Microsoft Corp. is betting a new product called Kinect will deliver a bigger audience for its Xbox 360 videogame console by letting people play games without a traditional controller.

But Kinect, when it goes on sale Thursday, will also be the most visible test in years of whether Microsoft can churn out breakout 消费者；用户">consumer products from its huge investment in research and development.

Microsoft faces increasing pressure from investors to show a payoff from those investments, which amounted to $8.7 billion for the fiscal year ended June 30 -- bigger than the R&D budget for any other tech company. Microsoft has poured a chunk of that money into improving existing products and services like its Bing search engine, as well as more traditional franchises like Windows and Office.

Kinect will be especially visible: an entirely new $150 device sold at retail outlets and aimed squarely at the 消费者；用户">consumer market, a field in which Microsoft has been more sluggish to respond to trends than Apple Inc. and other competitors.

Craig Mundie, the chief research and strategy officer at Microsoft, said he believes the company's R&D investments have paid off well for Microsoft. 'We kind of view ourselves as almost a pure intellectual property business, and as such one that requires a sustained investment to stay ahead and remain competitive,' he said.

Although Kinect builds off an earlier motion-sensing game product-- Nintendo Co.'s hugely successful Wii -- some game industry executives believe Microsoft has taken the concept in an innovative new direction by completely eliminating the need to hold any hardware while playing. The device includes a camera, microphone and an infrared depth sensor that can detect the movements of a players' entire body, rather than just the hand movements Wii responds to.