Microsoft Xbox’s Kinect add-on draws Chinese players

Sales of Microsoft Corp's Xbox 360 have been overtaking Nintendo Co's popular Wii in Beijing's games console market, mainly boosted by its motion-sensing Kinect controller.

Kinect, launched on Nov 4 as an add-on for Microsoft's Xbox 360 console, has seen its sales surge after it hit the gray market in China two weeks after its official launch.

"When Kinect arrived in November, few customers asked about Wii or Sony's PlayStation 3," says Zhuang Xiaoxiang, a seller at a game console shop in the Gulou area of Beijing, a major market for such products.

He says that at the time the shop was selling as many as seven Xbox Kinect bundles, priced at 2,650 yuan (294 euros) each, and three Kinect devices at 1,250 yuan each every day.

Zhao Chungu, a game console shop owner in Gulou, says the situation in his shop was similar. He sold about 130 Kinect devices through his online shop in two months and even more at his Gulou shop.

Kinect, which enables players to control games through the movement of their bodies with motion-detecting cameras and microphones, is Microsoft's latest effort to make more money from the game console market and extend the product life of its Xbox 360 console.

Microsoft said last month that it shipped more than 8 million Kinect sensors, which exceeded its forecast. The company, like others, however, did not officially release its game consoles or other accessories in China as the government bans import of this kind.

However, Wii is still popular among users who are more sensitive to prices because the consoles are priced at about 1,300 yuan and are easy to play, according to Xu Dong, a seller at game console chain store TGBus in Beijing's largest electronics trading market, Zhongguancun.

Wii used to be the shop's bestseller but have been recently overtaken by Xbox and PlayStation 3, Xu says.

Nintendo's Wii enjoyed worldwide success after it was launched in 2006 with its pioneering motion-sensitive controller. Microsoft and Sony adopted similar approaches with the release of PlayStation Move and Xbox 360's Kinect last year.

"Microsoft is in talks with the Chinese government over Xbox and Kinect's official entry to the country and we hope the devices can come to China as soon as possible," says Zeng Liang, vice-president of Microsoft China operations.

Nintendo sold 3.57 million Wii consoles in the United States in November and December, while Microsoft sold 3.27 million Xbox consoles over the same period because of short supply of the product, the two companies said, citing figures from researcher NPD Group Inc.

Tuo Yannan contributed to the story.