Kinect died a while ago; now Microsoft is ripping out the life support tube

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The once-hyped Kinect camera for Xbox One hasn't exactly been alive and kicking for years - but today came the last nail in the (one imagines) shiny green coffin. Microsoft has confirmed that it's no longer making the adapter needed to hook Kinect up to your Xbox One S, Xbox One X, or any other Windows box.

It was back in October 2017 that Microsoft announced it was no longer producing the Kinect camera sensor, but you could still find the units floating around second-hand retailers, and still grab an adapter to hook it up to your new console. Now that the company is purging the adapter from store shelves and its official website, it feels as if Microsoft really doesn't want anyone playing Kinectimals ever again. Goodbye, Daniel the white tiger. I'll never forget you. 

"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," an unnamed Microsoft spokesperson told Polygon. 

Bad news for the seven people who still really wanted to be able to play The Black Eyed Peas Experience (yes, that is a real game) for the next 20 years or so; good news for internet entrepreneurs. Prices for the peripheral are now averaging $200 on eBay and $300 on Amazon, so if you overspent at Christmas, now's the time to check your box of forgotten peripherals. Perhaps gold lies somewhere underneath those Rock Band microphones and dusty headsets?

If this news is hard to take, just grab the last of the Christmas cooking sherry and comfort yourself with our review of the last - and best - Kinect game ever made.

Rachel Weber
Rachel Weber
Contributor

Rachel Weber is the former US Managing Editor of GamesRadar+ and lives in Brooklyn, New York. She joined GamesRadar+ in 2017, revitalizing the news coverage and building new processes and strategies for the US team.