Microsoft Ends Production of Kinect - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 01 September 2023 / 4,013 Views
Microsoft announced it has ended production of the Azure Kinect Developer Kit.
"As the needs of our customers and partners evolve, we regularly update our products to best support them," reads a statement from Microsoft. From time to time, this includes introducing new opportunities, as well as retiring products. We have made the decision to end production of Azure Kinect Developer Kit, but this is far from the end of this technology as it will continue to be available through our partner ecosystem.
"Microsoft has been a pioneer in depth-sensing cameras for over a decade and built them to support various first-party products and experiences. This includes controller-free gaming for Xbox, as well as scene understanding and hand tracking for HoloLens. The latest iteration of Microsoft's indirect time-of-flight (iToF) depth sensing technology was brought to market with HoloLens 2. The same depth camera module in HoloLens 2 was also provided to the developer community as part of Azure Kinect Developer Kit."
Kinect is best known for its use in Xbox consoles with the original releasing for the Xbox 360 in November 2010 with an updated model launching with the Xbox One in November 2013. The combined sales for Kinect on Xbox was 35 million as of October 2017.
The Azure Kinect released in 2019 and was designed to be used for enterprise software. It includes a 12 megapixel camera, a time-of-flight depth senser, and seven microphones.
Thanks, VideoGamesChronicle.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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Kinect was still being made? lol
What year is it? Will HD DVD be next?!
Surprised this was still going as I thought Kinect was finished years ago, although I probably thinking of the console version.
I remember the original on the 360 was a fun gimmick for a bit for I didn’t bother getting an Xbox One until they released a bundle without it.
Milo just shed a tear.
Wonder if it will ever get released
If Microsoft did not shove it down our throats on Xone it might of done well and been on the Series X/S and doing well
Eh. Kinect was only one issue of many early in the systems life that doomed it. DRM. Always online. No used games until last minute they changed it but the messaging was never clear. The worst reveal in console history. Then a decade of not many games worth buying a XBO over and even fewer worth buying over a PS4. Not to mention a number of publicly hyped then canceled games.
Microsoft has been a pioneer? Sony released the Eye-Toy for PS2 a couple of years before Kinect...
While it was motion based. Dreamcast had a camera in Japan. Dreameye. You can use it as a stand alone digital camera or as webcam for DC. Email service. Phone calls. Video sharing. Picture editing. Not to mention the concept for Kinect goes as far back as early 90s with SEGA activator. You are the controller and using body movements. It used inferred cameras on device on the floor.
The Eye-Toy didn't incorporate a depth sensor, microphones and more.
Different levels of complexity/technology.
More like 7 years. It's the Playstation Eye (PS3 camera) that came out a couple of years before Kinect.
The PSEye was just a video camera, nothing innovative about it. It really not in the same class as Kinect.
i have no idea what even happen to mine
Betting the farm on Kinect was not a good move on their part.
Had my first ever interaction with Kinect at the National Memorial Arboretum where they have a display of leaves which you can walk through projected onto the floor in one of the rooms. It was pretty cool.
Suprised by this, however it was being used by things outside of gaming so probably explains why it was still in production.
Who even uses this?
It has been years since I last saw a Kinect in a store, I thought they were done years ago.
I believe Kinect was discontinued for mass consumer purchase, but could still be specially requested. I know some still use Kinect for varies projects like an exhibit in a museum.
I thought Kinect production had finished when they stopped shipping with X1 bundle.
What the hell I thought Kinect production ended ages ago lmao. But anyways good riddance, got boring after the first hour of playing but unfortunately took years for Microsoft to see that nobody cared about it
I was surprised to be walking the mall other day and a very big space was for a "store" that only attraction was to use Just Dance with Kinect on a big projector.
I need the Xbox One kinect, a weird piece of tech to collect at this point.
see if used on ghost hunting shows
It is lol
This is the first time I hear of a new one having been released in 2019. That's quite something.
RIP to a legend.
people just be downvoting if they recognize your username, I got downvoted for saying nice to a game that got announced lmao, very easy to accumulate haters on this website.
You can accumulate haters on any website and the downvotes system I find on most sites are pretty much the same everywhere else. People will downvote you for just about anything and so some sites got rid of the system because it just doesn't work. Probably a better system is the ignore button so that some people you can just ignore.
Yeah it's not a "Truth or fact" button.
It is a "I like you or dislike you" button.
In saying that, I have made some comments that got liked so high, that it poked Jesus in the eyes...
And some that got downvoted so low, that it would have made a crack addict envious.
My tip is just to ignore the lot and be yourself and enjoy the website.
Very well said, Pema!
That can happen, but I'm not sure if that applies in my case. Maybe someone is just taking the posts too seriously or they simply despise Kinect altogether. Either way, it's nbd anyways.
should only be an upvote choice.
