Microsoft to spend $500M on Kinect marketing - Report

MS invested WAYY to much money in kinect, it looks alright, but its not really for me, give me a controller anytime!!

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MS doesn't realize that parents didn't buy their kids a Wii just for the motion-control, but because it's NINTENDO!!! You know, the name that's synonymous with Disney and Nick, Jr, because it's a brand for kids, and it's the name that parents trust. Move and Kinect will be epic failures, more so the Kinect due to the ridiculous amount of money that MS is investing.

Give me the $500 million and I will embrace it like a mofo!!! :)

holly crap ms got money to burn,if only they could invest in new exclusives maybe something with less shooting

Umm the PS3 move system has sold over 1 million already, so I'm not sure where GunGriffin gets his info...

BTW for people screaming that Microsoft dropped the core: Try to find info on the fallowing exclusive titles for both Kinect and non Kinect games: Non Kinect games: XCOM rated M Codename Kingdoms Rated M from Crytek

It's more then Sony is going to spend on PS Move it's already flopped hard in the market place it only sold 12 thousond units world wide, and then it stopped and has slowed down to a crawl mean while Microsoft is getting it's killer adds ready to roll for Kinect to show the actual games, and poeple having fun with the hardware. Instead of doing this Sony opted to openly attack it's compettitors with an 80s Mac styled add of "Only cool people buy our prodcuts! Get PS Move if you want to be cool!" But the people in the market for these items saw that coming a mile away and nobody likes to buy stuff for kids when it's adds are nothing but boasts about how you suck if you don't own our gear crap. The reason Kevin butler was great for selling PS3 hardcore games is they sold the fact that they were fun, and creative to play, but instead of more of that they fell back on the old they suck, we rock add stuff Sony used for the PS2 camras, and HDDs and we all know how badly that turned out.

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@digi-demon well if the kinect is downgraded, then the E3 demonstration was not really truthful. You would expect that that kinect is capable of everything that it showed. It would be a bummer if after purchase it would be otherwise.

True hardcore gamers shouldn't feel threatened by Kinect but learn to embrace it. I can honestly say that I'm a true hardcore gamer but the term seems to mean less today than it did during the earlier console generations---importing games, collecting games and consoles, weird but fun games. Hardcore gamers play a little bit of everything not just FPS, War Sims, or sports games. We realize that we set the standard for the new and unique, otherwise there would be no FPS on consoles if not for us---many computer junkies said it couldn't be done. MS is investing in Kinect because it believes in it and the possibilities that can come with Kinect in the future. Think about how little it pushed the HD-Dvd add-on and how much it's pushing Kinect. It has to believe in it a great deal. I don't think that it's planning to let Kinect fail, nor is MS planning to cut back on controller based games for gamers who prefer them. MS is just offering something new to gamers who wish to explore every avenue of gaming. To be honest, that's what true gaming is all about, not just being a couch potato or a whiner. I agree, the current line-up isn't all that great but I'm eager to see what things will be like this time next year when developers have had more time.

@ejay_kain And your point is?...... @Heshertonfist I heard wrapping a giant lemon in gold foil is pretty expensive! - lol. ... I mean, just ask Sony about the original FAT PS3 and im sure they will explain it to you...

Maybe they should have spent it on Natals product development and provide a decent add-on - then they wouldn't need to waste all that ca$h on naff advertising as a good product sells itself... As a 'day one' Wii owner - IMO Sony Move / Natal are uninspiring pale imitations - blatant motion control cash cow 'rip-offs' :(

that is a HUGE amount of money, even for moneybags Microsoft to spend on a marekting campaign. If Kinect fails, this will be a big black mark on the Xbox 360s progress.

casual gamers....

maybe if the 360 didn't freeze so much more people would get it

It feels like MS is leaving the hardcore audience in the dust, name me one fully exclusive hardcore game aside from Forza 4 and gears 3 next year...

The problem is with not Kinect as hardware. The real problem is the lack of any software that really takes advantage of it.

I like how M$ advertises Kinect like its the first attempt at controller free gaming. Its funny, because we gamers know thats not true, so it's obvious they are marketing Kinect to casual gamers who know little or nothing about the gaming industry. Theyre the only ones that will believe M$. To me, its a waste of money for basically a menu browser because it has no good games for it. Whats the point of a menu browser anyway if your a gamer, either way you got to get your lazy arse off the couch to grab a controller to play your halo? So, I dont understand the point!

hopefully it'll be worth it. Thats a large investment into something that isnt entirely granted a sucess unlike the COD games for instance.

Pay me $500 million and I'll buy it.

It's obviously marketed towards the casual crowd. 300 bucks seems a bit high for being able to pet virtual tigers. If you could strangle them and cook their heads, I might consider it.

i have read on a dutch website http://www.nu.nl/games/2310258/kinect-krijgt-slechtere-camera-wegens-kosten.html, that the kinect device will have another lens then showed on demo's. The lens will not recognize sign language and will only read your arms and legs positioning. This all to cut expenses. Also the resolution will be downgraded from 640x480 to 320x240. Is this true???? Or just a stupid rumor.

Microsoft will probably sell Kinect for $100 to retail. They'll need to sell 5,000,000 to offset marketing. Another 3 million to balance research and development. / That's such a risky product

Id get it if I had that kind of spare change lol

So, it's the same thing as the eyetoy, but $100 more. Seems like a deal to me.

What kind of marketing costs that much?

Thats some expensive Eye-Toy right there. Its official , Xbox360 is the last console we will see from M$ , good riddance ; you wont be missed.

@ Gelugon_baat You must have missed the last time they did this. It was reported that Starcraft II was made with 200 million (or 100 I don't remember) but it turned out to be false. Shortly after Blizzard denied that money figure.

well i am just waiting on nov 4th to get my hands on mine. just gonna wait and buy a game when they start having better games for it. i am just looking forward to using it on the dashboard.

Microsoft has been more successful with it's marketing than it has with it's actual hardware. So it comes as no surprise that marketing is how they plan to sell Kinect. Microsoft has had some really clever marketing and it will likely bring in more sales than Kinect actually deserves. Conversely the marketing for Kinect will raise awareness of the Playstation Move simply by association. If Sony plays their cards right, they could benefit well from Microsoft's investment.

And at the high price of $150 for a standalone Kinect, will all the $500,000,000 spent on advertising it be made back...in fact they need to sell around 3,400,000 of kinect to make a decent amount of profit on it now The technology is cool, but i prefer to sit on my arse and play Mass Effect 2, if i want to move around, i go outside and play football... it works out cheaper for me that way

Although I admire the fact that this wasn't a direct Wii copy (MOVE) I still feel that playing without any controller will just make anyone look like an idiot. I could be wrong but regardless I wont be buying Kinect

The $500 million advertising budget could have been well spend on making new IPs or putting the money in R&D for the next xbox. I seriously dont know how Kinect will fare in terms of sales. I can bet that some of the budget went to Justin Beiber for promoting Kinect on his stupid music videos.

@ mattcake You can't really blame them for pushing it out first. It's what Microsoft did with the 360 and a reason many people believe why Microsoft is ahead in console sales.

@ Tarfang2 Are you kidding me windows 7 phones? No one is buying that crap. People are getting an Android or the Iphone plus. Maybe they can steal away from loyal black berry customers.

Uhh, uhuh, hmm, Microsoft, are you sure that's a good idea? Why not save that money for next gen?

I guess Sony's marketing chief was correct when he said "We will never outspend Microsoft on anything" :P

to be honest microsoft can spend 500m on kinect as kinect will sell enough to cover that and the kickass windows phone 7s are out

It's a shame Sony pushed the Move out too early with hardly any software support just to beat Kinect to the market, because Move has far more potential for the non-casual gamer but its in danger of being ignored with the near-non existant advertising it received. Kinect has much better tech and allows many more interesting applications, but for actually playing a decent non-casual game I think this first generation of it will be too glitchy and laggy for most gamers.

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That's too much for such a risky product. M$ have not been making the smartest of business decisions lately.

@JPH85 Yeah well I should have said that I consider a few million to be >$1 mil.

I have no interest and don't see myself ever having an interest in this sort of "gaming".

The Kinect seems amazing, but I haven't seen a single game that interests me yet. I hope the future is brighter for Kinect. (not that it won't sell, though, it's completely aimed at competing with the Wii)

You come on gamespot and hear people going this is gonna fail and when will this motion gaming fad die... Well it probably wont for the next 10 years or so, Kinect is a huge leap forward from the motion control things we have today I still remember all the people hating on the Wii which is funny cause it has sold more then the 360 and the PS3 combined hahaha called it a gimmick but if i was a investor i sure as hell wouldnt be putting my money anywhere near the 360 or the PS3, This article also failed to metion that the Kinect will be on Oprah which will be another huge promotion, sometimes i think people on here are just plain stupid, This will succed ive already stated that on gamespot comment forums before that the Kinect will hit 5 million in sales by feb. and i also said that MS would put tons of money into Kinect and i always got thumbs down so hey thumbs me down again idc ill be back in feb. to tell you all to look at he sales of the Kinect cause people this is a microsoft (marketing team) that outsold the PS3 by a semi large margin when really the PS3 is a better overall system

Good for them. I'm still not buying one. :)

Must be nice to be so vested financially that you can dump a half a billion dollars to promote a video game system add-on LOL. I doubt Nintendo has spent that much advertising the Wii between the day of it's announcement and present day. Shouldn't be a shock that Microsoft did this; remember, this is the same company that drops millions of dollars to secure exclusive rights to products for a limited amount of time. They must be really banking on that 10 million sales point for Kinect; it'll take them selling almost 3.5 million just to make back the advertisement money. Sad thing is, it's probably gonna end up paying off LOL.

Good lord. I can't believe they are going to waste that much money. I don't even think the system will sell that well to be honest, it just seems like another Wii situation, because pro gamers don't wanna have a system like this, this'll only really be for children from my opinion.

Meanwhile... In Africa... Starving children continue to hate M$