Microsoft has confirmed that it is no longer manufacturing the Xbox Kinect accessory, with Alex Kipman (creator of the Kinect) and Matthew Larsen (GM of Xbox Devices Marketing) confirming the news in an interview with Co.Design.
Microsoft will continue to support customers who bought Kinect, but it's unclear whether developer tools will remain supported.
Originally released for the Xbox 360 back in 2010, the Kinect was designed to change the way gamers approached game, by using a depth sensor and in-built microphones to allow players to control the Xbox's functions through their body or their voice, providing more accessibility for gamers and encouraging Xbox users to get up off their coach and have a more interactive experience.
In 2013, the Kinect 2.0 was released, intended to be automatically bundled with all Xbox Ones and took up a chunk of the device's processing power - this was badly-received by consumers and the decision was taken shortly after to unbundle the Kinect and have it remain as a standalone. In the years since, Microsoft's emphasis on the device has dwindled - 2017 has only seen three Kinect-specific games, and in fact only 21 have ever been released.
This may be the end for the Kinect as an accessory; however the technology will live on; the software orignally created for Kinect has gone on to power Microsoft's Cortana personal assistant, Windows' facial ID system and the Microsoft HoloLens project.
Matt Davidson is a freelance writer for IGN - if you'd like, you can follow him over on Twitter.
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