Kinect: "Biggest platform launch ever"
Microsoft's Phil Spencer bets it will be.
Microsoft reckons the release of Xbox 360 motion-sensor Kinect will be the "biggest platform launch ever".
The confident predictions go on: Microsoft thinks Kinect will be the biggest home electronics launch of 2010.
"We're investing in this so people will know Kinect is here," Microsoft Game Studios boss Phil Spencer told Eurogamer in a new Tokyo Game Show interview today.
"Retailers are telling us from their buzz and what they hear from people walking the store asking questions that this is going to be the biggest consumer home electronics launch of this year, and they're gearing up towards that.
"Given all the momentum that I see and the way we're investing, I'll bet this is the biggest platform launch ever."
Yesterday Spencer's colleague Aaron Greenberg predicted Microsoft will sell over three million Kinects this Christmas.
He also said Microsoft will flog "more Kinect sensors than we did [systems] at Xbox 360 launch".
But the biggest platform launch ever?
"For the holiday, yeah, I bet it is," Spencer replied.
"We have 15 launch games - few consoles have shipped with 15 launch games. They're really high quality. And there are some things we can take advantage of - the fact the 360 is a platform people know, so the technology involved in putting a game on the platform, connecting to Live - those are things that developers have become adept at.
"It will be about how we execute, but we'll see. I don't want to get ahead of ourselves, but we're invested and we expect, yeah, that this will be the biggest launch we've ever seen."
Some will question Spencer's use of the term "platform". Is a mobile phone, such as the iPhone, a platform? If Kinect is a platform, is PlayStation Move?
In June Apple revealed iPad sales had topped three million in the 80 days since launch in the US.
Kinect's due out in the UK on 10th November and costs £130. A £300 Kinect console bundle, which includes a 250GB Xbox 360, Kinect sensor and a copy of Kinect Adventures, will launch on the same day.