Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer wants you to know that the Xbox 360 “isn’t a gaming console.” Rather, Ballmer believes the 360 – along with Kinect – acts as a complete family entertainment center.
“It’s a place to socialize. It’s a place to watch TV. We have Hulu coming. It’s the only system where you are the controller. Your voice, your gestures, your body,” Ballmer told USA Today in a recent interview.
“If you want to know where is the consumer heat, the things that people want to get their hands on, it’s Xbox and Kinect.”
Ballmer also claimed that his own wife viewed the 360 as an entertainment hub, rather than just a gaming machine for their children.
“It opens up accessibility to family entertainment because with the Kinect, you control these systems with your body, with your voice.
“We’ve opened up the world of content in TV, movies. You just sit there and say ‘Xbox’ or ‘play movie.'”
Ballmer added that the Kinect was designed to be gender agnostic, and therefore appeals to a large demographic swathe. Er, can anyone say Wii?
“You go to your average 15-year-old boy, and he will say, ‘I’ll take an Xbox.’
“[So], I want that average 15-year-old girl as excited about the Kinect, and we haven’t done as good a job drawing in that broader set of demographics.” [[Kinect]]
