Kinect for Xbox 360 was demonstrated in 2009, showing how the accessory could let you control games with your body and voice with its infrared camera, sensors, and a microphone. When it was released, it seemed to have done well in sales as Microsoft was able to sell about 29 million of them for the Xbox 360 or Xbox One. But all of a sudden, it just faded away. Yahoo Finance has identified 3 problems that may point out Why Microsoft decided to give up on Kinect.
According to Yahoo Finance, the first problem is that it does not have enough great games. Most of the Kinect games fell into family or fitness trainer niches which is said to be far from the core gamer demographic that made up the Xbox audience. Furthermore, the best game developers preferred the games to work with the traditional controller so they were not interested with Kinect.
The second reason is that it can be frustrating. Because it was considered as new technology, there were still bugs and glitches which serious gamers cannot afford to experience in the middle of a gaming experience.
The third problem is that you need a lot of space. You need about 6-10 between you and the sensor which can be a problem when there are more than one gamer involved.
On the brighter side it is not game over for it is not yet game over for Kinect. It may not have captured the interest of the gamer community as Microsoft had expected but Kinect is found to be useful in other situation. According to Business Insider, In 2010, Adafruit CEO Limor Fried released a set of unofficial drivers to make the Kinect for Xbox 360 work with Windows. Later on Microsoft came up with the official drivers and since then artists and robotics hobbyists started working the Kinect into all kinds of projects said the source to Business Insider. Furthermore, Kinnect also became helpful for the company known as Reflexion Heath, where it is used to power their commercial products.
Microsoft has not made any comment on this one yet.
