CHIPS: Kinect Won’t Boost Xbox 360’s Hardware Sales

Don McCabe, manager of UK independant retailer CHIPS, feels Kinect won’t boost the Xbox 360’s hardware sales.

“In some ways Microsoft has missed the boat,” he told GamesIndustry.biz. “Over the last two years the casual market has been declining rapidly.”

“I don’t think it’s going to add any new hardware sales. I spotted in their last response to a survey, they said it would lift hardware sales by 5 to 15 percent.

“I think that’s bollocks,” he continued. “You lift it by one or two per cent and you’ve had a result.”

McCabe feels that Kinec’s £130 price tag is very high, particulary when pitted against the Wii. He feels no one’s bothered about MS’ upcoming motion sensing camera anyway.

“The pricing is immature to a certain degree. Consumers see it as just a catch-up with the Wii, but they don’t see it as much of an improvement.

“When you see a new hardware product or a new peripheral, you normally see quite a response from the public. We’re not seeing that, they’re completely underwhelmed by it, really.”

McCabe feels Microsoft are just testing new water for upcoming generations. If the Kinect works out, nothing like it. If it doesn’t, “we’ll still intergrate it in the next machine.” He says Kinect is nothing more than a medium to get more people signed up to Xbox Live.

But what if Kinect DOES sell? “From our point of view, the more Microsoft things that are out there the better, because it’s one of those things that people will buy, play it for a short time then trade it back in. So I think we’ll make a good trade-in market on it,” said McCabe.

Your thoughts? Tell us in your comments.

[Eurogamer]