Microsoft wasn't kidding when it said that Kinect's launch would be treated like that of a home console - the company has revealed to the New York Post that it is spending $500 million on "a major movie-style marketing blitz," while the peripheral's UK launch game tally is close to that of the Xbox 360's own in 2005.
19 games are being prepped for Kinect's 10th November release in the UK (17 titles will launch in North America), and include five fitness games, two dancing games and one movie tie-in. Alongside first-party titles like Kinect Adventures and Kinect Sports, Ubisoft's Motion Sports and THQ's The Biggest Loser will be on store shelves to carry the device.
Konami announced that it will be bringing Dance Masters and Crossboard 7 to Kinect, with Hudson's Sports Island Freedom arriving later in the month on the 25th November. While Major Nelson only lists the US launch titles, over here we get the added bonus of Get Fit With Mel B and Dance Paradise.
Microsoft aims to spend its colossal marketing dollars by slapping Kinect on TVs, cereal boxes, print and online media and soda cans. Hollywood director Steven Spielberg has even been involved in the planning of the campaign. It'll certainly be interesting to see whether all that marketing spend translates into sales...
You can see the full UK launch line-up here.
19 games are being prepped for Kinect's 10th November release in the UK (17 titles will launch in North America), and include five fitness games, two dancing games and one movie tie-in. Alongside first-party titles like Kinect Adventures and Kinect Sports, Ubisoft's Motion Sports and THQ's The Biggest Loser will be on store shelves to carry the device.
Konami announced that it will be bringing Dance Masters and Crossboard 7 to Kinect, with Hudson's Sports Island Freedom arriving later in the month on the 25th November. While Major Nelson only lists the US launch titles, over here we get the added bonus of Get Fit With Mel B and Dance Paradise.
Microsoft aims to spend its colossal marketing dollars by slapping Kinect on TVs, cereal boxes, print and online media and soda cans. Hollywood director Steven Spielberg has even been involved in the planning of the campaign. It'll certainly be interesting to see whether all that marketing spend translates into sales...
You can see the full UK launch line-up here.
Companies:
Microsoft
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Comments
PaulRayment 19 Oct 2010 08:59
1/4
I just wish Microsoft had said from early on that Kinect is not for regular/hardcore gamers. Me and many other people who would consider themselves gamers have been excited about this since the E3 tease and MS has constantly claimed it's for everyone - this launch list proves it isn't.
Kinect Adventures looks fine but it's no Wii Sports. For me I'll need to buy Kinect Sports as well to get much use from this and that works out to £160!
For £160 I could buy Black Ops, FIFA 11, Fable 3 and the new Need for Speed. It will take a wealthy (or crazy early adopter) gamer to pick Kinect and a game over the the AAA titles coming out around now.
It's also odd that Sony seem to have patched Move on to many of their 'proper' games (Tiger Woods, Heavy Rain, Killzone) but Kinect is just for this bunch of fitness and dance games.
And I had such high (stupid) hopes.
Kinect Adventures looks fine but it's no Wii Sports. For me I'll need to buy Kinect Sports as well to get much use from this and that works out to £160!
For £160 I could buy Black Ops, FIFA 11, Fable 3 and the new Need for Speed. It will take a wealthy (or crazy early adopter) gamer to pick Kinect and a game over the the AAA titles coming out around now.
It's also odd that Sony seem to have patched Move on to many of their 'proper' games (Tiger Woods, Heavy Rain, Killzone) but Kinect is just for this bunch of fitness and dance games.
And I had such high (stupid) hopes.
alexh2o 19 Oct 2010 12:05
2/4
@PaulRayment - I say give it time! Im in the same boat as you, but Im giving it a year to mature before I judge it. Really hope that devs will find ways to incorporate it into hardcore games by then. Even just voice commands could be an early, nice addition; replace the initial "Xbox" command (as in "Xbox, Pause") with say "Squad", for orders like "Squad, Move Out"..
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PaulRayment 19 Oct 2010 12:57
3/4
I don't even need that, to be honest if it can be done on a pad I'm happy.
Love Rainbow Six and while saying squad left might be cool the d-pad is fine.
What I want to know is if it will work as an Xbox Live vision cam and Mic. If so, it's more worth it. I've not had a mic for months (broke) and think it would be neat to have my mates on screen in little boxes during COD.
MS seem so up for pushing the 'crazy' stuff there hasn't been a mention of simply being a good mic and/or cam.
Love Rainbow Six and while saying squad left might be cool the d-pad is fine.
What I want to know is if it will work as an Xbox Live vision cam and Mic. If so, it's more worth it. I've not had a mic for months (broke) and think it would be neat to have my mates on screen in little boxes during COD.
MS seem so up for pushing the 'crazy' stuff there hasn't been a mention of simply being a good mic and/or cam.
Edd Young 20 Oct 2010 09:07
4/4
I say buy kinect and then rent all your games! £10 a month and you can play all the Xbox games you like. Its not worth buying anything but hardware as it all depreciates so quickly.