Checking In On Project Natal 186
itwbennett writes "A couple of interesting articles followed Robbie Bach's announcement at CES that Project Natal, Microsoft's controller-free Xbox 360 control system, will be shipping in time for the 2010 holiday season, writes blogger Peter Smith. First, Popular Science has a nice look at how Project Natal works, focusing mostly on the software and how 'Microsoft engineers are teaching the Natal 'brain' what various parts of the human body look like so that Natal can tell your ascot from your elbow.' Microsoft is staying mum on the hardware, although Smith notes that we know it involves an infrared camera. 'If you don't care about how the tech works but just want to know if it'll be worth buying,' writes Smith, 'you might be interested in an interview with Robbie Bach in the Financial Post. In the interview Bach claims that 70%-80% of Xbox 360 developers are working on some kind of Natal-enabled gaming software, and he assures us that first-party studios are also hard at work.'"
Some people wrote off the mouse too (Score:3, Insightful)
and many wrote off the GUI in general.
It is how we use the technology that will be important. It might be a fad in games but this has so many other uses and might present a cheaper method for many people to enter into this field (motion control portion not the game portion). This will probably reduce the costs of some groups immensely.
There are still lots of applications today that require hands on manipulation, even waldos, that could benefit from applications of this. Let alone all those stories many us read as kids that can come to life with this technology. Hell, look at Hollywood computer interfaces we all smirked at because they were "wrong". From Blade Runner to Minority Report, I'll take it any step, small or big we can get.
Re:What kind of games will actually use it? (Score:2, Insightful)
No (Score:3, Insightful)
No. Some of us have been looking at them and laughing since day one. I would say the gimmick has, to some extent, already been exposed to most: after all, you can only keep claiming to have a brilliant new innovative technology that will revolutionize gaming for so many years before people realize you haven't actually made any innovative new games and nothing has been revolutionized. And all the AAA games are still using the "old" technology. And waggling a control may amuse your grandma for a time, but once the shiny factor has worn off, you're back to wanting actual gameplay. And that dodgy, inaccurate controls hinder rather than help gameplay.
Motion sensing is only going to work when there's feedback---not just vibration, but full motion resistance. We're a long way from having that technology. Additionally, it doesn't really make sense either when you're watching TV and you have a tiny FOV, rather than complete immersion.
Developers have had years to show otherwise. Maybe someone will come up with a magically awesome use of motion sensing, but until it stops getting in the way and actually lives up to the claims of "intuitive" and "revolutionary," it's nothing but a gimmick for marketing. Natal adds nothing.
Re:Am I the only one (Score:5, Insightful)
Am I the only one who thinks all these motion controllers are a passing fad that we will one day
look back on and laugh about?
No. You'll be happy to know you're one of a million-strong army of internet nerds that 'predicts' that anything popular will not be in the unspecified future. Your breed is not rare, although noone is quite sure how they continue to thrive from generation to generation.
Re:70-80 of the PUBLISHERS (Score:3, Insightful)
Don't underestimate those numbers. 15 third party games at launch would be astounding.
Re:Am I the only one (Score:5, Insightful)
More like those fools that said two screens was a gimmick, touch screens aren't innovative, nobody would play a game like Doom with the mouse instead of a keyboard, a music player without wirelss is lame, nobody wants a phone with a camera built in, etc.
Oh, and if you want to try an interesting academic excercise, go watch what Hollywood thought Virtual Reality would be back in 1993 then look at the games we play today. When you shake your head and go 'so?' think about what 16-bit games were like and the fact that Wolfenstein had not been main-stream yet.
You guys don't know the future and you don't appear 'smarter' because you're making a bet on it.
Re:Natal Brain? (Score:0, Insightful)
Re:Because There Is No 'Next Gen' Xbox (Score:3, Insightful)
>>New Xbox hardware isn't going to happen. Ever.
If ever, you mean "in the next couple years", then yeah, maybe.
Pedantic Note: Except we've been getting new Xbox hardware. Look at the differences in the different revs of the 360. They've migrated both the CPU and GPU from 90 to 65nm, and reduced power consumption by about 50W.
No game generation has ever been "for forever". It'd be kind of silly to expect the 360 to be the last Xbox they ever make.