Kinect

"You are the controller": the fastest-selling gadget of 2010, unplugged by 2017

Shut down
19902026

Kinect was Microsoft's motion-sensing camera for the Xbox 360, launched on 4 November 2010 with the slogan "you are the controller". It sold eight million units in its first sixty days, a Guinness record, was hacked into robotics and art within a week, and reached about 35 million units across two generations. Bundled with the Xbox One in 2013 and unbundled in 2014, it lost its developers and Microsoft ended production on 25 October 2017.

Timeline [edit]

  1. 2009
  2. 1 June 2009 Feature
    Project Natal is unveiled at E3

    Steven Spielberg on stage; a camera that watches the whole room.

  3. 2010
  4. 4 November 2010 Launch
    Kinect launches

    $149.99 for the Xbox 360. "You are the controller."

  5. 10 November 2010 other
    Hacked within a week

    Open-source drivers turn it into a robotics and art tool.

  6. 2011
  7. 3 January 2011 Peak
    Eight million in sixty days

    Guinness certifies the fastest-selling consumer device ever.

  8. 2012
  9. 1 February 2012 Feature
    Kinect for Windows

    An official SDK and a version for PCs.

  10. 2013
  11. 22 November 2013 Version
    Kinect for Xbox One

    A better sensor, in every box, at a $100 premium.

  12. 2014
  13. 9 June 2014 Decline
    Unbundled from the Xbox One

    The $399 console ships without it; developers stop building for it.

  14. 2017
  15. 25 October 2017 Shutdown
    Production ends

    Around 35 million sold across two generations.

The site through time

Browse xbox.com as it was, via the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine:

2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Full archive →

Ownership [edit]

Microsoft 2009–2017 Founded Built on PrimeSense depth-camera technology; developed and sold by Microsoft's Xbox division

Why it shut down [edit]

Official line: After Microsoft unbundled Kinect from the Xbox One in June 2014 to cut the console's price, developers stopped building for it and the sensor faded to a niche. Microsoft confirmed on 25 October 2017 that manufacturing had ended, at about 35 million units sold across both generations; the Xbox One adapter was discontinued a few months later. The Azure Kinect developer kit that reused the technology was itself discontinued in 2023.

Our analysis: Kinect was a genuine technical marvel that Microsoft first sold as a party toy and then forced on everyone: bundling it with the Xbox One made the console $100 dearer than the PlayStation 4, and the privacy row over an always-listening camera did the rest. Once it was optional, no developer could count on it, and a controller nobody targets is not a controller. The depth-camera technology outlived the product in robotics labs and, eventually, in HoloLens.

History [edit]

Project Natal

Microsoft unveiled "Project Natal" at E3 in June 2009 with Steven Spielberg on stage: a camera bar that watched the whole living room, tracked skeletons in 3D and heard voices, so that a game could be played with nothing in your hands. The depth camera came from PrimeSense in Israel, and Microsoft spent the year turning it into a $149.99 accessory for the Xbox 360, renamed Kinect. It launched on 4 November 2010 with Kinect Adventures in the box and Dance Central as its killer app.

It sold eight million units in its first sixty days, which Guinness certified as the fastest-selling consumer electronics device ever, and ten million by March 2011. Within a week of launch hobbyists had reverse-engineered its USB output and were using it to drive robots, 3D scanners and art installations; Microsoft, after some hesitation, released an official SDK and a Kinect for Windows version in 2012. It became a standard component in university robotics labs.

The Xbox One problem

For the Xbox One, launched in November 2013, Microsoft built a better Kinect and put one in every box, which pushed the console's price to $499 against $399 for the PlayStation 4. It also spent the summer of 2013 defending a camera that was always on and could log in by face, in the months after the Snowden disclosures. Sony outsold Microsoft, and on 13 May 2014 Microsoft announced a Kinect-free Xbox One at $399, available from 9 June.

Unbundling ended Kinect as a games platform. Developers who could no longer assume every player had one stopped building for it, Microsoft's own studios followed, and by 2016 new games ignored it. The Xbox One S and X dropped the dedicated port. Kinect for Windows was discontinued in April 2015.

The end

On 25 October 2017 Microsoft confirmed to Fast Co. Design that Kinect production had ended, with around 35 million units sold across the two generations. The Xbox One adapter that let it connect to newer consoles was discontinued in January 2018. The technology moved into HoloLens and, in 2019, an Azure Kinect developer kit for computer vision, which was itself discontinued in October 2023.

The domain today

xbox.com is Microsoft's and sells no Kinect; the accessory pages are gone and support articles are all that remain.

Similar projects

Zune Microsoft's answer to the iPod, five years late 2006–2015 iPod 1,000 songs in your pocket 2001–2022 HP TouchPad Killed 49 days after launch 2011–2011 Google Glass The face computer the public rejected 2013–2023 Microsoft Kin Dead in 48 days 2010–2011 Pebble The smartwatch Kickstarter built, and Fitbit buried 2013–2018

Sources [edit]

  1. Kinect for Xbox 360 review Engadget 4 November 2010 [archived]
  2. Microsoft sells 10 million Kinects Engadget 9 March 2011 [archived]
  3. The new Kinect for Xbox One The Verge 21 May 2013
  4. Kinect officially dead Eurogamer 25 October 2017 [archived]
  5. Microsoft has finally killed the Kinect Xbox sensor Fortune 25 October 2017 [archived]

Last verified: 15 August 2026. Spotted an error? Suggest an edit (corrections with sources are reviewed and applied).