Kinect: Black Friday’s must have gaming accessory

This Black Friday we spent our time nursing a hangover and calling retailers searching for the hottest gaming accessories.  What we found was not surprising.  Near days end, 90% of the stores we contacted to purchase Microsoft’s Kinect told us that they were sold out, and no time estimate was given as to when they would be restocked.

We called the likes of Gamestop, Walmart, K-Mart, Target, Best Buy, Fry’s, Sears, and Radio Shack in many of the suburban areas of the most populous American cities:  Chicago, Denver, New York, Miami, New Orleans, Houston, Phoenix, Seattle, Los Angeles, and Washington D.C. .

Kinect’s marketing is placing it squarely in the eye of the consumer as the “must have” item this holiday season, and is becoming more scarce as the road towards Christmas wears on.  Xbox head Don Mattrick stated in a recent interview that it would be difficult to find Kinect this holiday and it looks like he wasn’t lying.  Contrary to the Kinect, we also inquired about PlayStation’s Move motion controller and an alarming 70% of retailers had the item in stock and ready to either order or pickup.

This small survey did not take into account all pieces of the PlayStation Move and whether a full Move setup was available at time of the inquiries.   Obviously these are not official numbers but it gave us a clearer picture of the actual availability to the average consumer.