Microsoft Discontinues Kinect Adapter, Officially Marking The End of Don Mattrick's Kinect Era
A couple months ago it was revealed that Microsoft would stop production on the Xbox One Kinect. Well, now it looks like the new Xbox leaders are making sure we don’t remember the ‘Don Mattrick Era’. Microsoft has ended production of the Kinect Adapter, the USB accessory that is required to connect the Xbox One Kinect sensor to an Xbox One S, Xbox One X or Windows device, the company confirmed to Polygon today. “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,” a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement to Polygon. As for any plans to bring back the item in the future, the representative declined to discuss Microsoft’s product roadmap, but said the adapter “will no longer be available.” This appears to mark the end of the Kinect on Xbox. It was evident in 2016 when Microsoft launched the Xbox One S without the proprietary port necessary to hook up the Kinect directly to the console. The voice-enabled camera peripheral can be plugged into a USB port on a PC, Xbox One S or Xbox One X, but only via the Kinect Adapter. The Xbox One dashboard hasn’t supported Kinect-based gesture controls since November 2015. Voice navigation and Cortana functionality do not require Kinect; except for “hey Cortana, Xbox on,” all commands will work with a simple headset microphone. This is sad news indeed for fans who enjoyed the kinect.
Gran Turismo 6 online services to shut march 2018
For those who might still be racing around in 2013’s Gran Turismo 6 on PlayStation 3, we have some unkind news for you. Gran Turismo 6’s online services will cease to exist on March 28th, 2018. Come March, players will no longer be able to go online with Polyphony Digital’s racer. Fans also have until January 31st, 2018 to download any DLC before they are removed from the PlayStation Store. Players will still be able to access offline portions of the game but they will not be able to play quick matches, seasonal events, or any other online modes. Players who have deleted any game data after purchasing any in-game credits will need to install/redeem them before the online services are terminated or they will be lost forever. You can view instructions on how to do so below. “If you have deleted your game data after purchasing credits from the GT Store, please make sure to install/redeem the credits again before the end of the online service to have them available in-game. The installation/redemption of credits can be done in-game from [My Home] -> [GT Store] -> [Purchased Content]. It will no longer be possible to install/redeem credits after the end of the online service.” This announcement comes shortly after Sony and Guerilla Games announced plans to shut down the servers for the Killzone titles on PS3. This could signal an imminent shut down of the PlayStation 3 PSN servers but this is pure speculation. It’s now 2018 and a couple months ago the 7th Gran Turismo launched on PlayStation 4 so we’d assume not many are playing a game from 2013 on a previous gen console.