Microsoft ends production of the Kinect adapter

[midian182]

In October last year, Microsoft put the final nail in the Kinect’s coffins by announcing it would no longer produce the motion control device. Now, the company has said it will stop producing the Xbox Kinect Adapter, too.

The USB accessory allowed Kinect owners to connect the sensor to an Xbox One S, Xbox One X, or Windows PC. “After careful consideration, we decided to stop manufacturing the Xbox Kinect Adapter to focus attention on launching new, higher fan-requested gaming accessories across Xbox One and Windows 10,” a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement to Polygon.

In 2016, the Xbox One S arrived without the proprietary port required to attach the Kinect. For eight months after the release of the console, Microsoft gave the adapter away for free, before starting to sell it separately for $40 in April.

Ceasing production of an adapter for a product no longer being manufactured doesn’t come as much of a surprise, of course, but Microsoft did say “it is not the end of the journey for the technology,” when announcing the Kinect was no longer being made.

Online listings for the accessory have shown “out of stock” messages for months, even Microsoft’s store has stopped selling it. But that could be good news if you already own one; they’re now being sold on reseller sites like eBay for hundreds of dollars.

After first being released for the Xbox 360 in November 2010, the Kinect went on to sell around 35 million units during its lifespan. Microsoft tried to reignite interest by bundling it with the Xbox One when it launched in 2013, but that increased the price of the console. The plan appeared to backfire and the bundles soon stopped.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/72554-microsoft-ends-production-kinect-adaptor.html

 

[stewi0001]

There is still a lot of potential for it on the PC, but maybe they will make something better? Either way there is almost no support for it.

 

[mbrowne5061]

It made a pretty killer computer vision and robotics sensor; that was where they should have focused their efforts.

 

[Teko03]

My guess is that they're playing more focus on their mixed reality platform instead.

 

[Jibberish18]

It made a pretty killer computer vision and robotics sensor; that was where they should have focused their efforts.

Thats what I was thinking. It seemed pretty advanced on the cheap.

 

[GeforcerFX]

I liked the Kinect sensor for what it offered, I saw many young kids have absolute blast with them over the years. But force bundling it with the xbox one was just too much, having a bundle with one is understandable but there need to force these on all xbox one owners really hurt them in the 8th gen race.

 

[LeroN]

The Kinect was too smart device for gaming only. MS was not smart enough to implement it for other needs. Another failure but not final.

 

[mbrowne5061]

I liked the Kinect sensor for what it offered, I saw many young kids have absolute blast with them over the years. But force bundling it with the xbox one was just too much, having a bundle with one is understandable but there need to force these on all xbox one owners really hurt them in the 8th gen race.

Agreed, somewhat. I get why the bundled it - economies of scale. If they made it an optional accessory, I doubt they ever would have been able to produce enough to so much as break even. They should have bundled it, then made it completely optional for every game. Let everyone have one, let devs use it if they want, but they shouldn't have let devs require its use in game. Wait for someone to come up with a creative game mechanic that made it worth actually hooking up and fiddling with to get working right.