As PlayStation Move sales reportedly close in on Kinect's, Ubisoft has suggested Microsoft should rethink its motion control software release strategy.
While Kinect's current sales total is unclear - IndustryGamers reckons it has yet to hit 11 million units, which seems a little hard to believe - what is apparent is that adoption has stalled since last year's holiday period. Meanwhile, Sony's Move may have been slower out of the gate, but it recently reached the nine million sales mark, according to the site.
Ubisoft VP of marketing Tony Key suggested the Kinect sales pattern is unhealthy for the wider industry, and urged Microsoft to offer better year-round support for the platform.
"It's not healthy to just sell in the holiday, or 90 percent of your units in the holidays," he said. "We would really like to see them have some major launches during the non-holiday part of the year.
"That will help keep the visibility of the machine high and enable better catalogue sales throughout the year, and also give us the opportunity to launch some things throughout the year.
"We put out Michael Jackson: The Experience in April and we would love to continue to have Kinect games come out all year long," Key added, "but we need support from first-party [Microsoft] also on that front."
Microsoft is clearly gearing up for strong Kinect sales again this Christmas, having launched Dance Central 2 and Kinect Sports 2 last month, and Kinect Disneyland adventures a few weeks ago.
Comments
31 comments so far...
chunkysatsuma on 24 Nov '11 said:
I have Kinect and Move, love them both.
Both are great and totally different to each other
Just wish microsoft had maybe waited a year to launch Kinect, then Steel Battalion, The Gunstringer, Kinect Sports, Dance Central, Child of Eden, Star Wars Kinect, Project Draco, Rise of nightmares and Forza 4 could have made a nice launch line up rather then dripping out slowly one every couple of months.
As for Move, fair play to Sony, lots of people (myself included) in the past knocked them for being a "wii rip off" but it has sold well.
More interesting would be game attachment rates, I know Kinect Sports season 2 has just sold a few hundred thousand but what about other titles on the HD consoles?
Sentinator on 24 Nov '11 said:
This would explain why MS hasn't been very talkative about it. But I'm curious about the sales figures of Move. I always thought it was moving the slowest of the bunch. Its rather interesting to hear its gaining on it.
starvinbull on 24 Nov '11 said:
It isn't a platform in and of itself like Kinect is.
Move compliments many games rather well like Killzone 3 and LBP2 but hasn't been used for any AAA Move exclusive so far. It's only a matter of money to get those AAA exclusives but are Sony or major third parties going to splash out on it?
I'd like to see some freeware for Move to get people using it even if not initially for gaming.
Stan_Goodspeed on 24 Nov '11 said:
Curiously, I never heard anyone calling Kinect an "Eye Toy rip-off"
KMakawa on 24 Nov '11 said:
Kinect is far different to Move, and the only comparison either have is that they are movement perihperals(sp). Move has a far different case to solve, and Kinect has a different case to solve too. :/
Far harder to build/cater for Kinect then it would be for Move for example.
I dont really care about sales units for either, I have both, and I dont use either of them lol. Purely because there is no real dedicated stuff for either of them yet. As soon as thats completed, im sure they'll sell even more.
altitude2k on 24 Nov '11 said:
Difference is that Kinect requires a single purchase. Move users are likely to purchase several units before they get the setup they want.
dangermou5e on 24 Nov '11 said:
This is a very good point, How many indivdual users of move are there actually?
Fr33Kye on 24 Nov '11 said:
They only count the actual motion controller. You have to buy the thing with the ball on the end for it to be counted.
squatch on 24 Nov '11 said:
Well MS did recently announce that Kinects full year sales were 10 million.
So between March and October it sold practically nothing.
Cogglesz on 24 Nov '11 said:
i've got a move, but seriously its alot more dusty than my wii.
There aint many games for it, i feel its been pretty much abandoned.
altitude2k on 24 Nov '11 said:
Which means there's an awful lot of people who have contributed to purchasing two units of that total. Or more. I reckon the total users are far less than their numbers indicate.
Regardless of sales, I think the most telling thing is that, good or bad, people are still talking about Kinect.
Fr33Kye on 24 Nov '11 said:
?
What? For multiplayer? Yes. If people buy two for multiplayer in order to enjoy the massive wealth of multiplayer Move games, it would count as more than one per user. I'd say the total users is probably around 7 million.
altitude2k on 24 Nov '11 said:
Or for the games that make use of two wands for single player.
Fr33Kye on 24 Nov '11 said:
I can think of two games that support it. Fight and sports champions. I doubt the sales of fight are worthy of note and i dont know if it requires two, but sports champions does not.
Imaduck on 24 Nov '11 said:
Motion tech sales in general are unhealthy. Personally, I reckon Kinect is about to start gaining ground. As a previous "later" stance holder, I am actually thinking of picking one up after Christmas, just for the little things currently but in the hope that they are a sign of things to come. Future Soldier usage, CE usage etc. I think there's a pretty obvious correlation between hardware sales and the software abyss at the moment.
FixBeatGames on 24 Nov '11 said:
i don't know why people compare kinect and move in all honesty. apart from both being 'motion controllers', they're very different.
move is surprisingly good at first person shooters, sports games involving bats, mouse-like cursor control for games / the browser and various games built around moves functionality. kinect is totally rubbish at first person shooters, sports games involving bats, mouse-like cursor control.
kinect is surprisingly good at dance games, character involvement and voice controls for games / the xmb etc. move needs ps3 eye to capture body movement and it's not on kinects level though adequate for simple stuff, while holding the move controller like a gun ads some realism it's not on kinect's level of character involvement in lots of ways and there's no voice control anything on ps3 (that i'm aware of).
written like that surely shows that they're different bits of kit that are best at totally different things? if all the devs can realize this, we'll get good games made specifically for hardware, if they don't we'll have to put up with the dross that is made to use both, meaning half arsed attempts!
if you've got move, i highly recommend trying out killzone 3 with it. it gobsmacked me how well it works with a fps, i was genuinly doing better online with it than with a controller and was beating people who were using a controller. i only hope more shooters use it in this way, will make them so much better. other than that however, i own and wouldn't recommend move, there simply isn't enough software that's good for it to warrant the asking price IMO.
Padua on 24 Nov '11 said:
I tried MOVE with MAG but I was too ingrained with the controller in this game.
Really was disappointed that Uncharted 3 didn't offer Move support at launch.
Are there even a million users world wide with 3D TV's used with gaming?!
I think with the soon to launch Kinect for Windows, Kinect's sales will grow exponentially.
Far more than there are 360 and PS3's put together eventually.
It is an amazing piece of kit that is sorely wasted on games.
Maybe Microsoft might recant on their "You are the controller" and replace it with "You can be the controller (if you want to) but you can be the BEST controller ever holding this thingy with buttons also" :-p
MattyR95 on 24 Nov '11 said:
It doesn't really matter how many individual Move users there are! They've both sold like hotcakes, there you go, doesn't matter.
dangermou5e on 24 Nov '11 said:
Don't be so naive! Of course it matters as it it directly impacts software sales, Less individual useres = less potential sales meaning less suport for future titles.
FASELI on 24 Nov '11 said:
As someone who works within the retail sector (nothing to be proud of) I must admit I have not seen much evidence of this turn around, the one thing I will point out though is the fact that Sony give away a lot of Move starter packs with 320GB PS3s whilst Microsoft make you pay extra for a Kinect.
damoxuk on 24 Nov '11 said:
The problem is people aren't buying Kinect games. Dance Central 2 didn't even hit the top 20 in it's 1st week.
However at the end of the day I much prefer a "proper" controller although for family or party games when you want a laugh at say christmas motion control is fun but as a replacement or long term viable option it's just not good enough.
JBoo on 25 Nov '11 said:
So soon the PS3 + PS:MOVE will overtake the Xbox 360 + Kinect in sales Worldwide then? Hmm all that money MicroSoft have spent on Advertising seems not to be working then lol (i must of seen at least 10 Xbox Adverts on TV tonight)
jtthegame on 25 Nov '11 said:
I have played kinect and move. i have none of them at the mo i played them at my friends house. move just feels like wii in hd. kinect felt like a completly different experiance. i have ps 3 and 360 so could get both but after playing both i am going to buy kinect as i already have a wii so no need for move.
ckyleburnett on 25 Nov '11 said:
I own a Move but not a kinect, that isn't to say that i didn't plan on buying one though...until i used it anyway. Granted, I don't use my Move nearly as much as i would like to but when i do use it, I enjoy it. Killzone 3 with Move was fantastic. by the way, I have 2 Motion Controllers but hardly use the 2nd unless i am playing multiplayer with wife or son. Most Move games don't require 2, but having the Navigation controller is a MUST if you want to play anything decent.
As i mentioned earlier, i had the full intentions on picking up Kinect this weekend until I finally got a chance to play one recently. I found the control to be frustrating and often asked myself why can't I just use a controller for this? Menu's are frustrating to navigate and Kinect kept getting very confused by there being too many people around (kids!). It was also overly sensitive to having the perfect distance. Overall, it is just to complicated. I would compare it to taking out the really hot chick and when you finally have sex with her, she groans like a Wookie having a baby. I want t like it but i just cant...
360_Fan on 25 Nov '11 said:
Sorry to hear it was too complicated for you. Not really sure how they could dumb it down any more.
only_777 on 25 Nov '11 said:
I have a couple of Move controllers, but they are gathering dust now as I prefer a pad. I have some good games for it like Killzone3, Heavy Rain, etc - but I enjoy play on the pad more.
If both motion control devices are close in sales then someone just messed up big time! Out of MS and Sony, who poured millions of pounds into advertising and claimed their device was 'almost a new system'. I think someone at MS is wearing a big red face right now. Fair enough you sold 10 million and that's a great figure, but they are in competiton and after all that hot air they came out even stevens!
And people that wonder why Move is compared to Kinect even though they are different styles (although both motion control systems). It's like Comparing the Wii and the PS3. Both are totally different machines, and play totally different; but after you look beyond their differences you'll find they are both video game consoles at their core. Move vs Kinect is the same argument.
G00N3R on 25 Nov '11 said:
First Ubisoft insults the entire PC community, then they question Microsoft's business strategies. Apart from being extremely arrogant (I don't recall Ubisoft ever selling hardware), at this rate, by Xmas they'll have alienated everyone in the industry.
WHERESMYMONKEY on 25 Nov '11 said:
What everyone seems to of forgotten is that kinect costs more than move and has still sold more. That's pretty impressive. Also it's clearly evident that MS are supporting the device and that it has a half decent line up. Sure its not huge but its only been out for a year and its getting better all the time.
well as move could easily of been integrated into older games and easily become a proper alternative control scheme for the PS3 for well everything. But it's fast bcome a bit of a red headed step child. There have been no dedicated AAA titles for it at all. All its best games are either wii ports or where its its an alternative to the pad.
only_777 on 25 Nov '11 said:
I think that Sony knew that motion control would be a bit of a fad and didn't throw much money at it. MS truly believed that Kinect would be the next big thing and are paying a bit for it now (just because of the amount of money they put behind it in terms of advertising and the such). Sony got their slice of the half eaten pie and didn't go all out which seems to of worked out from a business/profit stand point.
Wozzakl on 25 Nov '11 said:
Move's crap 'cos Sony haven't supported it. Kinect is crap 'cos it's only good for dance and fitness games.
Toasted_PSP on 25 Nov '11 said:
I don't own either Move or Kinect and don't have any intentions of buying either any time soon.
The only thing that Move has over Kinect for me is that I am slowly building a collection of Move games, I own about 5move games already. Which I guess is been played out in the sales numbers, move is a slow burner and as people get more and more move games it seem worthy of a gamble to buy the hardware as you already have a lot of software.