Project Natal: The Wii Killer?

[Frog]

Yea, what I don't like about this camera is that you would have to scan yourself or whatever object in and then the game would have to adapt to whatever you are or are not holding for a controller. What is gonna control various button presses etc.? Snapping your fingers to shoot a bullet?

I guess they could have you play with it and a controller at the same time.

But with wii you have 3 controls. wii-mote, nunchuck, and depth with sensor-bar. So you already have trackable devices for both of your hands each with multiple buttons for more advanced moves. Besides the obvious awesome uses as guns, paint-brush(okami), sword(red steel2), fishing pole(zelda), you have more complex uses such as snapping someone's neck(Madworld).

Do you really think devs are going to be able to make tight controls when the variables are infinite if you don't already have controllers like with wii. Do you really think they can perceive every thing you might pick up in your house and every possible combination of jesture(to replace buttons) and get tight controls out of that? Microsoft's cam sucked. So did Sony's. Sony's motion controls were not nearly as advanced as the Wii's either.

I was much more impressed with the Red Steel 2 (15 minute) demo showed by Ubisoft today. And I hear they are packing M+ in with the game so it's looking really cool.

I wonder if Sony is gonna spring out there rumored motion controller this E3?

 

[Dzapper]

Well after looking deeply at what project natal really is I must say that it is interesting. However interesting isn't always good. What makes the Wii remote (and SIXAXIS for arguments sake) so intuitive is the fact that it is adaptable to game types and game genres that already exist. Therefore people will be willing to make use of it, they have the option to use as little, or as much of the motion control as possible. However to fully utilize natal, a developer would have to literally build a game fully based around motions of the body. This may work with virtual life games like the Milo tech demo. But when it comes to real gaming I doubt it will catch on, could you really see Cliffy B coming out saying Gears of War 3 is fully controlled by Natal!? Of course not.

And then there is the issue of how much will this thing cost. Judging from the tech demo it was doing some pretty high tech stuff: Motion sensing, depth perception, scanning real life objects, reading facial expressions, etc. Milo is a charming young lad, but I doubt anyone will pay $150 just to hand him a sheet of paper. Plus since they are just revealing this now, we probably won't see the first (good) Natal compatible games coming until late 2010 or early 2011. I think this is just a little bit too late for Microsoft.

 

[Nihilism]

I don't think this is going to kill the Wii. Nintendo already have this demographic in their pocket. With that said, I definitely think this is much cooler than and more revolutionary than Wii. Unfortunately, this technology is only relevant for exercise games. Gamers don't want to stand up and swing their bodies around to play a game, that would ruin the immersion.

Even so, I expect to see more impressive ideas than crap like Wii Play, Wii Fit, Wii Music, and Wii Sports Resort. Obviously games are going to have to be specifically tailored for this peripheral. They'll likely launch games with it just as Nintendo is bundling motionplus with Wii Sports Resort and Red Steel 2.

 

[stickmode]

For all these xbox360/ps3 owners that hate the Wii:
"Wherever Microsoft and Sony trying to catch the Wii user base, they never can't catch them"
First the project Natal is a pantomime as the eye toy from Sony, has some potential as a new interface for the PC but not by a game console. I imagine how funny those stupids xbox360 owners look using stupid body gestures trying to play a game. HA HA HA
Second if Nintendo wants they can implement a camera for the Wii as Ubisoft already did with the fitness game "Your Shape", with all features the Natal offer, the voice recognition can be implemented using the WiiSpeak, the AI can be used with games specially programed to do this, the scanning peripherals too using the camera to scan objects. If you can see the Wii can do everything the Natal does. I want so much Nintendo releases a camera to beat Microsoft in every aspect, force the third parties to start making AAA games to catch the xbox360 hardcore base, launch the Manga channel to beat the Netfix service, contract a company that has huge experience in networks to built his online network infrastructure and beat the xbox-live service surpassing the 300.000 users that Microsoft plans to support in a MMO game. And finnaly launch the long waited Wii HD to beat the competency and gain the ABSOLUTE DOMINATION as the NES days. The Nintendo fans want these days coming with Nintendo reings as supreme company in both hardware and software sales.

 

[hencam[uk]]

I was really impressed by Natal, it offers a new level of interaction, even compared to the Wiimote.

The only downside I can see is that for anything other than boxing / driving / walking around games they're going to have fun getting strafing and shooting controls etc.

For a technology demo though it is amazing, and might make Nintendo feel slightly less complacent about the future.

 

[Nihilism]

I imagine how funny those stupids xbox360 owners look using stupid body gestures trying to play a game. HA HA HA

Yeah, they're going to look so stupid swinging their stupid hands around and using their stupid voices for stupid voice recognition and getting their stupid families together for some stupid games to have a stupid good time painting stupid paintings of stupid stuff with their stupid hand gestures on their stupid screens in their stupid living room in their stupid homes in their stupid towns in their stupid states in their stupid countries on their stupid planets in their stupid galaxies in their stupid star systems in their stupid universes.

They're so stupid!

 

[js2393]

All depends on if it works as good as they say it does.

 

[stickmode]

All depends on if it works as good as they say it does.

Yeah, you right. I think the best strategy is wait if this peripheral has sucess and if this happen Nintendo needs to launch the "Qii" infrared camera that recognize the body temperature and allows special camera effects like Michael Chan did with his Wiimote stereoscopic experiments, the 4D that Camie Dunaway was saying in the Nintendo conference, 4D effect depends of the angle that you see the TV screen and this making the games look with amazing depth.