Microsoft Is Finally Laying Kinect To Rest, Officially Ending Production

News
By Brittany Vincent
published

Microsoft’s Kinect peripheral, once a shining beacon in a sea of fledgling motion-control devices, is now being permanently discontinued.

Fast Co., speaking with Kinect creator Alex Kipman and Xbox GM Matthew Lapsen, confirmed the accessory has officially reached its end-of-life stage, with production having ceased. Following a booming debut back in 2010 that ended up moving tens of million of units, Kinect has slowly but surely failed to attract the buyers it once did, likely owing much to the fact that most gamers tend to prefer more traditional controller-based methods for Xbox 360 and Xbox One titles.

Kinect had myriad uses beyond its applications as a video game accessory, however. The 3D camera was a cheap and accessible tool for the DIY community, allowing for some impressive hacks with 3D scanning, movie production, and even medical appliances. For those who saw beyond its potential to let you interact with virtual animals or explore Disneyland, it was an invaluable resource for creative individuals.

Unfortunately, despite shipping the camera with Xbox One units as part of a bundled set and introducing new waves of motion-controlled games, Kinect sales couldn’t be bolstered enough to make the peripheral one that Microsoft could continue pushing. So although the Kinect was a pioneering device, offering user-friendly 3D camera tech on a consumer product that went well beyond PlayStation’s Move camera (1-1 controller tracking versus Kinect’s full-body tracking), it’s time to put an end to the death knell that’s being sounding for some time now.

Even so, despite the fact that Kinect will no longer be actively manufactured, Microsoft is still using the technology it brought to the table (depth sensing, for example) in products such as Windows 10 and the Xbox One. Kinect’s legacy is being preserved in the products it has influenced and will continue to do so long after the last copy of Kinect Sports has been removed from shelves. And by that time, we’ll all be ready to welcome Microsoft’s HoloLens into our homes.

Brittany Vincent
11 Comments Comment from the forums
  • samer.forums
    not good ... Xbox has no VR and now no Kinect ...
    Reply
  • dstarr3
    How to Microsoft in four simple steps:

    Step 1) Make niche gaming device
    Step 2) Develop zero games that utilize the device
    Step 3) Act confused as to why no one buys the device
    Step 4) Discontinue device

    A+++ 10/10 great job thumbs up
    Reply
  • samer.forums
    20311254 said:
    How to Microsoft in four simple steps:

    Step 1) Make niche gaming device
    Step 2) Develop zero games that utilize the device
    Step 3) Act confused as to why no one buys the device
    Step 4) Discontinue device

    A+++ 10/10 great job thumbs up

    This is not MS problem. Software houses are the one to be blamed not to release games that uses the Kinect. and the main reason was the weak GPU in the old xbox.

    I am really surprised that they discontinued it now with the very fast Xbox Scorpio coming in few days...

    ver very Angry at MS . the Xbox Scorpio is FAST enough to make Kinect games smooth :(
    Reply
  • derekullo
    To be fair, Microsoft does have a "Software House" a game studio called Microsoft Studios.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Studios

    They even have a huge list of intellectual properties they could have pursued with Kinect, including the highly popular Minecraft.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Studios#Owned_franchises_and_properties


    And of course there is always the obvious "Here's a boatload of money to make your game work with Kinect" strategy
    Reply
  • atavax
    20311262 said:
    20311254 said:
    How to Microsoft in four simple steps:

    Step 1) Make niche gaming device
    Step 2) Develop zero games that utilize the device
    Step 3) Act confused as to why no one buys the device
    Step 4) Discontinue device

    A+++ 10/10 great job thumbs up

    This is not MS problem. Software houses are the one to be blamed not to release games that uses the Kinect. and the main reason was the weak GPU in the old xbox.

    I am really surprised that they discontinued it now with the very fast Xbox Scorpio coming in few days...

    ver very Angry at MS . the Xbox Scorpio is FAST enough to make Kinect games smooth :(

    so it isn't a MS problem because Software houses should of released games for the Kinnect. But they didn't because the GPU was too weak, which Microsoft is responsible for? Microsoft is responsable to making the technology appealing, look at Nintendo and the Wii. Nintendo didn't wait for 3rd parties to show how compelling the Wii controller was. They did it themselves and Microsoft should of done the same.

    Also, the old xbox should be more than capable of running Kinect games smooth, they would just have to use a lower graphical fidelity. Just like the old PS4 can run VR games smoothely, just requires lower graphics.

    I'm also highly skeptical of the Kinnect technology in gaming, because i think that if it was indeed promising, either the Oculus Rift or the HTC Vive would of used a similar technology in their VR sets.
    Reply
  • dstarr3
    Yeah, not only did MS not develop any Kinect games in-house, but they also made no effort to put any Kinects in the hands of any developers for third-party support. They did this to themselves.
    Reply
  • ET3D
    20311254 said:
    How to Microsoft in four simple steps:

    Step 1) Make niche gaming device
    Step 2) Develop zero games that utilize the device
    Step 3) Act confused as to why no one buys the device
    Step 4) Discontinue device

    A+++ 10/10 great job thumbs up

    As someone who used the Kinect quite a bit on the 360, IMO the main problem with it wasn't the lack of games, but the fact that Microsoft insisted that it be used for UI (within the games). It's a terrible UI interaction device. There are quite a few Kinect games which are fun but the interaction in menus or just walking around is so frustrating that it ruins the entire game. The games that work well are those which allow using a controller for UI navigation, such as KinectParty (Double Fine Action Theater) and Marvel Avengers Battle for Earth.

    The basic Kinect UI built into the Xbox was also terrible. Microsoft really should have given this a lot of attention, but apparently nobody there ever used the device, certainly not at home.
    Reply
  • awood28211
    I'm a little confused. If there's no Kinect and I'm not using a headset why is Cortana being pushed in my face... she won't even be able to hear me. I use my kinect for auto-sign in and to give commands to my console... I'm not a multi-player person so I'm never wearing a headset. Why not replace it with a simple mic...
    Reply
  • papality
    The only fun part of the Kinect was shouting at your buddy's Xbox to interrupt what he was doing
    Reply
  • Ilya__
    I think Kinect is being retired because something else is coming... VR maybe?
    Reply