It should make perfect business sense that if you cannot shift copies of a Kinect game, then why exclude gamers with controllers. Talking to Gi.biz, Microsoft have confirmed that there are indeed games in development that will allow hybrid use of the Kinect camera and a traditional controller...

Does this mean that Kinectimals achievements could eventually be unlocked by a controller? The interview unfortunately doesn't go that far and if "we" know Microsoft, highly unlikely. Hybrid to Microsoft means - like in Harry Potter Deathly Hallows - four or five achievements requiring Kinect, the rest require a controller. Being achievement freaks you are all, this is Microsoft's way of selling you a unit.

However, before you are too disheartened and resigned to the fact you may need to get a Kinect unit to get the full 1000 points on some games, let us put the Kinect "phenomena" into a realistic forecast. Early indications have shown that it has not sold out and the around the block queues that Microsoft were expecting, not happening. Sure it has only been 72 hours but it is doesn't take a genius to work out that they could be hard pressed to make the 5 million estimated sales by Christmas.

If a Kinect title doesn't sell as expected after a year or so, what does the developer do? Push it onto another platform which costs a lot of money or update the title that will allow the game play and achievements to be unlocked via a traditional controller. I know if I were a developer, I would want to sneakily add that function. It is called hedging your bets on a new uncharted technology. Whether Microsoft would allow it, is a different tune altogether.

It will at least be a whole year before we fully appreciate of how successful Kinect will be. I absolutely love the technology behind it and understand exactly what Microsoft are attempting to do, but any smart business forecaster knows, they are third out of the gate. If it doesn't sell well in the first quarter, they will dress it up with more features and shovel out more easy titles. The real test will come when some of the more hardcore titles appear mid next year. 

Bear in mind Kinect would have completely fail on a mother grand scale before Microsoft abandon the feature. If you think Microsoft would never abandon a feature, think Kin phones, HD DVD drive, 1 vs 100 and Vista. Lets not forget also the brown Zune. Who wanted a brown bit of tech? My fantasy is of course that Kinect fails and a whole lot of Kinect titles go bargain bin cheap for easy achievements. 

One last thought. When you are playing with a controller, do you feel that it is there? I know when I  am immersed fully into a game, I forget I am holding a controller. I call it Ghetto Kinect.