Xbox just took another step towards killing off the Kinect

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In its latest step away from the Xbox One’s Kinect, Microsoft has ended a program giving free adapters to anyone who upgraded from the original console to the newer model, the Xbox One S.

The adapter is necessary to use the Kinect with the new, slimmed down model, since Microsoft got rid of the dedicated Kinect port as part of the redesign. When the S was announced at E3 2016, Microsoft unveiled this limited-time freebie to encourage current Xbox One owners to upgrade, giving the adapter free to anyone who registered all three devices: the Kinect, the original Xbox One, and the Xbox One S.

No end date for the promotion was given at the time, but according to a new report from Polygon the program has now come to a close, seemingly without any advance notice. The support page for Kinect now says the offer ended “in March 2017.”

That means that Xbox One owners who want to upgrade to the Xbox One S will need to leave to their Kinect behind or purchase a $40 adapter. The Kinect itself still sells for $100 as a standalone purchase and doesn’t include the adapter.

This is the latest indication that Microsoft is well and truly stepping back from the Kinect as a central part of the Xbox One experience. In 2014, Microsoft first announced it would unbundle the peripheral, previously included in all Xbox Ones, as a way to cut down the cost of entry. A number of revisions to the console’s UI followed, duplicating or replacing the functionality of the Kinect to make the system more usable for those without the device.

Today, Microsoft’s website doesn’t offer a single Xbox One S bundle that includes Kinect. The peripheral has also never gotten a visual update to match the new white aesthetic of the console, leaving it mismatched for those who do pick it up separately.

With the reveal of Microsoft’s next console, Project Scorpio, just around the corner, it will be interesting to see whether the Kinect is part of that conversation—or, indeed, if it will even be supported at all.

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Related Forum: Xbox Forum

Source: http://www.egmnow.com/articles/news/xbox-just-took-another-step-towards-killing-off-the-kinect/

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"Xbox just took another step towards killing off the Kinect" :: Login/Create an Account :: 15 comments

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LGWPosted:

Halo Sales would have been better at the start without it. At least they know now.... now that it's too late.


I 100% agree with you on this.

WavesPosted:

I know most people dislike the Kinect but I use mine all the time. Maybe I'm do something that I can not use the controller or just got home and I just talk to the kinect to turn it on and it signs me in. Then I can grab my controller later when I am ready to play

HaloPosted:

Sales would have been better at the start without it. At least they know now.... now that it's too late.

RickPosted:

Maybe project scropio will have the capability preinstalled within the console, or they are moving away from Kinect to focus on vr more which is what I would prefer. Personally, I enjoyed the Kinect when it was first released on the 360 only cause it reminded me of the PlayStation eye I had on my PS2, however since then I feel the need for the Kinect isn't there anymore

16Posted:

I don't see a kinect with the hinting of some aspects of a pc in a console, KB/Mouse support supposedly.


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