Xbox Gaming in South Africa

UK retailer Play.com has revealed Kinect's technical specifications (via Kotaku), and there's a bit of a nasty surprise in there - while the camera can track six people simultaneously, it can only manage two active players at any one time. They kept that quiet.

Anyway, the full spec list then:

Sensor
Colour and depth-sensing lenses
Voice microphone array
Tilt motor for sensor adjustment
Fully compatible with existing Xbox 360 consoles

Field of View
Horizontal field of view: 57 degrees
Vertical field of view: 43 degrees
Physical tilt range: ± 27 degrees
Depth sensor range: 1.2m - 3.5m

Data Streams
320x240 16-bit depth @ 30 frames/sec
640x480 32-bit colour@ 30 frames/sec
16-bit audio @ 16 kHz

Skeletal Tracking System
Tracks up to 6 people, including 2 active players
Tracks 20 joints per active player
Ability to map active players to LIVE Avatars

Audio System
LIVE party chat and in-game voice chat (requires Xbox LIVE Gold Membership)
Echo cancellation system enhances voice input
Speech recognition in multiple

Meanwhile, over at Electronic Theatre, the retail package has been, er, unpacked - and in addition to including the device itself, sources say that the motion controller will include a power supply (for those without the new Xbox 360 S), a wi-fi extension cable, an instruction manual, and an as-yet unspecified game. We're guessing that would be something like Kinect Adventures.

Kinect is set to launch world wide in November, with a South African date is still to be confirmed.