Kinect Will Focus on the Xbox 360, for Now, Microsoft Says

Microsoft countered recent rumors and even its CEO's own words, which hinted at the possibility that the company will expand its support for the new Kinect peripheral to the PC, not just to the Xbox 360 consoles, as it is right now.

The Kinect has been a pretty big success for the American company, selling more than 8 million units in its first 60 days, as well as a lot of games, both from Microsoft and from third-party publishers.

This, coupled with the fact that through open-source software the Kinect has been used for a variety of functions using a simple PC, made people think that the company would soon release official drivers and development kits for its Windows platform.

Don't get your hopes too high, though, as the company has just issued a statement, saying that, right now, the company is focusing on delivering a great Kinect experience on the Xbox 360.

"It's easy to imagine the many ways Kinect could be used for different applications and Microsoft is uniquely positioned to offer that. Right now our focus with Kinect is transforming games and entertainment on Xbox 360."

This goes against yesterday's rumor that Microsoft is preparing to launch official drivers for the Kinect on the PC, as well as a software development kit for developers that want to make their own applications using the Kinect on the Windows platform.

Also, this counters the statements of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer who declared a few weeks ago that Kinect PC support would arrive at the near future.

"We'll support that in a formal way, in the right time, and when we've got an announcement to make we'll make it."

These are some pretty polarizing statements from Microsoft, but it's safe to say that Kinect will be officially supported on the PC in the future, sooner rather than later.