Today is November 4th, 2011, which means that the Kinect has been on the market for one full year. In that time, the Kinect library has expanded from 17 titles to over 60 worldwide. Kids and adults have been able to control their Xboxes for a whole year by simply waving their hands. The Kinect, the only video game device that does not require a controller, has caused Xbox 360 consoles to fly off the shelves, allowing the Xbox 360 to dominate the monthly sale charts. It’s been an eventful year for this little innovative piece of technology, and we’re going to take a look back at it in our retrospective history of Kinect’s first year.
First, a brief history leading up to November 4th, 2010. At E3 2009, Microsoft announced “Project Natal,” a motion-sensing device that would be implemented into the Xbox 360. Three tech demos were put on display, including Project Milo, which was misinterpreted as a game, rather than a tech demo, to the dismay of many. Microsoft kept mum about the project until E3 2010, when Project Natal was renamed, Kinect, a cross between the words “kinetic” and “connect.” At this E3, Microsoft highlighted actual games, such as Kinect Sports, Kinect Adventures, Kinectimals, Dance Central, and Kinect Star Wars. These demos and videos showed gamers all over the world how motion detection and voice commands would be integrated into the Xbox 360.
Leading up to November 4th, 2010, Microsoft spent a half-billion dollars on the Kinect marketing campaign. The Xbox 360 add-on appeared on Pepsi cans and boxes of Kellogg’s cereal, in addition to promotional spots on The Oprah Winfrey Show and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. On November 4th, America would no longer have to watch the Kinect on their TV; they could play it.
The peripheral launched with 17 unique titles, most notably including the Kinect branded titles, Sonic Free Riders, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1. The Kinect came in two bundle packs: A $149.99 Kinect standalone bundle pack that came with Kinect Adventures and a $299.99 Kinect Xbox 360 Slim bundle, also accompanied by Kinect Adventures.
November 2010 set sales record history in the US, becoming the most profitable November, since the invention of video games. Across all platforms, the video game industry accumulated an astonishing $2.99 billion. This was mainly due to the holiday season release schedule, which included Call of Duty: Black Ops, as well as the release of the Kinect. Kinect Adventures! would appear twice on the Xbox Live Activity list: Once at 16th place during the week of November 8th, and once at 19th place during the week of November 22nd. Casual gamers loved the Kinect.
The casual gamers weren’t the only people who loved the Kinect; so did the hackers. Hackers were connecting the Kinect to their personal computers, and making it do some awesome things. One hacker was able to play Super Mario Kart with the Kinect, while another hacker could navigate Google Earth with it. At first, Microsoft was not happy. They denied that any hacking had taken place and (even though no hacking had taken place) threatened to get law enforcement involved against the people using their product incorrectly. However, Microsoft changed their position on November 22nd (probably after witnessing all the cool innovations being done with their product) and encouraged ordinary users to explore the possibilities of developing software for the Kinect. Their support would continue as time went on.
This feature retrospective continues on the next page, please click Page 2 below to read more on the first year of Kinect.
