The decision was made following the release of the Kinect for Windows v2 sensor in October, in an effort to increase the adoption and development of its second-generation sensor and software library. The company urges business customers who have invested in creating experiences based on the original sensor to notify Microsoft in advance as it will do its best to fill these orders and have stock reserved for them. However, once the existing stock has been exhausted, there will be no more.

Although the original product was described as a "milestone achievement" which "allowed developers to create solutions that broke through the old barriers of mouse and keyboard interactions", Microsoft explained in its blog post that "the move to v2 marks the next stage in our journey toward more natural human computing."