Few tales of corporate schadenfreude are more crushingly hilarious than that of Microsoft’s ill-fated motion control peripheral; Kinect.

It’s been ten years since the reveal of the Kinect system, and three years since it was discontinued entirely. But where did this monumental page in technological flops and embarrassing hindsight actually begin, and why did it fail so quickly afterwards?

Part 1: Just Because It’s New, Doesn’t Mean It’s Good

Cast your mind back to the murky dark age of 2006. Microsoft’s Alex Kipman scouts a brand new piece of cutting-edge technology at the Game Developers Conference and is inspired to combine it with Microsoft’s very own Xbox gaming system.

PrimeSense, the Israeli-based company responsible for the new tech’s development, was contacted and brought into the fold to begin the creation of the biggest marketing misstep in the industry’s history. Microsoft was concerned over the recent success of Nintendo’s Wii console, released earlier that year.

The secretive project was nicknamed “Natal” by the engineers at Microsoft, working to miniaturize and streamline PrimeSense’s motion-tracking hardware for a mass consumer market.

Now, the misstep that Microsoft made at the time was misgauging the reaction of the general gaming populace to the Wii. The console was seen as more of a toy than a proper gaming system. Most games released for it during its lifespan were simple party games, or titles marketed largely towards younger audiences. Most titles were considered hamstrung by Nintendo’s strict third-party contracts, requiring third-party developers to make use of the motion-control feature in the core of their design.

This ultimately restricted both the amount of creativity developers could apply to their projects, and even the accessibility of the console to gamers who couldn’t make use of the very physical method of play.

Part 2: Sprinting Before You Can Stand

Smash-cut to 2009. The Electronic Entertainment Expo, known more commonly as E3, rolls around and all the big players put their shiny new things out for people to speculate on.

Microsoft’s turn comes up, fully prepared to blow the entire industry out of the water. They had demos, they had big names attached to the marketing drive, the likes of Steven Spielburg and more. The proverbial curtains were drawn and…

The responses were not good.

Audiences were concerned about the perceived lack of diversity in the opening lineup, noting that it boasted largely the same assortment of party games that Nintendo’s offering was derided for.

Secondly, the demonstrations universally failed to impress. Some even speculate on the use of paid actors, the on-stage banter and performances were so bad.

The most prophetic words of the entire ordeal came from Spielburg himself, quoted as saying, “We’re not re-inventing the wheel, there’s no wheel at all.”

Oh, Steven.

Part 3: A Slow Motion Car Crash

The marketing push for Kinect was unlike anything in the modern age. Celebrity endorsements, a Times Square reveal show. Hours and hours of industry expert interviews, until the big day in 2010 arrived.

This long-awaited project which had been at the forefront of all electronic discussion for years was finally out, and…

The gaming populace were immediately unimpressed with the Kinect.

Complaints of unintuitive controls, poor quality control, and a limited library came in. Most were embittered by the early days of the newly-released Xbox One’s “always online” functionality.

Even titles not directly taking advantage of the Kinect’s motion-tracking function suffered because of its inclusion. Games like BioWare’s Mass Effect 3 suffered from fiddly, poorly-implemented voice controls.

Beyond that, Kinect’s motto of “You are the controller” laid bare another issue, one shared by its perceived competitor, the Wii; motion-control systems are inherently inaccessible for a lot of people.

The entire draw of the Kinect was to replace the tried-and-true controller with using one’s body for input. This automatically alienates anyone who is unable to stand, wheelchair users for example, or those unable to stand for long periods of time. The elderly or pregnant come to mind. The prevailing question posed by Kinect wasn’t “why need a controller” and was instead “why need replace what already works much better?”

Part 4: What Did You Think Was Going to Happen?

Microsoft did its best to make the Kinect work. A redesign, bundling it with every new Xbox sold, but nothing stuck. Gamers were soured on the entire concept of the peripheral, deriding it as an expensive and over-hyped child’s toy.

It was a colossal failure on the part of Microsoft for so egregiously misreading the pulse of the consumer desires. Kinect was about as far removed from what everyone wanted, and their repeated attempts to make the market want it simply alienated their consumers further.

By 2012, several launch features such as gesture-operated menus and voice controls, were shut down due to chronic lack of use. By 2015, Kinect was no longer bundled with the Xbox due to, once again, chronic lack of use.

In 2017, Microsoft discontinued the peripheral entirely. Putting a nail in the coffin of the most ill-fated electronics reveal of recent times.