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Published onApril 2, 2015
published onApril 2, 2015
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Now that April 1st is behind us, we can get back to serious news, and Microsoft has some seriously exciting news to announce. The Kinect team has some potentially great news for both Xbox One owners and Kinect developers using Windows. Starting today, Microsoft will no longer be producing Kinect for Windows v2 devices.
Microsoft claims, “Over the past several months, we have seen unprecedented demand from the developer community for Kinect sensors and have experienced difficulty keeping up with requests in some markets.” So rather than produce a separate Kinect sensor specialized for Windows development, Microsoft has developed theKinect Adapter for Windows. The new adapter now allows any developer, who also happens to have a Xbox One, use their current Kinect in the same manner they would have, if they were developing with theKinect for Windows v2. More importantly, Kinect developers can now directly buy the unbundled Xbox One Kinect for roughly $50 cheaper online or at Microsoft retail stores.
The adapter is currently set to work with Windows 8.0 and 8.1 PC’s and tablets and it’s a safe assumption it will work with the upcoming Windows 10 release as well. Aside from clearing up the seemingly unnecessary redundancy in the Kinect ecosystem, enabling the adapter functionality has a promising two-fold effect on the future of Kinect. For starters, the entry into Kinect development has been lowered. Casual developers and gamers who were undecided on the financial commitment of buying a secondary development Kinect for $200 can now pick up the adapter for $49.99. Secondly, with the upcoming unified Windows 10 OS, Kinect development on both the Windows and Xbox platforms should, hopefully, bleed into one another. The experiences developers are creating using the Kinect for Windows in retail, healthcare, education and manufacturing, could potentially make their way to an Xbox One and vice versa.
Barring any glaring stumbles, the Xbox One, and Kinect’s value proposition could begin to shine, depending on how Microsoft implements Windows 10 on it.
Kareem Anderson
Networking & Security Specialist
Kareem is a journalist from the bay area, now living in Florida. His passion for technology and content creation drives are unmatched, driving him to create well-researched articles and incredible YouTube videos.
He is always on the lookout for everything new about Microsoft, focusing on making easy-to-understand content and breaking down complex topics related to networking, Azure, cloud computing, and security.
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Kareem Anderson
Networking & Security Specialist
He is a journalist from the bay area, now living in Florida. He breaks down complex topics related to networking, Azure, cloud computing, and security
