Microsoft sold 8 million Kinects in first two months
Microsoft sold more than eight million gesture-sensing Kinect controllers for Xbox 360 videogame consoles in just two months.
The tech giant's CEO, Steve Ballmer, revealed the figure in his keynote presentation at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. He said 2010 was the best year ever for Xbox 360.
More than 50 million Xbox 360 consoles have been sold worldwide, and Live membership has topped 30 million, according to Ballmer.
The Live network lets people play videogames with one another online, access websites such as Facebook, and download movies, music or other digital content.
Microsoft demoed the non-gaming aspects of Kinect, such as the ability to navigate the Xbox using gestures and voice commands. Users can use just their voice to find, play and pause music and video files.
"The Xbox is becoming the hub of your living room. It's your TV, it's your sporting events, your social interactions, all delivered to the biggest screen in your house," Ballmer said.
A new Xbox 360 feature called Avatar Kinect was announced, which uses the Kinect sensor to pick up the player's gestures and facial expressions, translating them onto the on-screen character in real-time. There is a chat program where players can interact with each other as 3D cartoon avatars.
"Everyone who uses Kinect knows it tracks your voice and body, but what about your face? It can track your smile, your eyebrows, your laugh," said Ballmer.
Ballmer boasted that Microsoft sold more than eight million Kinect devices in the 60 days after it hit the market in November.
Kinect lets people control on-screen action with body movements or spoken commands and is priced at $199.
Ballmer also used the keynote speech to extol smartphones running on freshly released Windows Phone 7 software.
He also highlighted the array of slick new computers on display at CES running on Microsoft's latest operating system.
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