What can I say about Oprah… the lady loves making housewives rip out high pitched squeals the likes of which their husbands could only have wished they were responsible for.
A short while back, Oprah featured the new Kinect system on her overly popular show, ending it off by dishing out a free Xbox 360 + Kinect bundle to every member of the audience.
Shortly after appearing on the show, pre-order sales for the Kinect went through the roof. More news after the errm… *cough*… jump.
JoystickDivision reports that Amazon.com saw a sales spike of a whopping 42% for standalone Kinect pre-orders after the hardware was seen on the show, putting it in the no.7 position for all video game sales on their charts.
The Kinect console bundles also saw jumps, with the 250GB bundle jumping 43% in sales and the 4GB with 67%.
It’s pretty insane to see what someone like Oprah with a popular television show and a truckload of influence, can do for a product. We don’t know for sure just yet, but seriously, for all we know, Oprah may be the very reason that Kinect becomes a success.
Michael Pachter has also come out and said that while Kinect will do well enough, Microsoft will need to win the hearts of their hardcore audience if they really want the hardware to succeed.[pullquote]Microsoft will need to win the hearts of their hardcore audience if they really want the hardware to succeed.[/pullquote]
I personally feel that Kinect may find its source of awesomeness a little while down the road. Someone will do something really great with it, and the game will change, almost literally. However, Microsoft are looking for a strong launch to ensure that they get as many of these bad boys into peoples houses as soon as possible, so that they can take over the world.
Speaking of which, isn’t it about time that Microsoft starts marketing the living crap out of Kinect in South Africa already? Anyone seen any ads, billboards?
Source: Joystick Division
Last Updated: October 28, 2010
bokka1
October 28, 2010 at 08:08
LOL. I love the pic.
I have only seen a bit of online marketing and in mags. If you don’t know what it is you won’t even take notice.
Ling
October 28, 2010 at 09:13
Yeah, I’ve seen a billboard right by the Microsoft offices on William Nicol. I dont think we’ll be seeing it on Top Billing!
easy
October 28, 2010 at 09:27
i thought kinect was to tap into the casual market? why would it then hinge on the uptake by the hardcore gamers?
makes no sense to me. two different markets with two different requirements. that’s why oprah endorsed kinect and not gears of war 3.
al360
October 28, 2010 at 09:55
seen the cardboard cutouts in shops otherwise that was it
i dunno MS supporters will buy it no matter what so i guess they banking on that mentality.
i on the other hand liked to be wooh’ed lokl
Bobby Kotick for Dummies
October 28, 2010 at 10:49
We’re a tiny market, with a small minority in the middle class who buy games, and even if they’re going after the causals, the vast majority of South Africans are dirt poor so.. there’s no need to go crazy on advertising in Africa. A few strategically placed cut-outs in shopping centres are all you really need.
Those that will buy it would be buying it regardless (Assious, Steve and the rest of the xbots). Those on the fence, will probably get it (most gamers), provided their fellow gamers are positive about it, and those with no intention to get it, won’t be swayed, and not even by Oprah (lans).
Bobby Kotick for Dummies
October 28, 2010 at 11:53
Lol, found this little nugget on N4G:
MS and Hardcore gamer conversion (2010)
Hardcore Gamer: Yo, MS where you going bro?
MS: I’m going to go play with your mom from now on.
Hardcore Gamer: Dude? But why?
MS: More of them than you…K…Bye
:biggrin:
Ndibu
October 28, 2010 at 14:21
Seems to me thats Disciples of the Church of Sony (or DiCS) are more concerned about Kinect and kinect sales data than even the xbots…strange aint it?
M@GE
October 28, 2010 at 16:54
haha lol good one Ndibu :biggrin:
Bobby Kotick for Dummies
October 28, 2010 at 17:11
Strange that the Disciples of the Church of Microsoft (or DicCHUMS) are not. For all their bravado and cries of being ‘core gamers, they’re not in the least bit concerned that 2011 will see NO exclusives for the box (apart from Gears) or that Microsoft is on the verge of dropping them for a potentially far more lucrative market (Hi Soccermoms!).
“Oh but Nintendo…WAAAAAAH”
Cry more fanboi. Nintendo has always been casual gamer friendly or keen to market itself to a younger audience (look at the game line up for the 64, the gamecube, the wii and even the older systems like the SNES 8bit and 16bit). I suppose that’s what made them so endearing.
Nick de Bruyne
October 28, 2010 at 18:14
I don’t care much for exclusives if there are great multiplats coming
Ndibu
October 28, 2010 at 18:57
Nice try bobby, but that was brutally lame.
I’m guessing that Haunt
Codename D
Project Draco
Steel Battalion
Rise of Nightmare
Gun Loco
Codename Kingdoms(crytek exclusive baby)
All slipped your mind then? That’s 7 brand new IP’s, 6 if you exclude Steel Battalion.
And what about Remedy’s unannounced exclusive that we read about just a couple of days ago? That slip your mind too? Oh yeah, totally right, xbox 360 has no games and is totally doomed.
Ps, DicCHUMS? come on guy, you’re not even trying!
lans
October 28, 2010 at 20:29
Ndibu will you actually play those games?
coz when we mention ps3 games we talking about AAA games
Codename Kingdoms is having numerous development problems and will be lucky to see a 2011 release date thanks to xbox live
Gun Loco is made by Square enix, so its not worth mentioning
the rest of those games don’t seem high profile at all
would you buy project draco or little big planet
would you buy Gun Loco or Killzone 3/Resistance 3?
would you buy rise of nightmare or final fantasy 13 versus?
would you buy Project Draco or the Last Guardian?
plus you still have
Motorstorm Apocolypse
Infamous 2
All AAA titles
Microsoft AAA title are all gonna be on Kinect which no one knows enough info yet, just accept it, they gone casual, the only AAA game you guys got next year is gears of war
lans
October 28, 2010 at 20:35
for the ignorant
AAA means
AAA game means games that have almost unlimited budgets and are media events. Blizzard is the AAA game company these days. They won’t release anything that doesnt fall under AAA.
AAA these days also means a high profile game that will get over 89% on metacritic
Nick de Bruyne
October 28, 2010 at 21:19
I do believe Lans has a point, those titles you supplied as exclusives won’t do much to excite anyone who is a core gamer at all
Luna
October 28, 2010 at 23:00
The way I see it, easy, is that hardcore gamers want to know about everything. It hinges on the hardcore because the casual market will turn it into another Wii, where the momentum doesn’t stay.
But the biggest market it all is getting casual AND hardcore into it and wanting one. If they can do that, they have a sustainable business with this device, and a good future.
There aren’t any games I’m interested in on Kinect yet, but I am hoping they get something that spikes my interest. The tech itself is awesome, the uses are only potential, as I personally see it.
Salty Snacks
October 28, 2010 at 23:18
Exactly Ians, I think from a PS3 perspective we take it for granted that our exclusives are generally AAA, whereas in xboxland the same can’t be said.
Gavin Mannion
October 29, 2010 at 04:07
Just because a game has a massive budget and is a media event doesn’t mean it will get over 89% on metacritic or that it’s a AAA title.
There is no set definition for a AAA title but basically I see them as platform leading titles or sequels to massive titles like Halo, Killzone, GT etc
easy
October 29, 2010 at 06:59
i do agree with with you, but effective marketing relies heavily on a specific target. gone are the days when marketers based there products/services on the lsm model and the four p’s of advertising.
modern marketing is about manufacturing markets, or rather creating an lsm group. where this gets complicated when they try to widen the scope of their proposed market.
in this case, the casual and hardcore markets do not mix due to the inherent differences in their respective needs. plus both groups mingle in different media channels, so even if the hardcore group took up kinect, it would not effectively filter through to the casual market.
another thing to keep in mind, is that the casual market is probably way bigger than the traditional gamer’s market. ms needs to initially focus on the broadest group, then focus on the software/game requirements of the hardcore chaps.
then again ms have some very clever people working for them, so they should know what they doing.
Luna
October 29, 2010 at 07:05
easy, a very intelligent reply, and I agree with pretty much all of it. ^_^ But yeah, they basically need to start somewhere, and they chose casual. They have a ton of hardcore players now, time to bring in the other side. Hopefully the next step is to provide some better Kinect games for the hardcore, and they’ll have a hit.
Syth
October 29, 2010 at 07:51
Dude, the Wii has My Little Pony as a exclusive and, like the “exclusives” you’ve mentioned, nobody gives a rat’s ass.