Kinect

Published November 15, 2010

REDMOND, Washington—Microsoft today announced it has sold one million Kinect for Xbox 360 units worldwide in 10 days and is on pace to hit five million by the end of the year. The announcement comes a week before the biggest selling day of the year, Black Friday, and in the wake of increasing momentum for Xbox 360, which led U.S. video game console sales for the past four months.*

"We are appreciative of the response we have seen from consumers that has culminated in sales of more than one million units in the first 10 days on the market for Kinect for Xbox 360," said Don Mattrick, president of the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft. "This is a great start to the holiday season, and we will continue to work with our retailer partners to keep pace with high demand and deliver against our plan to sell more than five million Kinect sensors worldwide by the end of this year."

"There were lines of customers at our stores all over the country on the night of the Kinect launch, and thousands more are trying it for themselves in our stores every day." 

-Chris Homeister, Best Buy

Before the Kinect launch, Microsoft raised its worldwide sales forecast from three million to five million sensors sold by year-end. Kinect launched in North America on November 4, followed by Europe on November 10, and will land next in Asia (November 18) and Japan (November 20). By this holiday, controller-free games and entertainment will reach more than 60,000 retailers in 38 countries with up to 17 Kinect games available.

"We have seen tremendous excitement from customers for Kinect for Xbox 360," said Chris Homeister, senior vice president and general manager of the home entertainment group at Best Buy. "There were lines of customers at our stores all over the country on the night of the Kinect launch, and thousands more are trying it for themselves in our stores every day. It's no surprise Microsoft has already surpassed one million units sold, and we expect Kinect to be one of the must-have gifts at Best Buy this holiday."

For Xbox 360 consumers worldwide, Kinect provides a unique and exciting way to access and interact with entertainment. With just the wave of a hand or the sound of a voice, consumers can play games, stream music, watch HD movies and live ESPN sporting events, and engage in video chat.**

Microsoft also recently announced that the more than 25 million Xbox LIVE members have spent more than one billion hours on the service a month, an average of over 40 hours per member. In addition to Xbox 360 console momentum, and the ever-expanding service and content library of Xbox LIVE, Microsoft released franchise games such as  Halo: Reach and  Fable III to hordes of devoted fans this fall, as well as announcing that Xbox 360 will be the first console to launch add-on content for all  Call of Duty games through 2012, helping drive industry software sales. With Xbox 360, Kinect and Xbox LIVE, Microsoft is proving to be a leading gaming and social entertainment service in the living room and the industry this holiday.

Kinect for Xbox 360 is an approachable, simple and affordable experience that the whole family can enjoy. No gadgets, gizmos or additional controllers are required. There are several opportunities for new and current players to literally jump into the action:

*Based on NPD Group's U.S. video game industry data June 1–Sept. 30, 2010.

**Kinect works with select Xbox LIVE features and content. Xbox LIVE Gold membership and/or additional subscriptions and requirements apply for some features. See  http://www.xbox.com/live.

***190 MB of storage required.