Last night on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon Xbox’s Creative Director for Project Natal, Kudo Tsunoda, showed up with a prototype Natal to demo in front of a live crowd. It’s very cool to not only see the Natal in action, but to see it played by people who are obviously not directly connected to the device’s development (or completely in control of the demo).
The demo starts with the breakout style game shown at E3. Control looks a little laggy, and there’s definitely a bit of a learning curve. Kudo could play just fine, but both Jimmy Fallon and John Krasinski whiffed their first swing at the ball. One of the first things Fallon noticed when he stepped up to play was his hair, which changed from Tsunoda’s shoulder-length mop. Pretty cool, even if his exclamation sounded more than a little scripted.
The second demo showed off Burnout: Paradise, a game Microsoft has adapted to Natal just to showcase the precise control capability of their new peripheral. As you’d expect, Kudo took off without a hitch and flew through the streets. Fallon, on the other hand, maintained reasonable control for all of four and a half seconds before blasting into walls. All four people for the demo jumped in and out of the “driver’s seat” fairly smoothly, though the Natal did take a moment to recognize foot placement for putting the pedal to the floor.
So what of the red suits? It’s hard to say whether everyone threw on the Beastie Boy jumpsuits as a theatrical gimmick or because it made them that much easier for Natal to read. My guess would be the second. No one wants to demo the hottest news in the gaming world just to watch it flop live.
In any case, this is the first we’ve really seen Natal debuted by “consumers,” and it’s at least good to see that it works, even if the situation was constructed on Microsoft’s terms. Hopefully as development continues we’ll get to see more elaborate demonstrations in less controlled environments.
According to a Financial Times report this week, Nintendo toyed with technologies similar to Project Natal and the Sony wand announced at E3 and rejected them, citing better results from Nintendo’s own accelerometers. Nintendo apparently made experimental games using hardware rigs that were similar to those from Sony and Microsoft.
Financial Times says this is Nintendo’s way of throwing the gauntlet at the feet of it’s two competitors. I say it’s more like a schoolyard insult from a company that sees its highly successful strategy adapted to fit the more hardcore consoles. Nintendo has sold some 50 million units worldwide, compared to 30 million 360s and just 23 million PS3s. As Nintendo president, Satoru Iwata, says, “Companies whose people said that motion-sensing wouldn’t work are now proposing motion sensors.” Will they be able to top the Wii?
Despite what FT says, Mr. Iwata seems nervous, and a little confused “Until they say when they’re releasing it, how much it costs and what software it comes with, we won’t know whether that is the route we should have taken.” So Nintendo rejected the technologies because the Wii had a better solution, but it’s still potentially a route Nintendo should have taken? Sounds like Nintendo dumped a hot girl, found out about her incredible new boyfriend and stands waiting for the wedding vows to make an objection.
I’ve had a hunch, ever since Sony announced the 10-year life cycle for the PS3, that the Xbox 360 would take the same route. After all, who wants to launch a console months or years in front of a competitor, giving them plenty of time to get their hands on your stuff and gain some serious advantage.
While talking to Venturebeat, Microsoft VP in charge of strategy and business for interactive entertainment, Shane Kim, has confirmed the 10-year plan as official policy. This is no surprise whatsoever coming on the heels of the Project Natal announcement, but it’s nice to hear you won’t have to give up on the big investment you’ve likely already made into your console.
Kim also took to the interview like a victor in battle, claiming Microsoft “won” E3 with their keynote address. “We had a lot of content for a normal E3 briefing. But Project Natal doesn’t come along every year, and it is very difficult to match,” Kim said. True, and with Sony’s new wand device, Microsoft is sitting just where Nintendo was before E3, the the pioneer trying to get more people playing games, instead of getting gamers to play more games.
Kim said Natal is a mid-cycle release for the 360, so we’ll have at least another 5 years to see how Sony and Nintendo plan to answer.
Hot on the heels of Microsoft’s Project Natal announcement, Sony entered the motion capture battle with their very own…Wiimote? In fact, yes, and from the looks of their demonstration, it’s a pretty slick little device.
The presentation wasn’t groundbreaking, and reused a lot of the “motion is the future of gaming” hype, but Sony did highlight the main difference between their wand and Project Natal: buttons. In a shot across Microsoft’s prow, Sony said, “buttons are needed for some experiences.” They followed up by showing off the motion capture games we all expect: tennis, swordplay, baseball, and painting. Control looked pretty solid, and offers some benefits (like the ability to grab) over Natal (along with the aforementioned buttons), like the ability to control your game when you’re outside Natal’s viewing area.
According to CEO Jack Tretton, Sony’s version of the Wiimote, which seems to still be nameless, will be available in Spring of 2010. I’m surprised it’s so late. Though the tech seemed solid, and the level of control impressive, releasing it so late gives plenty of time for people to get entrenched with a Wii Motion Plus. And though it is hard to imagine a game without buttons, it was also hard to imagine a game without analog sticks, or a traditional two hand controller, and look at the device Sony’s announcing – a deviation from those conventional forms of control.
Can Sony win the future of motion control, or will they just be a Wii with excellent graphics?
Last month we ran a highlight on Johnny Chung Lee, the notorious Wiimote hacker responsible for making things like smartboards, multi-point touchscreens, and virtual 3D environments capable of responding to a user’s location, all from a $30 Wiimote. Lee gained notoriety not only for creating complex equipment from simple parts, but because he kept his work free, available on YouTube and his own website.
Well Lee’s work hasn’t gone unnoticed, particularly by Microsoft. Remember that little thing they debuted yesterday? Project Natal? Yeah, that little game-changer (both the development game and the game itself). As it turns out, Microsoft managed to yank Lee away from his Wiimote hacks (probably by stuffing his pockets) to work on the development team for Project Natal.
“Now, I should preface by saying I don’t deserve credit for anything that you saw at E3,” Lee wrote in a blog post last night. “A large team of very smart, very hard-working people were involved in building the demos you saw on stage. The part I am working on has much more to do with making sure this can transition from the E3 stage to your living room – for which there is an even larger team of very smart, very hard-working people involved.”
Hard work indeed. If you haven’t seen the demo videos, you need to, because Natal points to some really groundbreaking possibilities. As Lee puts things, “We would all love to one day have our own personal holodeck. This is a pretty measurable step in that direction.”
I said yesterday that I was having trouble being skeptical about Natal. It is some incredible technology, but my excitement’s wearing off and I’m beginning to think my dreams are probably bigger than the device. Can it really be as great as Lee says? And when he says a step, how big is that step (and obviously it’s one of MANY before we’re anywhere close to a holodeck)? Are you bouncing-off-the-walls excited or just watching from the corner of your eye?
I do know this, if Lee is involved, Microsoft is compiling a pretty incredible team, and it would take a load of bureaucratic problems to turn their hard work into a lackluster device.
