Kinect ‘day one sell out guaranteed’

The first day’s stock is all gone, but Microsoft says Kinect won’t be in short supply too much in the following weeks.

Speaking to MCV this week Xbox’s GM for UK & Ireland Neil Thompson said a ‘healthy’ amount of Kinect stock is heading to the UK for week one.

Consistent supplies thereafter mean the firm will have sold ‘hundreds and hundreds of thousands’ of the device by year’s end.

In terms of allocation I can’t meet the demand every single retailer has of me for day one,” he said. But I do think we have what I would call a healthy launch volume for week one.

And more importantly, as we go through the Christmas season as a whole I feel very confident that all retailers will enjoy the sales opportunity that Kinect will bring.

We are going to see hundreds and hundreds of thousands of Kinect in families’ hands this Christmas and retail will have a really good season on the platform.”

Last week GAME, Asda, Blockbuster, Amazon and Play all said their pre-order allocations were gone.

We are seeing phenomenal consumer demand and are really excited about the reaction,” commented Thompson. The pre-orders retailers have reported have shown that we have captured people’s imagination.

When we launch new products people always ask ‘are you going to have enough product?’ but in some ways, you hope not – because if we haven’t got the consumer demand you clearly aren’t being successful.

The important thing to focus on is: are going to satisfy consumers over the Christmas period? And the answer is that we are doing everything in our power to ensure our supply chain can do it. We are working night and day to
push the supply and make sure consumers can take advantage of what Kinect offers.

Kinect will be the best selling product this Christmas.”