The Kinect was a huge success, just not in gaming. At the time of its release it revolutionized robotics. Equivalent sensors at the time cost thousands of dollars compared to the hundred or so of a Kinect. We could buy a dozen of them and allow undergrads to play with them, exposing them to CV algorithms only grad students got to experience before. It opened up research to replicability too. Before you would have a mapping paper done with a specialized sensor. You would have to pay thousands for the specialty sensor to create the same map. With the Kinect, everyone had the same hardware, so mapping research became almost commoditized. It was an incredible to be to be a roboticist.