In what it says is an effort to simplify its Kinect line, Microsoft will no longer be producing Kinect v2 for Windows. While the company will no longer produce the sensor, it promises support for the device on Windows 8 and 8.1 remains unchanged.
Microsoft has decided instead to continue to produce Kinect for Xbox One and recommends that developers interested in creating projects for Kinect on Windows instead use its proprietary adapter.
The adapter allows for the Xbox One Kinect to hook into a PC running Windows. Microsoft says that because Kinect for Xbox One and Kinect for Windows v2 are functionally identical, the Kinect for Windows SDK 2.0 "works exactly the same with either" Xbox One or PC.
According to the company, demand for the sensors within the developer community has been "unprecedented," and it's had difficulty keeping up with requests for the sensors in some markets.
Microsoft had considered building the new version of Kinect directly into the Xbox One console, but said the technology wasn't there yet to combine the sensor and console into one system. In May of last year, Microsoft announced that gamers would have the option of buying an Xbox One sans Kinect. The announcement was a turnaround from previous statements in which Microsoft said it had no plans to sell its console without Kinect.
