RIP Kinect: Microsoft stops manufacturing the motion sensing Xbox accessory

Gamers have always had a love and hate relationship with Microsoft’s Kinect motion-sensing accessory, but soon it is about to be put to rest. Fast Co Design has learned that the Kinect is officially dead, as Microsoft has plans to stop manufacturing the device (via The Verge.)

Although Microsoft will continue to support Kinect on Xbox, the company will stop selling it once existing stocks have been sold out at retailers. Spanning two generations on both the Xbox One and the Xbox 360, the Kinect reportedly sold 35 million units since its debut in 2010, but that’s apparently still not enough to keep the Kinect alive.

The Kinect was never well embraced by consumers and gamers, mainly for privacy-related concerns. In fact, due to its unpopularity, Microsoft was forced to unbundle it from the Xbox One, and only support it on Xbox One S via an adapter. This was addressed by Alex Kipman in an interview with Fast Co Design:

“Trust is something you earn in drops and lose in buckets…I’d say Kinect started the process in 2010 in having to earn drops of trust. Any number of [bad] events in the world, each one, you lose a bucket.”

Kinect technology, though, is living on in some other Microsoft products especially on HoloLens, and with some Windows Hello cameras. Clearly, Kinect benefited research and development at Microsoft, helping build future products. And, let us not forget all the cool uses developers have found for Kinect, including for scanning the jaws of a T-rex, live performances, a display in the Crayola Factory, and fighting Alzheimer’s disease.