Network now...NEWS
Microsoft Announces Controller-Free Gaming
Microsoft has unveiled a “breakthrough sensor” for Xbox 360 that “detects 3D movements and voices,” codenamed Project Natal.
Don Mattrick, senior vice president for the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft, said at the company's E3 conference: “We can leap into a new era of entertainment without introducing a new console… We make you the controller.”
A press release explains: “Compatible with any Xbox 360 system, the ‘Project Natal’ sensor is the world’s first to combine an RGB camera, depth sensor, multi-array microphone and custom processor running proprietary software all in one device. Unlike 2-D cameras and controllers, ‘Project Natal’ tracks your full body movement in 3-D, while responding to commands, directions and even a shift of emotion in your voice.
“In addition, unlike other devices, the ‘Project Natal’ sensor is not light-dependent. It can recognise you just by looking at your face, and it doesn’t just react to key words but understands what you’re saying. Call a play in a football game, and players will actually respond. Want to log onto Xbox Live? Simply step in front of the sensor.”
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Gotta be careful you don't squish the cat ducking for cover....
Tactile sensation is a big part of interactivity though. Hitting a button, a trigger, pushing an analog stick has a tactile sensation. Even swinging the wiimote does.
But swinging your arms in the air, it's just air.
Love the pic, but to be honest, my dick is too big to enjoy Star Trek! I could have bought a PS3 when my first xbox died after a year, but I didn't because I still had my games and it was cheaper. I also think that if I bought a ps3 I would still only have MGS4 and LBP to justify that move. I hate a lot of things about MS and Sony but MS seem to be capable of everything and more than the competition can do. To be honest, I bought one because I was impatient for next gen and since then it's been economics all the way (my second xbox is still humming like a bee) MGS on Xbox makes me the most happy though. Peace.
The video seemed more like a pipe dream than anything. A furturists vision of gaming in 2050. I'm incredibly skeptical the actual experience will be anything akin to what was shown...that they could only show us a mock-up is reason for concern enough. At best I expect it to be too simliar to the eyetoy...though the claim that it doesnt depend on light could certainly lend itself to better possibilities. But we need actual results first.
I think MS and Sony are making a mistake in attempting to hop on the Wii bandwagon. They have the market covered, and no on will pay a premium for an HD console with the same or similar capabilities through the addition of a sold-separately peripheral. The market penetration will be weaker and less appealing to developers.
Despite the fact that I own a Wii and do enjoy several of the titles, there is alwyas going to be a place for conventional games with conventional controllers, and MS/Sony certailny excel Nintendo in that respect. This year (and last), they are definitely doing better to cater to the hardcore than Nintendo. I don't think either of their newly introduced devices will help much for those of us who actually post at this site.
Gee Nick, do you think you could maybe put a few more comments on this thread? You cry an awful lot about fanboys for someone who is clearly a viral marketer, astroturfer, paid shill or whatever you want to call Microsoft's PayPerPost™ army.
Even if you put 14 more posts on here it won't change the fact that this "product" "announcement" is PURE VAPOR.
Nick is hardly a viral marketer. He supports the console he purchased, as do we all, and he expresses his opinion, as do we all. Yeah, he's biased towards 360. But that's why it's an *opinion*. You're allowed to be biased. Welcome to the comment section!
The stupidity on this site is unbearable. Go fuck yourself dubs, top, rider, and Wall e.
......the gif needs music ! lol
tbh I'm really looking forward to natal , I don't mind doing silly stuff like that - it's a good laugh when you have friends/family around!
So go take your astroturfing elsewhere, then!
At least the rabid, cursing fanboys with the bad spelling don't pretend to be something they are not.
(Having said that, your own spelling's been pretty poor lately and just look at all those naughty words!)
You must be referring to my impression of the children who frequent this establishment? I don't mind being called a fanboy because I am a 360 loyalists, but one thing I'm not is a paid viral marketer. Just because my posts sound like I'm educated, doesn't mean I get paid to do it. Maybe if I started sounding like an illiterate moron, people would take me more seriously?
Edit: I have nothing to prove to you or any of the other haters on this site so why bother defending myself? I fell into the trap of not ignoring the challenged individuals on this site, won't make that mistake again.
Actually, I was referring to "peccimest," "scarred about pricing" and "go f*ck yourself," since you asked.
And the question isn't why are you defending yourself, it's WHY ARE YOU DEFENDING MICROSOFT? You definitely cross the line into seeming like you're somehow beholden to them. I know I'm not the only one to have noticed and commented on this.
WHY ARE YOU DEFENDING MICROSOFT?
Funny you should say that as i ask that question everytime i see nick's posts.
I think MS are paying his rent or something along those lines?!
C'mon Dubs, we're still on this? I sincerely defend MS (and have defended Sony and Nintendo, too). It's my opinions I'm putting out there and they don't always match everyone else’s. I don't do it because I "like" MS, those are truly my views. There are many reasons why I like the 360, but none are due to blind devotion. I was a huge Nintendo fan and if these forums were around since the SNES days I would have been defending Nintendo against "blast-processing". Nintendo ultimately went a direction I didn't like so I found a console I preferred. If MS starts going in a direction that doesn't suit my gaming habits I'll happily jump ship just like I did with Nintendo. And I think it's natural for even the most objective person to have some bias and if that show's with me, then so be it. But I do try to be critical of MS too, the rare time that's needed...just playin ^^.
Honestly, the PS3 and 360 in the end or so similar that you can't go wrong with either one. I just happened to get a 360 first (and am a huge Halo fan) so I went that way. If I was a huge GOW or Metal Gear fan, I would have went that way and I'm sure I would have been more than happy with what the PS3 offered. The debating is just for fun.
At this point, after your reply (if there is one) I'd be happy to drop this. But please, don't call me a viral marketer. I well aware that people know I'm in a 360 enthusiast, but never have I approached Kim's level or arrogance or flat-out bullshit.
Oh and for peccimest (pessimist) and scarred (scared) I didn't spell check. Like I said to dream it's the appearance of intelligence not actually having it that's important lol.
Oh for fucks sake it's the fucking Eye Toy with voice recognition!! It's hardly breakthrough. I hate the way MS and their evangelists seem to act like gaming and the various features of gaming never existed before MS came along.
fnaboy so ny lover get a room you and picard should make baby's . u jtus hate M$ and trie to taklsh!t any time somone sayz a good coment about them tanal is teh best itwill rool over nitnendo and they're $hitie majick wand and soniez eyetoy i mate eyetoy is bullocks and gobshite rolled intwo 1 you suck and so dos sonies shit games and blue ray sucks it two is shite ffs sone copys nintendo and microbest
sony and there fanboys lol
Try dealing with that for a day.
If Sony had created this then I would say fair play - but all they are bringing out is a shitty one-analogue stick fucking abortion of a rehash of an upgrade of a fucking abortion PsP! I do not want to sound like a fanboy, but, MS have wrapped up MGS for 360, a potential Wii beater and a potential iPod touch beater - while still being innovative. E309 seems to belong to Microsoft at this stage!
Ouch. Scorpion you better watch out. I'm branded all the time as some MS fanboy fanatic (redundant?) and I usually try to be objective especially when criticizing Sony. Of course MS can be bashed freely by anyone on here in any way they see fit warranted or not and they are free from criticism, but the second you say anything about Sony...oh you better watch out. You're going to get all kinds of clever picture responses and insults about your age and whether or not you have a penis. Yeah, happens at this site too unfortunately.
So predictable. I can't see pictures at work, but I'd guess Star Trek has something to do with it. Speaking of Star Trek, have you seen the new one? It was actually pretty cool (first star trek movie I had ever seen).
Well played, Aarron, well played.
That shut those two up right proper. If I were Nick & Scorpion, I'd think twice about posting stupid comments on these forums. This site's for grownups, not dickless babies!
Oh Jean-Luc, is there anything you can't do?
Dry sarcasm, gotta love it. Or mockery (maybe a bit of both?).
I don't know what you're talking about. I'm totally serious!
I mean, Aarron threw it up once, & I was, like, Oh, Snap!; but then he threw it up again, right after. Needless to say, I was all - Oh No He Didn't!
Obviously inspired by the Nintendo keynote, Aarron sent a message that, on the surface, appeared to be the incarnate of redundancy & irrelavence. In reality, he's making a profound statement about life. I'll get back to you when I figure out what that statement is.
You're right, how did I not see that?
I'm mad about the GO too, but cross your fingers & wait for the tech-specs.
If they push it the hardware to OMAP3 levels; this device will still be my new religion.
You're both wrong: it's VAPOR. Classic Microsoft vapor. Nothing more, nothing less.
We can all continue this lively discussion about how it compares to the EyeToy (if and) when it's a REAL SHIPPING PRODUCT WITH GAMES and a price and other details, mkay?
Until then, VAPOR.
It's funny reading all the skeptics' (nicest word I can come up with) comments. My wife is sorta a natural peccimest and always expects the worst (for the most part). I can't help but be reminded of my wife when reading all these comments. I think that system bias in most cases is really what's a play here. If anyone watched the live demonstrations it's easy to see why a lot of people including a ton of press (not just EDGE) are very excited about this citing clear advantages this technology has over Eye-Toy or the Wii wands.
I do agree though that pricing and launch info would be nice. I'm guessing we'll see some games by next year, but I'm scarred about pricing. For a camera having the ability to recognize your face and voice, sign you into your profile, and let you navigate your dashboard without even having to find the controller or remote seems like it should be pretty damn expensive. But if they're trying to get into "everyone" with this, it can't be expensive. Casuals and expensive don't really mix.
Nick, are you really that ignorant of Microsoft's past? Do you know nothing of the tortuous history of Longhorn and it's moving-target spec sheet that eventually shipped as the abomination known as Vista? Have you not heard of the "Surface" "Computer" aka the inverted bathtub with some cameras taped to it that's STILL "in development" after however many years? The examples are endless and they are known and they are documented.
THIS IS VAPOR. And you can expect any attempts to discuss it as though it is anything approaching a real and tangible product to be denounced as such in these forums from now until whenever it ships.
You can try to brand me a "skeptic" all you want. I know my Microsoft history and this is a CLASSIC Microsoft tactic.
Did you read the PR blurb? The purpose of the demo was to show people what to expect of the technology - and to advertise it to potential developers.
Those who have had hands-on experience are really positive about it + MS are actually shipping the product to developers right now so we can expect the first actual games to be shown by next years E3.
I can understand you feeling doubtful , but the live on- stage demonstration + the fact they're letting people try out the product - talk to Milo even, shows confidence.
MS aren't going to make something up like this at E3 - as people are going to hold them to the promises made.
Time will tell .
If anything it's significantly more exciting then Nintendo's vitality sensor! (0_0)
Time will tell. In the meantime, it's VAPOR.
It's vapor to you , I'm looking forward to it!
I too was skeptical of this new product. But after seeing it running live on an actual 360 after just a couple months of dev time, it's easy to think that this might actually be the real deal. I'm sure by next year it'll be out with some games. To have this take center stage at E3 the way it did, I can't imagine it being "vapor". I'm not expecting any revolutionary games right away as has been the case with new tech (DS and Wii took a bit to having games that weren't gimmicky). I honestly think MS is just testing the waters with this tech this gen and depending on how well it turns out may integrate it into the hardware of the next box. I'm not delusional, I'm not expecting this (at least not this gen) to really be fleshed out the way MS is describing it. I guess we'll see right?
Welcome Arron, glad to see you could make it. We missed you yesterday.
I don't know about the eye-toy with voice recognition, it seems to be a bit more than that to me. And the way they've decided to implement it and its features into the system itself instead of having it attached to only games seems like another addition the Eye Toy didn't have. Since I've never used Eye Toy or NATAL (obviously) I can't really say, but from the demonstration it looked pretty impressive and if the Eye Toy is as accurate, it's a shame it hasn't been fully utilized.
This thing looks pretty damned impressive. Of course, there is currently no release date, and we have no idea what the price is, so it could be anything between massive success and epic fail.
I think a high quality joystick and a button is the best input device. The gamecube controller hasn't been beat, but it will be interesting to see what kind of bullshit this motion capturing thing will produce.
No release date? Shown behind closed doors? Disclaimer on the video saying "Product vision: actual features and functionality may vary?"
I smell vapor.
Look at Youtube video Project Natal by Falinene. It looks like a marketing ad for this and it actually looks amazing. I doubted I would be excited but this genuinely looks like it will be very useful, no controller, no need to even touch the screen with voice and profile recognition and control!
I'm glad to see the industry moving in this direction. I'd like to see the next generation of consoles continue this trend of experimentation.
The whole MS show was a let down. Also, Natal was very boring.
Were you able to see the live feed (I'm jealous). I'm just getting the bits and pieces sprinkled down from the internet heavens since I couldn't access any of the live feeds/blogs. Hopefully the 360's marketplace will have the conference available for download (someone should).
Natal was boring? I keep hearing it was impressive. I'll have to see it for myself first, but I'm a bit skeptical.
I saw the live (laggy) feed - & was blown away .
Tbh - I thought the conference was pretty 'meh' to start off with , things improved with LFD2 onwards and kept getting better.
I thought the MGS announcement was gonna be the star of the show , but then they brought out NATAL - I knew MS where doing motion tech , I just never expected it to be this good .
Try n' watch the whole thing if poss - instead of the little clips , I gotta admit I'm so impressed with MS right now!
They also had extra stuff - facebook+ twitter on live , movies now stream (you don't have to wait for downloads) at 1080p, and Last.fm is now free to all gold members. Also there are free invites to HALO:Reach beta's for all who buy ODST, + more.
Nothing from Rare though , which was odd , but apart from that , really good!
The only 2 people I've seen say NATAL was boring are well known for their 'views' about x360 in general, watch the video n' decide for yourself!
I'm hoping the markeplace will have the whole thing, but if I find a 640x480 version on the 'net I'll be happy with that. Maybe the NATAL tech is that good afterall? Didn't MS buy the company that created this 3D camera thing?
I do take certain individual's comments with moon-sized grains of salt, but sometimes it's possible to get caught up in the hype and "critical" opinions on something could shed some light. You're right, I'll judge for myself later today (and I'm sure I'll be back on from home).
E3 is an exciting time for gamers. We get shreds of news for 6 months, then get slammed with news for 4 days.
I remember hearing somethin' about MS buying a motion tech firm a while back , can't say for certain.
Ha , I know , E3 is like 'Christmas come early' for gamers!
I wouldn't rely on Rider for any news MS related, Nick. I actually feel sorry for Sony as they look more like an old corporate dinosaur with each passing year and guys like Rider, Top, Wall, etc. grow increasingly nasty and negative as they've realized how far behind Sony has fallen.
While Sony is still trying to make Second Life relevant with their clone (Home) and spending several hundred million on old physical media (UMD, Blu-Ray), MS continues to drive digital content with Netflix, Zune video, lastFM, twitter and facebook integration.
Perhaps, but I'm trying to converse with Rider like an adult. I'm trying to promote adult conversation. All the pics and stupid snide comments really have no place on this site, but apparently it's something we all have to tolerate.
I can understand why Sony loyalists are bitter, I was bitter too when the Nintendo 64 and GCN got dominated by Sony but eventually realized I liked games more than anything else and the Xbox was the system for me. Once they get past system loyalty they'd be able to appreciate any console for its successes, not just the ones they like/own. The trailer for God of War III looks sick and makes me wish there were just one console so I could afford to enjoy all the games, not just one system's.
edit: It sounds like MS' press conference was very good. Can't wait to hear what Sony and Nintendo have to announce. By the way, when's Sony's press conference?
Don't worry about it , Rider & co will be less bitter tomorrow - all 3 consoles look to have decent stuff at E3 this year.
GOW3 looks great , but so does Bayonetta (multi-plat) . Also Itagaki - the guy who made the Ninja Gaiden games has his own dev studio now along with the original members from Team Ninja+ even members of the Virtua Fighter team - their new game is gonna be an x360 exclusive - so they'll be no shortage of action games, (there's an interview on 1up.)
Sony and Nintendo's conferences are tomorrow morning and early afternoon.
I'm hoping for Super Mario Galaxy 2 ...... and Pilot Wings.
Ubisoft are doing there's now I think - I so want Beyond Good & Evil 2!!!
I read Itagaki formed a new studio with ex-Team Ninja staff but didn't hear they were making a 360 exclusive game. Crazy. 1up is blocked at my work and I kinda stopped going there when EGM was shut down anyway. Good news though, I read EGM will come back this year.
Pilot Wings seems like a good fit for motion control, that could be good.
There "verbage" was very specific.
• It's not a "2-D" camera - the Eye-Toy was.
• It's not "light-sensitive" - a little Wii shout out there.
I am a lot more excited about it now. It won't replace the controller in any way, but it sounds really interesting.