Microsoft to launch Xbox Kinect in Nov

Ask seven-year-old twins Aarush and Aayush Ambasht about their most precious possession and pat come the reply: PlayStation 2, a gaming console that is three years older than the twins living in Mumbai.

Sony PlayStation 2, which trails more advanced gadgets such as Nintendo Wii, Microsoft Xbox and PlayStation 3 in most of the world, still accounts for more than half of the 580-crore console gaming market in India as it sells at less than half the price of smarter devices.

But things may change. Console makers are counting on the ever-growing purchasing power of the Indian consumer, increasing use of consoles among grown-ups and a couple of exciting new products that allow users to control on-screen action with movement to push demand for new-generation games.

Microsoft will launch its Xbox Kinect console worldwide in November and Sony will roll out PlayStation Move in September. While the Move will have a controller to create an experience, Kinect users will control the game with their body, nothing else.

The console gaming market in the country is expected to grow an average 19% a year to more than `1,100 crore by 2014, according to a recent report by industry body Ficci and research firm KPMG that cited increasing disposable incomes and favourable demographics as reasons.

This is a rather conservative estimate as the market has been growing 40-50% since Sony officially launched PS2 in the country in 2006, six years after its global release.

Source: Times of india Aug 17, 2010, 02.43pm IST