Ballmer: "Xbox isn't a gaming console"

Microsoft mega-boss Steve Ballmer has told USA Today that he believes Xbox 360 isn't a videogaming machine.

"Xbox isn't a gaming console," he said. "Xbox is a 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 also claimed that 360 and Kinect are the must-have products currently available.

"If you want to know where is the consumer heat, the things that people want to get their hands on, it's Xbox and Xbox Kinect," he said.

"I think about my own family. My wife used to say, 'No, no, that's the machine the boys use,' and now she says, 'Yeah, I want to go watch movies. Let's go play the dance game.'

"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 went on to say that he sees Kinect as a major draw for the female audience.

"You go to your average 15-year-old boy, and he will say, 'I'll take an Xbox.' 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," he said.

Microsoft announced at CES earlier this month that it had shipped more than 8 million Kinect units in the motion sensor's first 60 days at retail.