or so?

  • Eraysor #2 1 year ago

    Isn't this like 42% out of 10 games or something...? I'd be more impressed if it was out of 100...

  • NewbieZilla #3 1 year ago

    Only core game I've heard that is planning on using Kinect so far is Alan Wake 2. And who knows when that'll be out. I'll pass on Kinect until such time I'll at least use it when I buy it. So, yeah, not now.

    Edit: Why did Mojo get negged? People here partial to dance games, wii sports-a-likes and animal games? Ah, I forgot, who needs a counter point on Eurogamer?
    Edited by NewbieZilla at 24/01/11 @ 13:46

  • RodHull #4 1 year ago

    Well done Rare! Now make that Kinect Blast Corps game that we (or at least, I) want so much.

  • captain_Carl #5 1 year ago

    High 5, UK developers :)

  • liamthemaster #6 1 year ago

    Doesn't Kinect get bundled with kinect sports ?

  • MattEdWithCheese #7 1 year ago

    @patch well the new Kawashima is out soon

    Child of eden is supposed to be Q1

    and then later this year (Although we know little about them):
    Project Draco
    Codename D (Diabolical Pitch)
    Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor
    Rise of Nightmares
    Terminal Reality's Star Wars game
    Haunt

    and of course Forza 4

  • Coughthulu #8 1 year ago

    @patch:

    Child of Eden is out on the 11th of Feb and is Kinect compatible.

    Won't be racking up the high scores using anything other than a joypad, but I'm looking forward to the Kinect 'Performance Mode'.

  • Rob_B #9 1 year ago

    Isn't this like 42% out of 10 games or something...? I'd be more impressed if it was out of 100...

    Yes, 4.2 games...but seriously, there isn't many, but it's still good news.

    High 5, UK developers :)

    Yakshemash!

  • Quak #10 1 year ago

    Chancellor: See? You don't need TAX breaks!

  • RexRunti #11 1 year ago

    I think british devs made up a fair chunk of the 360 launch as well (Kameo, PD:Z, PGR3)

  • mcmonkeyplc #12 1 year ago

    Cant wait for child of eden.

  • arcam #13 1 year ago

    What percentage did devs in Canada make?

    I though all our talent had gone over there to avoid paying tax?

  • Murton #14 1 year ago

    Newbiezilla - I'd hardly call Alan Wake "core" it's arguably the most niche title Microsoft have ever published since Flight Simulator.

    As for the British developers, I guess the industry was right when they said that Britain has creativity and innovation in its blood, here we are with two new control methods and, at launch at least, a clear dominance by UK developers. The sad truth is that there are so few British devs left that they'll be buried under the landslide of devs of elsewhere when their stuff finally comes out.

    On the subject of tax cuts, look at the devs mentioned. Almost all of them belong to multinationals, that's one of the reasons Osbourne said that the tax break was poorly targeted, because it would benefit foreign companies more than it would Britain as a whole.

  • Sniper_007 #15 1 year ago

    As someone who was genuinely surprised at how entertaining he found Kinect after taking the plunge just before Christmas I'm really looking forward to what the 2nd wave of games will offer.

    It's a little disappointing that so few titles have been announced though - I can understand publishers/developers not wanting to take the risk in committing significant resources to Kinect titles until 'the numbers were in' for Christmas, but I'd have expected Microsoft themselves to put some money where their mouth was and try and at least announce a few AAA titles to excite us for 2011.

  • des #16 1 year ago

    Rare has finally found cash cow

  • captain_Carl #17 1 year ago

    Why are people hating on Kinect in here anyway? I'm not the biggest fan of it in the world, but can people not just be happy for the UK games industry that homegrown games like these are selling so well?

  • lockload #18 1 year ago

    lol@grillbots

  • arcam #19 1 year ago

    Should we also be happy for the for the British music industry when JLS are number one?

  • frunk #20 1 year ago

    UK Devs - some of the most talented in the world...

    agreed...

    glad we have has such good news recently with the whole industry helping out...

    what with the
    - publishers (Activision & Bizzare Creations),
    - government (the tax breaks)
    - and brilliant management (Realtime with APB)

    all helping the situation

    I don't think the games industry here can fail!

  • captain_Carl #21 1 year ago

    Touché arcam

  • thesnowman #22 1 year ago

    @Sniper

    I can understand where you are coming from with the lack of Kinect games announced by Microsoft; however they havent really announced any games for this year. I think come E3 we will have a better idea of what MS have for this year, aside from the usual suspects. Wouldnt be suprised to see sequels to a few of the Kinect launch titles.

  • Vyggo #23 1 year ago

    Yeah, curious to see what kind of new Kinect stuff will come out this year. Recently got Dance Central for cheap and it's really cool, still waiting for a discount to buy Kinect Sports.

  • BlinkeredAxis #24 1 year ago

    Great to see the home teams (ie UK) doing great work.

    Several times on my way home from work on the train to Brighton I have heard devs talking about the games they are working on. They all sounded really into what they are doing. The Media Molecule guys were almost glowing with the pride they felt for LBP. Also, some guys who wrote Moto GP were similar.

    Haven't got one yet, but the more I see of Kinect the more unreal it seems,; it's like science fiction becoming real. Maybe that's partly because I was born in the analogue generation (I'm 47!), so the changes in technology seem even more amazing the more time goes by.

    Awesome work guys, love you all!

  • BlinkeredAxis #25 1 year ago

    @liamthemaster

    It's Kinect adventures, which is more of an extended demo.

  • zedzee #26 1 year ago

    "Kinectimals, another Kinect launch game, was created by Cambridge-based UK studio Frontier Developments."

    Great - now can Mr Braben please use some of that profit made to develop the next Elite?!