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Analyst: Kinect sales already higher than Move

Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter has determined that Microsoft's Kinect platform is outselling Sony's PlayStation Move controller, despite the Move's head start.

Don Reisinger
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The Kinect is now outselling the PlayStation Move, analyst Michael Pachter says.
The Kinect is now outselling the PlayStation Move, analyst Michael Pachter says. Microsoft

So much for the PlayStation Move's sales lead over the Kinect.

Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter released a note yesterday saying Microsoft has sold more units of its motion-control device, Kinect, than Sony has sold PlayStation Move units, even though the Move launched weeks earlier.

"The higher-priced Kinect controller appears to have overtaken the Move controller in the sales races, with sales about even notwithstanding Move's six-week head start in the marketplace," Pachter wrote in a research note to clients.

Pachter came to that conclusion by analyzing information offered up recently by both Sony and Microsoft.

Earlier this week, Sony said that it sold 4.1 million Move units through November since its motion controller's launch back in September. The company later clarified that its sales were those made to retailers and not to consumers. It wouldn't divulge how many units were actually sold to consumers so far.

However, using that figure, Pachter estimates that Sony has sold approximately 2.5 million Move units to consumers since the device's launch. That figure matches Microsoft's own announcement this week, claiming it sold 2.5 million Kinect units to consumers in the device's first 25 days of availability. The motion-gaming peripheral launched on November 4 in North America.

Based on his contention that sales were even at the end of November, and considering Microsoft's sales pace is far more rapid that Sony's, Pachter believes Kinect is now outselling the Move. And through the rest of the year, that trend will likely continue. In fact, Pachter believes Microsoft will hit its Kinect sales target of 5 million units sold. He believes Sony will sell a total of 3 million Move units by the end of the year.

The latest data Pachter presents follows what analysts, including Pachter, have been saying for quite some time.

In an interview with CNET last month, Pachter said that he fully believed that Kinect would hit the 5 million sales mark by the end of the year. He said that he thought Sony would sell 3 million PlayStation Move units by the end of 2010, but it was "possible" for the company to sell 3.5 million Move units with "a pickup in advertising."

Neither Sony nor Microsoft immediately responded to a request for comment.