NEW YORK -- Microsoft launched the Kinect for Xbox 360 to great fanfare in Times Square in New York City with a big street party starting at 6pm ET. Microsoft pulled out all the stops with a big concert right in the middle of Times Sauare complete with 600 street dancers dancing to MTV Games' Dance Centrral for Kinect and a concert by Grammy-award winning hip-hop music artist Ne-Yo.  Some of the celebs in attendance included Garcelle Beauvais, Jennifer Grey, “Zoey 101” star Chris Massey, Sarah Chalke and lots more.

Microsoft Kinect shipped at midnight on November 4th and thousands lined up at the Toys R'Us in Times Square to be the first one to get one. The first 3000 got two free games, "Kinect Sports" and "Kinect Joy Ride" and plus a one year Xbox Live Gold membership for waiting in line, a $160 value. People started lining up Monday at 7:00am in front of the Toys R'Us for the chance to be the first to get one. Around the country, retailers like GameStop threw Kinect launch parties at midnight with thousands more lining up early at those stores to get one on luanch day.Peter Gonzalez from New York was the first in line and camped out in front of the store for two days. "I didn't think I was going to be the first one but I knew if I came early, there was a good possibility I was going to be the first one. I camped out for 2 nights on the cold hard floor," said Gonzalez "I've waited over two years for Kinect since it was Project Natal," he added.

Previously known as Project Natal, Microsoft announced Kinect at E3 2009, hoping to unseat Nintendo Wii and its WiiMote as the new controller of choice for casual gaming. Sony also came out with the Move for Playstation a few months ago. However, unlike the two other controllers, Microsoft's Kinect uses a person's whole body as a controller rather than hand gestures and movements making it unique plus there will probably be less broken TVs, an early problem with the WiiMote as people inadvertently would throw the controller into their TVs if they played too wildly. Microsoft upped their sales estimate from 3 million units to 5 million units in its earnings call last week and anticipates high demand this holiday season. Microsoft says it plans to spend $1 Billion to launch the motion camera body controller. Many analysts expect the Kinect to be the "it" gift this Xmas. Microsoft Kinect is available nationwide for $149.99.