Image via CrunchBaseWave your arms, move your body, issue a command and voila! games happen.
Appropriately, the new $150 device began disappearing from store shelves as soon as it went on sale Thursday, as strong first-day sales helped boost forecasts for Kinect's holiday sales. Plugged into an Xbox 360, the Kinect sensor wirelessly tracks players' full-body movements, voices and faces.
Target (TGT) experienced "very strong pre-sales" for Kinect, selling out of the Kinect sensor and the 250-gigabyte Xbox 360-Kinect bundle ($400) at its online store, spokeswoman Tara Schlosser said.
Walmart.com(WMT) and its stores had Kinect on hand, but "there is going to be very high demand for these products," said the retailer's Ravi Jarawala. "We will continue to restock throughout the season."
Among games in the works:
•Kinectimals lets you train and play with 20 different virtual cats, including a lion, cheetah and tiger.
•Joyride, a racing game, lets players use their hands to hold an imaginary steering wheel — pull your hands toward you and push back out for an acceleration boost — and their bodies to execute jumps and tricks.
•Kinect Sports has six activities including boxing, bowling, beach volleyball, track and field, soccer and table tennis. To serve a volleyball, you mimic the real motion; in soccer, you can kick the ball or do a header.
•Kinect Adventures includes a river-raft time trial and obstacle course, playable by up to four players. On the raft, playing as a duo, you and a partner must lean one way or another to steer. Jumping helps the raft reach special areas for extra points.
•Dance Central, in development by MTV Games, incorporates immersive, full-body dancing without the need for a controller.
•Star Wars characters and iconic Disney favorites will be featured in separate new games being developed at Microsoft in conjunction with LucasArts and Disney.
"This is (Microsoft's) attempt to leapfrog the Wii and broaden the appeal of the Xbox," says Geoff Keighley of Spike's GameTrailers. "The questions are, 'Does the controller-free environment make (the Xbox 360) more accessible?' and 'Is it fun?' "
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