Microsoft’s decision to kill the Kinect is delighting scalpers, distressing fans

The Kinect is well and truly dead now that Microsoft is no longer offering the adapter that allowed players to connect the motion and voice controller to the Xbox One S or Xbox One X, and some fans aren’t happy about the decision.

The adapter is now selling for $269 or more on Amazon at the time of this article’s publication, but the hardware had already been hard to find for quite some time before its death was made official. Complaints about how the situation was handled have been trickling into our tips line, with the issue being that Microsoft is making things hard on its most loyal fans.

It was relatively easy to get an adapter if you bought an Xbox One S at launch, but supplies seemed to dry up soon after that console was released. You had little to no chance of getting one from Microsoft or buying one at a reasonable price by the time the Xbox One X was released, which means Microsoft is sticking it to the fans who wanted to continue to use the Kinect while also purchasing the latest Xbox hardware.

Amazon

That couldn’t have been many players, to be fair, and it’s likely that Microsoft knows exactly how many Kinects are still in use around the world. But there should have been some warning that fans were missing out on their last chance to get the adapter before it was discontinued. Microsoft is well within its rights to pull support for a product that very few people are using, but at least give them one last shot to get the hardware necessary to continue to use a peripheral they might enjoy on the newer hardware they may want to buy.

Now hardcore Kinect fans, or those who enjoy the controller for health reasons, have to either pay through the nose for the adapter to use the controller on newer Xbox models or keep an outdated console around the house just for Kinect support.

This is a middle finger to people who continue to want to use Microsoft’s hardware while buying the latest Xbox console. The least that Microsoft can do is make at least one more limited run of the adapters available to customers who were caught by surprise at this announcement, and make it very clear that this would be the last chance the fans would have to get the adapter for free or at least at a lower price than the scalpers are asking.

Take care of the true believers, Microsoft. It’s literally the least you can do.