Kinect hardware sales boost is "bollocks"
Microsoft "missed the boat", says CHIPS.
Don McCabe, the outspoken manager of UK independent retailer CHIPS, firmly believes that Kinect won't boost hardware sales for Microsoft.
"In some ways Microsoft has missed the boat," he told GamesIndustry.biz. "Over the last two years the casual market has been declining rapidly."
"I don't think it's going to add any new hardware sales. I spotted in their last response to a survey, they said it would lift hardware sales by 5 to 15 percent.
"I think that's bollocks," he added. "You lift it by one or two per cent and you've had a result."
McCabe thinks the £130 asking price for Kinect is too high, particularly when compared with Wii - and he's not convinced anyone's that bothered about Microsoft's new device to begin with.
"The pricing is immature to a certain degree," he said. "Consumers see it as just a catch-up with the Wii, but they don't see it as much of an improvement.
"When you see a new hardware product or a new peripheral, you normally see quite a response from the public. We're not seeing that, they're completely underwhelmed by it, really."
McCabe's certain that Microsoft is testing the water for a future generation of consoles. If Kinect flies, great; if it doesn't, "we'll still intergrate it in the next machine".
Mr CHIPS is convinced that hardware for Microsoft is just a "means" of getting people subscribed to Xbox Live.
Still, if Kinect does fly, McCabe will be happy, because like a boomerang the device is coming straight back.
"From our point of view, the more Microsoft things that are out there the better, because it's one of those things that people will buy, play it for a short time then trade it back in. So I think we'll make a good trade-in market on it," predicted McCabe.
There is no UK release date yet for Kinect, but there are various ways to buy it.
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Comments (87) Latest comment 2 years ago
Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!
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Rob a bank? Sell a kidney? I'm struggling to think of any more.
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Thank you for saying nothing, Mr. Chips.
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]http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/appeal...[/link]
Omg, I'm getting so confused, everyone's saying diferent stuff all the time.
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It again makes me question the morality of the second-hand market. I mean, what difference is there between the second-hand market and straightforward piracy? We've been told for years that piracy inflates the price of software because money doesn’t go to the creators yet the stores gobble up the profits on most new releases by offering second-hand copies for a couple of quid less. And still, PC games are usually about £10-15 cheaper than the console equivalents despite it being a market more prone to casual copyright theft.
I'm certainly not condoning piracy but this second-hand business is as big a racket.
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Needing a 360 on top of Kinect is asking for trouble, as casual aren't as savvy as us hardcore gamers. Some might buy Kinect on its own, thinking it might work like that.
Come on MS, can't you see the Cod7/MoH/Halo Reach invasion lurking on the horizon. Once that kicks off, Kinect will get buried til new year, unless enough of those casuals bite. While I'd praise that for the sake of the industry, on side of me chuckles at their naiveity.
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Please use more.
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It's good but it's not right
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That's when I see this kind of stuff coming into its own. From what I've seen there's just not quite enough processing power this generation for this technology to be both fast enough to be worthwhile *and* affordable. Instead it's sort of fallen into an unsatisfactory middle ground.
I do suspect it'll revolutionise a lot of gaming next gen though.
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We all have our views about Kinect, I too feel it's stupidly overpriced, but it's not something you shout about if you're in this guy's position. No doubt that general 'don't give a shit' attitude is leaked down to the staff in all of his stores, and if they don't give a fuck about the product why would any of the shoppers there express an interest either? They aren't exactly doing a good job drumming up some excitement for the thing are they?
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Guess those chips have other problems aswell......
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NOT!
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You could get a second job. I hear that's a well-advised way of obtaining electronic gaming hardware.
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when they were talking about doing it for £50 i was well up for it, even if i didn't by any games for it, just for the novalty of using it to navigate the dashboard and so on. but im not paying £130 for something like that.
and really from the perspective of the user it's nothing more than a novalty controller (i know it's not), so £130 is just way to much for that, it's like the wii for me, flailing about with the remote is fun for a bit, but then i get bored of it after awhile.
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Ergo, isn't this article bollocks?
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22/07/10 @ 13:39
ignore poster | #23
0
No seriously EG, fuck off with your advertising dressed up as news pieces.
What the fuck does this mean? EG have comments from someone in retail slagging off the Kinect. That's a story. How is it advertising? Because it's about a product? How is news about a product therefore advertising?
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CHIPS
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"What in the fuck is CHIPS?
I've never even fucking heard of them.
Is this a northern GAME or something?"
Watch it you southern puff
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I personally think Sony have a harder job marketing Move as the seem to be aiming it more at the hardcore and it's pretty clear the hardcore don't give a crap about motion controls.
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Not the sharpest knife in the draw are you?
Read through the comments, and count up how many people have been made aware of this retailer's existence.
You could almost say said retailer has been advertised!
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Err, yeah. lol
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If you look at the games MS has created not to mention the ones coming out on release, they are totally geared to shine in that market and it's up to MS to sell kinect as the next best consumer toy.
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Ergo, isn't this article bollocks?"
Pre-orders aren't sales though.
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If the story was some form of company advertising, it was a really really terrible effort.
Yes I'm now aware of them and will avoid their store should I ever see one, as it sounds like the company's run by a total twat
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You could almost say said retailer has been advertised!"
"Yes I'm now aware of them and will avoid their store should I ever see one, as it sounds like the company's run by a total twat
Beaten to it a bit, but yeah- unless you believe that no publicity is bad publicity, all that's happened is I've learnt of a new store chain and also that I shouldn't bother going near it.
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Second-hand sales are what's keeping some retailers afloat. As i've said elsewhere, if i've paid the full asking price of the game i'll do with it what i want. It's also bizarre that folks don't realise that a lot of people offload their older titles to help finance the purchase of new releases.
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Something there doesn't add up....
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I think Mr Chips is right. Microsoft is a software company and if you look what drives their sales it's software. Microsoft always stumbles with hardware. I believe Microsoft's decision to scrap the Halo MMO in favour of a Kinect solution was the wrong move. And come this Christmas I think they will see that too.
However Microsoft can bring something for casual players in an Avatar 3D town that features micro transactions and MMO type play (like Free Realms and PS Home).
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Well, it's actually £75 with the subcontroller, so it ain't THAT far away ...
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Just another retail idiot thinking he is in the 'Games Industry'... no mate, your in the retail industry, live with it.
Ikari
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Mainly because there's nobody in their stores to be excited?
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Err, I agree with him on that one actually. Thought I'll take it a step further.
The entire XBox platform exists because MS wants people subscribed to XBLive (which is back-ended by a Windows Live account, which MS wants everyone signed up to). MS isn't in the console business to make money from games sales, they are in the console business to make money from online identities and the data such identities provide.
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Read through the comments, and count up how many people have been made aware of this retailer's existence. "
I hate to piss on your chips but I actually couldn't tell you the name of his shop and I've read all the comments. I saw a lot of references to a Mr Chips but I was assuming that was the name of the person they were speaking to as I hadn't really taken that bit in, I was more interested in what he had to say, having established he was the owner of a games shop.
I still don't see your point. It's everyone else that's been playing with the name of the shop. It's mentioned just twice in the article, once to establish the credentials of the gentleman in question, and once later as an alternative jokey reference to the speaker again.
Honestly, get over it.
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Well, it's actually £75 with the subcontroller, so it ain't THAT far away ..."
And more if you don't already have a PS Eye - and I imagine most PS3 owners probably don't?
My pre-order last week of a PS Move Starter Pack (including one Move, PS Eye plus a disc with... something?) + Navigation Controller came to a grand total of 828 DKK ~ €111.
€40 less than Kinect from the same store, but hardly cheap - although I could have opted to exclude the Nav Controller of course, but I'm pretty sure I would quickly become fed up with trying to keep the DS3 still on my left leg or in one hand.
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--
that just sounded like a bloody fanboy ranting to me. very odd from a store owner."
Kinect is pretty much a living room device and the 360 is being pushed as an entertainment center. These new owners will get the one month free gold account and all the services included - Facebook, Last FM, ESPN and SKY etc. Once they get used to the features the 30 day freebie will be over, what are they going to do? - Pretty sure that's what he's getting at.
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Mark my words - i'm almost definitly wrong
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Since when were the best selling ames casual anymore? Top of the charts has been things like red dead redemption, Uncharted 2, Call of duty, battlefied BC2 and other games which arnt really party ttles for social play.
The bulk of the market wants more gears like games, more COD, more core games with online play. Kinect works with none of these titles and they may find that those lookign for a causal experience will go straight for a wii which is cheaper and has more casual games.
in a way sony has tried to keep the attacion accross the range with support for socom and KZ3 with move. Right now though no one will want a £130 camera to play kinectamals with and couldnt be bothered with such tech.
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Being the head of a company and stating that one of your biggest suppliers products is gonna flop in the media isn't clever either.
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There is just no defeating Wii in its own market. Not by making Wii-like games that had already been out for years, and certainly not at this price point. 360 fanboys need to remember there are other systems out there beyond their little shell.
Sony will likewise fail. They might be a bit less screwed if Move actually works well for shooters. But that'd only make them less screwed, not successful.
And that's only for a little while. Even if Move is brilliant for shooters, it will not be supported for long. Why? Because if it works, it'll allow Move users to own controller users, in similar but less dramatic ways a mouse allows PC to own consoles. Then people will whine until Move users can only play other Move users, which would split the player base. Move's being a much smaller base, will of course result in longer wait time and worse ping. Soon, there will be no one left. Thus, other games will not bother to support it, that goes double for 3rd party games. In the end, Sony is just as screwed.
And thats IF it works. While I remain hopeful, it could very well turn out to be unresponsive in practice. And it is still a very expensive control scheme, and still not going to be as boss as Mouse.
But Kinect? That thing will surely fail hard and early. Though to be honest, Dance Central looks good and I want to learn to dance with that. But at that price point, there is no way.
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Don McCabe does not know what he is talking about, his company didn't pay any tax to the government and now they are in a CVA debt agreement, only a matter of time before they go the way of the dodo.......and 2nd hand games will stop smelling of fags.
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Why do Move or Kinect have to defeat the Wii. Instead both Sony and MS want some of that nice pie. You do not have to be the one eating the whole thing, a decent slice will be enough. Also Kinect will be something MS will be putting into more than a console so I do not believe they are thinking that this will be something exclusive to the 360.
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Who the heck is this CHIPS anyway? Collected Hacks Interpreting Pillorious Statements?
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I've never even fucking heard of them.
Is this a northern GAME or something?
Get a real retailer to comment, not someone at a Durham boot sale
No, that would be Grainger Games, who basically own the market from Middlesborough upwards.
I assumed they were some southern chain.
Seriously, I think they're really a front for EG that they made up to fabricate articles.
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MS are hoping the whole Kinect/facebook/X-box live package will snowball the way Facebook did about 4 years back, bringing social networking in front of the TV but giving them a healthy advantage for doing it first AND having it paid for rather than running at a loss like FB did for years.
What's scary is that it might (might!) even work.
Actually, If I was MS, I'd be bigging up the idea that as a parent you can keep an eye on who your kids are talking to by keeping gaming in the living room.
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Not that i disagree with him or anything.
In all honesty i'd be more interested, if you have to interview retailers, to find out what the buyers for the supermarket chains are thinking about natal and move, after all everyone knows that casuals live in supermarkets not little psuedo indie boutiques.
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Ghehe, checked her out via Gagle Images...unfortunately at work...and no 'safe' filter on my search results....so massive pics of a bukake. Or is it snot?
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At least there was when I last checked...it's probably been demolished by chavs by now : (
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And when you consider that the one Kinect system allows four players to play at once it seems even better value, for Move or even the Wii how much would the cost be to buy 4 controllers and sub-controllers! more than £130 I would think, plus all the other rubbish that they sell like steering wheels and guns to stick your controller in!
Also my 4 year son who has never been interested in the 360, he's more of a Wii man, now wants the Animal game so he can stroke a tiger! This is the part that worries me more, losing my xbox to my child, time to buy another one!
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