GameStop sees short supply of Kinect due to new audiences

GameStop has said that it expects short supply of Kinect and Move through the holiday season as the motion controllers drive new audiences into stores.

Speaking in a conference call yesterday, executive VP Tony Bartel said the company expects a similar demand to the launch of Nintendo's Wii, with consumers following deliveries to stores in order to snare stock.

"I think you are going to have the exact same thing with new controllers and with the Kinect Bundle that goes out," offered Bartel. "I think you are going to have consumers following the UPS truck to our stores to pick up that product as soon as they can find it."

"So, we are not only excited with the sale of Kinect and with Move, both of which are going to be in short supply during the holiday season, but we like the fact that they are bringing expanded audience to games."

Although the retailer has a guarantee that it will have new software releases in-stock in the run-up to Christmas, Bartel said it could not match that with a similar hardware promise.

He also revealed that MTV Games' Dance Central and Microsoft's first-party Kinect Sports were the best sellers on Kinect.

"We definitely do see new customers coming into our store and it is selling hardware as well, as you can see and then with the numbers with Xbox 360, an increase in October's NPD numbers.

"In terms of attaches, there's a very high attach rate. In fact when you look at the top attaching games, in Kinect's case where it is Kinect Sports as well as Dance Central, those are definitely the expanded audience type of games and those are attaching extremely well."