Xbox an end to Kinect, announcing that it will cease production of the Azure Kinect developer kit.
Arguably one of the worst decisions Xbox has ever made, Kinect was the company's attempt to capitalize on the gaming, which failed spectacularly.
Using a peripheral camera, the device allowed Xbox 360, and later Xbox One, users to control their console with voice commands and hand gestures, without the need for a controller.
It also had functionality with many games, some of which were built specifically for Kinect, such as Kinect Star Wars, Kinect Adventures, and Kinect: Disneyland Adventures. Other Xbox games that required controllers typically had voice commands that triggered something within the game.
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While it was a good idea, its execution was very poor, with many believing that Xbox's focus on Kinect was the only reason the Xbox One ended up being so bad compared to the PlayStation 4.
The peripheral camera was discontinued in 2017, with future consoles no longer having Kinect functionality, however, in 2019, Microsoft began selling a copycat, Kinect Azure. This was a developer kit, used for enterprise software and AI.
But recently, Microsoft announced that it would be abandoning Azure, thus ending the Kinect line for good. The statement was as follows: “As the needs of our customers and partners grow, we regularly update our products to better support them. This includes introducing new opportunities, as well as retiring products. We have made the decision to end production of the Azure Kinect Developer Kit, but it will continue to be available through our partner ecosystem.”.
The company promised that it would continue to provide the technology used in Kinect to external partners so that they can create their own products and services.
Production of Azure Kinect will stop in October of this year.
Source: xbox.com
