A spokesperson for Microsoft has confirmed to Polygon that the tech giant has discontinued manufacturing of the external adapter needed to use Kinect on the Xbox One S and Xbox One X consoles.
“After careful consideration, we decided to stop manufacturing the Xbox Kinect Adapter to focus attention on launching new, higher fan-requested gaming accessories across Xbox One and Windows 10.”
The Kinect used a proprietary port on the original Xbox One console but later iterations lack that port which makes it impossible to attach the accessory without the special adapter. That adapter makes it possible to use the device with a USB port.
The adapter already commands outrageous prices on the secondary market – some sellers are asking for as much as three hundred dollars for the accessory that was at one time given away for free to Xbox One Kinect owners. Hopefully there will be a third party solution for people with a newer Xbox One console and want to use Kinect.
The good news is that outside of a few Kinect games, there really isn’t much need to use the controversial device. Most voice commands can be used with a headset equipped with a microphone and an external webcam can be used for applications such as Skype and Mixer. Support for gesture controls was halted over two years ago which means that the only non-game use that requires a Kinect is to use Cortana to wake up the console.
Microsoft has even re-released a handful of titles that will now work without motion control device such as Zoo Tycoon.
Do you have one of these adapters? If so, do you plan to keep it or sell it while prices are through the roof?
