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If "xBox 360: Project Natal takes shot at Wii" is not shown property. Visit the source link above.
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The future 360: Project Natal takes shot at
Wii |
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After a bunch of (mostly) expected games,
Microsoft's E3 press
conference finally revealed something of greater interest
and scope: Project Natal, the code name for the company's
well-rumored motion-sensing bar. |
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Taking a direct shot at Wii users who "sit on
the sofa using some kind of preset waggle commands," Natal is
controller-free, using what looks like a TV-mounted
camera/microphone bar to sense motion, sound, and even 3D movement,
suggesting that the technology involved is far beyond that of
products like Sony's PlayStation Eye. |
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Demoed at the press
event were a Breakout-like game called Ricochet, which involved
hitting a ball across a room to destroy bricks, and a paint program
called Paint Party. Paint Party's gestural vocabulary seemed to be
stuck in Jackson Pollack-land, but the simple splash-to-paint
commands seemed to be relatively responsive. |
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As
if the legitimacy of Microsoft's move had not been validated yet,
on came Steven Spielberg to rave about this future direction for
game technology, claiming that "people are too intimidated to pick
up game controllers." This makes sense, but it's already been
proven with the Nintendo Wii
and the iPhone. Microsoft is a latecomer
to this party, but Spielberg did announce that he's currently
working on games for this platform, although no more details
were given. |
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Accuracy, however,
remains a big question mark. Cheap shots at the Wii
notwithstanding, Nintendo was smart enough to include old-fashioned
buttons for quick interaction. The iPhone, too, has a
quick-response tapping system. Will punches or swipes substitute
for button-pressing in future
Xbox-land? |
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