Kinect playable demo units now at Microsoft Stores

by Alexander Sliwinski on Jun 25th 2010 1:30PM

The Microsoft Store's official Twitter account is inviting folks to try Kinect at its stores "nationwide," which sounds a lot more impressive before the realization hits that there are only four locations in the entire country. The MS Twitter account also notes that Kinectimals will be shown off this weekend.

Anyway, if you live near one of the four stores found in the western part of the continent, go check out the new tech that'll be available this November. If you don't live close to a store, save that gas money until we get an idea of how much Kinect will actually cost.

Via: 1UP
Source: @MicrosoftStore

Tags: kinect, microsoft, microsoft-store, xbox

Reader Comments (49)

Only four, and they seem to avoid major cities. No LA or NYC. Boo.

@sigma8 NY and LA get everyone's attention 99% of the time for pretty much everything.

Don't act so victimized. ;)

@sigma8 They have 2 in CA, you have NO right to complain. They got 0 in Illinois....Chicago....

@sigma8
Why would you boo that they're not in LA or NYC? Are you in both?

@Ezio Auditore da Firenze
I'm not in (or even particularly near) NYC or LA myself, but the reason people put stuff there is because they get the travel traffic. I pass through NY or LA a lot more than San Diego..

I mean, I like San Diego ten times better than either of those places, but San Diego is an end-destination, not a middle destination. People go to San Diego because they want to. They go to (or pass through) NY/LA because they have to.

@(Unverified)
As I just mentioned, I'm in neither. But due to travel connections and necessity, I pass through them occasionally. The fact that the other "99%" is there tends to act as a magnet.

@(Unverified)
Man I hear you. I was complaining there's not more. Chicago and Austin or Dallas should have one too. I like how I'm downvoted for complaining they don't have more of these stores in the types of cities where tons of people will see them lol.

@sigma8 Not quite sure why we ended up here with one in the Sandy Eggs, but I'm still not compelled at all to truck inland to the mall to check it out :(

I'll probably go to a MS store on a semi-regular basis if they ever get one in Fresno.

At first, I was thinking "They have Microsoft stores?", then they cleared it up for me later on. If anything they should demo this at Best Buy...Gamestop stores are so small, they'd just be asking for trouble, but Best Buy could work.

Hopefully the units heading for other retailers won't lag behind.

/wink

Eh I'm over that the East Coast so this new article means dingus to me.

@shimrra74

Exactly. Seeing as it took as how many years to get a gaming expo here (PAX East)....

@FlawedLogicXIII
If it's any consolation, it's just a store. It's not even a gaming-centric store. If you go in there, they probably surround you and try to get you to buy Windows 7. Maybe do some singing and dancing.
http://www.i4u.com/article28470.html

Definitely not as cool as getting a huge con that you like setting up residence in your hometown! Woo PAX east!

I live in San Diego.

Good for me.

@pButter Just saw in the UT a few days ago they opened one, although I can't imagine going there just to check it out even though it's not that far.

Engadget had a nice demo from their show, complete with that dude who always wears sunglasses.

@deedubbadoo
Horatio Caine ??

@deedubbadoo

Stevie Wonder?

@deedubbadoo

Blade?

@deedubbadoo

Fido?

@deedubbadoo

Johnny Cage?

@Mayor West

I just keep hitting F5 till it comes to me.

@deedubbadoo

kodu?

I wish there was an MS store nearby where I live - I'd go there just to see how well it works (not sure if I'd want to try to demo it in front of a bunch of other people though, haha).

I wish i could filter what i see, if its only in america i dont really care, it just makes me sad face :[

There is one near me, but I'll wait a while until it's less crowded. I'm sure it will be in Best Buy soon anyway.

@sigma8 They have 2 in CA, you have NO right to complain. They got 0 in Illinois....Chicago....

As much as I think Kinect is a neat idea, from what they've shown so far I'm not really excited or impressed. I have a Wii, which I never play, so I'll assume if I got Kinect I'd never use it. Until they have Kinect+Controller games, most specifically action games or FPS, then I will pass.

What really confuses me is the direction they're going. Aimed at kids (and females?) seems to be a really odd push since I'd say most people who bought an XBOX are not really into "river raft" or petting virtual animals. I actually own a real cat!

I could see if Kinect was it's own console or something but I can't see their target market going out and getting an XBOX plus Kinect. Very expensive, very risky.

Get some hardcore blockbuster games in there MS or you're going to have trouble selling these.

/not a fanboy, just a gamer

@xreadmore

I agree that it's aimed directly at the casual audience. However, I believe Microsoft is knowingly targeting people who have not bought an XBOX because they want to sell more consoles. I think that Microsoft has done well enough advertising that they will pull in a fair number of the casual audience.

Their use of Cirque and pop celebrities for advertising, as well as their focus on casual games almost exclusively, makes me want to throw up. But that doesn't mean that it won't work on their target audience. Just judging from Amazon preorders, it's not doing too bad.

@xreadmore
"Their use of... pop celebrities for advertising... makes me want to throw up."

So are you constantly vomiting every time you see any endorsement advertisement?

You should probably get that looked at.

Sure would be nice if there were some places east of CO to see if this device will be worth the awful price point that seems to be coming our way. I really have trouble with it's cost seeing the games that are being focused on right now.

AWSOME! I work in scottsdale and dont live to far away either..score for me.

Microsoft stores are in the oddest of locations. Would it kill them to put a store in a major city like San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, or New York?

I'll see if the wife needs anything from Park Meadows and make a run up to see... I'm now really curious to see how it really works,

They have Microsoft offices in Austin, TX. Let's see a store here, too!

I went to the opening of the San Diego store yesterday, it was actually really awesome.

@Johnny

I know your lurking. Come in here and tell everyone how much Move is going to succeed over Kinect. Please do. I want to hear more of it, I really do.

@el serpiente
You gotta agree with him though, Johnny has been on a roll with this issue.

@(Unverified)

As if "You bored dude?" isn't the same sort of childish baiting.

If Best Buy puts in some demo units in November, I'm gonna stand in front of it jumping up and down, waving my arms all around, flailing and start knocking stuff off the shelves until I am asked to stop.

@GordoJones88

Even without Kinect, it's pretty fun to do that anyway. Like in front of the microwaves or something. Try it out!

Only four locations? There is one about 15 minutes away from me so I assumed there were a lot more. I guess I'll go check it out.

Better to be in Microsoft stores than retail stores. Its a little annoying when I go to the video game section of Best Buy and see wandering kids playing Rock Band/Guitar Hero.

Nice

I'll get to try this up here in Canada in about 2 or 3 years I think.

Better mark my calendar

I just want to let everyone know that Kinect will have hardcore games. Right now Microsoft wants to make an initial push to grow their marketshare with the launch of Kinect. The easiest games to make that could be perfected as much as they could before launch are the family friendly party games. I am pretty sure they have some interesting titles coming up, but they need more time to make sure they stand up to the hardcore gamer's taste.

Actually it does makes sense to concentrate on easily created party games for the casuals since Kinect is not a very simple device to code for. This was stated by MS and developers.

MS wants to grow and expand their market and their aim actually has actually been very focus. look at their adverts and you see the family environment playing games together.

Look at all the media outlets MS has catered to like People Mag, Wall Street Journal, Jimmy Fallow, Today show and plenty more. These are places where you do not see Sony PS3 or the move getting any play and it's a very large casual market.

While Sony has played to the hardcore, they definitely have not marketed Move to the casual market which may end out keeping the device niche among it's own user-base.

I went out to the store over in Scottsdale and demo'd the Kinect, have a video up on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yg3HBwPlYTQ

Was a blast to get to see it and actually play it.

YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!

Kinect playable demo units now at Microsoft Stores

Reader Comments (49)

Posted: Jun 25th 2010 1:35PM sigma8 said

Posted: Jun 25th 2010 2:01PM Ezio Auditore da Firenze said

Posted: Jun 25th 2010 2:04PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jun 25th 2010 2:09PM adrunkamputee said

Posted: Jun 25th 2010 2:09PM sigma8 said

Posted: Jun 25th 2010 2:11PM sigma8 said

Posted: Jun 25th 2010 2:13PM sigma8 said

Posted: Jun 25th 2010 2:26PM MarkezJM said

Posted: Jun 25th 2010 1:36PM Sidebuster said

Posted: Jun 25th 2010 1:39PM Tab said

Posted: Jun 25th 2010 1:39PM Jenks said

Posted: Jun 25th 2010 1:44PM shimrra74 said

Posted: Jun 25th 2010 1:59PM FlawedLogicXIII said

Posted: Jun 25th 2010 2:24PM sigma8 said

Posted: Jun 25th 2010 1:46PM pButter said

Posted: Jun 25th 2010 2:19PM MarkezJM said

Posted: Jun 25th 2010 1:57PM deedubbadoo said

Posted: Jun 25th 2010 2:07PM oOWallaceOo said

Posted: Jun 25th 2010 2:18PM ComicShaman said

Posted: Jun 25th 2010 2:21PM LockeDaemonfire said

Posted: Jun 25th 2010 2:59PM Mayor West said

Posted: Jun 25th 2010 3:35PM stoneNboneCDXX said

Posted: Jun 25th 2010 3:57PM deedubbadoo said

Posted: Jun 25th 2010 5:06PM mynk said

Posted: Jun 25th 2010 2:00PM FredFredrickson said

Posted: Jun 25th 2010 2:01PM kooda said

Posted: Jun 25th 2010 2:01PM MarkcusD said

Posted: Jun 25th 2010 2:02PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jun 25th 2010 2:03PM xreadmore said

Posted: Jun 25th 2010 2:14PM LockeDaemonfire said

Posted: Jun 25th 2010 3:58PM Acosta02 said

Posted: Jun 25th 2010 2:04PM Duke said

Posted: Jun 25th 2010 2:07PM MonKENy said

Posted: Jun 25th 2010 2:18PM Starcade said

Posted: Jun 25th 2010 2:25PM Hunter2223 said

Posted: Jun 25th 2010 2:40PM Mystictrust said

Posted: Jun 25th 2010 2:53PM Headgear782 said

Posted: Jun 25th 2010 2:58PM leobebes said

Posted: Jun 25th 2010 3:46PM Duke said

Posted: Jun 25th 2010 7:04PM FredFredrickson said

Posted: Jun 25th 2010 3:15PM GordoJones88 said

Posted: Jun 25th 2010 4:10PM ComicShaman said

Posted: Jun 25th 2010 3:38PM RANDOM G Joystiq Troll Slayer said

Posted: Jun 25th 2010 4:37PM Lerkero said

Posted: Jun 25th 2010 4:55PM BoBsS said

Posted: Jun 25th 2010 5:00PM leobebes said

Posted: Jun 25th 2010 6:14PM Machiavellian79 said

Posted: Jun 27th 2010 5:00AM VidjaGamez said

Posted: Jun 27th 2010 2:08PM drnerd said

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