Microsoft has officially stopped manufacturing the Kinect

Microsoft’s Kinect, which was originally introduced as an Xbox 360 peripheral back in 2010, has ended its manufacturing process. The news comes via Co.Design who uncovered this during an interview with Alex Kipman, creator of the Kinect, and Matthew Lapsen, GM of Xbox Devices Marketing.

“[The Kinect] sold ~35 million units since its debut in 2010, but Microsoft will no longer produce it when retailers sell off their existing stock.”

The Kinect never really ended up being the phenomenon of a gaming peripheral that Microsoft wanted it to be. Whilst it was technically a very impressive piece of hardware, it was often viewed as more of an unwanted gimmick rather than something that advanced the gaming medium. It is also commonly viewed as one of the ways Sony got a leg up on Microsoft in the latest console generation, by not having a Kinect (or alternative product) come pre-packaged with the console. So I suppose this news isn’t a huge shock.

Microsoft has been slowly de-emphasising the need for the Kinect over the years and this is certainly the final nail in the coffin. Once retailers sell out of their current stock of Kinects, we won’t be seeing the motion sensor / voice recogniser anymore.