Natal To Launch By Year’s End
By Lawrence Sonntag
Matching most expectations, Microsoft announced that Natal will be available for its Xbox 360 console near the end of the year.
Microsoft Head of Entertainment and Devices Robbie Bach proclaimed that “2010 is going to be the biggest year in Xbox history” during Microsoft’s presentation at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES).
Natal is a camera that recognizes human bodies and movements, allowing the human body to interface directly with a game without a traditional handheld controller.
“With Project Natal we are removing the last barrier to gaming — the controller,” Bach claimed.
This add-on allows players to hit a ball by simply swinging their hands, paint on a wall by waving their hands, or race a car by holding their hands out and gripping an invisible wheel.
Microsoft originally announced the peripheral during E3 2009, showing a demo reel with mocked-up games. A live on-stage demo exhibited Natal’s ability to copy a live person’s motions with a 360 avatar, though the tracking wasn’t spot-on at the time.
The most aggressive demonstration came from Peter “Broken Dreams” Molyneux, featuring a virtual character named Milo. In the video, Milo held conversations with the player and interacted with physical objects held up to the camera.
The divergence between videos shown and actual games demonstrated led some to speculate to the actual capabilities of Natal, though reporters allowed to privately demo the device at E3 2009 confirmed that worked as promised.
[Yahoo News]
