What Killed the Microsoft Kinect?

If you're like me, then you have a Kinetic sitting in your closet. I'm sure some of you wanted to know why are there not any Kinetics at the video gaming stores or electronic sections?  Here is your answer. 

The Kinetic was Microsoft's Xbox answer to Nintendo's Wii.  Microsoft's Kinetic came out in 2009 selling over 80,000,000 units mostly b/c it was mandatory accessory with the Xbox One for some time.  The for nearly 10 years, the Kinetic sold less than half the units of the Wii.   The Kinetic did not move more units for several reasons:

Technology not Functional
The main reason the Kinetic was killed was due to the technology for the Kinetic never working properly with the console and video games.  Nintendo Wii had games that were functional and fun such as Wii Sports that integrated the motion capturing control technology with the video games.

The motion capturing ability for the Kinetic was a camera that sensed not a sensor like in Wii. The Kinetic had 2 cameras that provided depth as a sensor, but the data for the two cameras could not capture the image of the human body properly.

Advertising
Marketing was really good for the Kinetic.  The Microsoft spent over $500,000,000 to advertised on globally across all communication channels including on shows like Oprah and Jimmy Fallon.  What really hurt the Kinetics's advertising was the lack of Apps.  We live in the "there's probably an app for that" world.  Microsoft never found a way to integrate Apps on the phone or console with the Kinetic which really lost its a core audience.

Lack of Fun
The major reason why the Kinetic was killed was b/c it was not fun.  Xbox did not have a library of games that utilized the technology.  Dancing games really did not need the Kinetic and the other games did use the technology at all.  Video Game Developers knew about the Kinetic's poor quality and really did not bother to use it with their games.  Basically, there was not any reason to buy it.  Soon word of mouth killed the Kinetic.  Microsoft stopped making the last of the Kinetics in December 2017.

And there you have it.  The reasons the Kinetic was killed were Video Game Developers rejected using the technology for its video games and consumers hating the Kinetic's lack of functionality.

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