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Is Project Natal a vague promise or the first terminator?
The fellow in charge of our sister site DVICE is Pete Pachal. As a guy who follows gadgetry, he knows a heck of a lot more than me about the divide between the promise of a technical innovation and the actual end result. So I was interested to read his take on Microsoft's Project Natal.But remember, this is Microsoft we're talking about. Creator of the Zune. Maker of Windows Vista. Author of PlaysForSure. Given the company's checkered past (the Xbox 360 being a very relevant exception), there's a chance it might screw up Natal, too.
He lays out three very common sense reasons to be skeptical about it.
By way of contrast, I rode the subway downtown every day for E3. On the final day, I sat next to some fellow who got on the subway way up in North Hollywood wearing his E3 badge (I opted not to put mine on while I was still in the real world). He self-identified himself as a blogger and struck up a conversation with a politely curious older fellow, explaining E3 to the guy. I had to write down his comments about Project Natal, which were as follows, directly quoted:It reads your emotions off a scan. Very scary. It's the first terminator. They showed a guy named Milo who helps you with your emotions. And this woman could reach down and touch a picture of some water and the ripples moved all around. Then she grabbed a fish fakely and it showed it on the screen.
While it's easy to dismiss the guy as clueless, it also says a lot about the message Microsoft is putting out.
By Jerec at 8:00 PM ON 06/05/09
Keep in mind that last time I read about Microsoft Surface that is uses cameras to track objects that were placed on it and can Identify them. I'm fairly sure that wouldn't be that hard to adapt it to work in another manor for project Natal.
But of course Sony already done this with the EyeToy
By Hengst2404 at 8:28 PM ON 06/05/09
Hey Tom, love your stuff, but seriously? I was at E3 this year, I saw what they would show and what they wouldn't show. I walked the floor and talked to various folks, both in the gaming industry and the journo/blogos and most of them were really buzzing about Natal. Certainly there are some skeptics, but to read you absolutely gushing about the new Sony device and ripping on Natal I have to question your objectivity a bit.
Not necessarily because you disagree with me or somebody else, but because I have yet to read what it is you see in the Sony device versus Natal. They are seemingly not the same type of device, merely playing in the same gaming space.
By Miramon at 9:11 PM ON 06/05/09
Haha, Tom is definitely a well-known Sony fanboy. He loves MGS, you know.
By Neuromancer at 10:32 PM ON 06/05/09
So the point of the post is what, you rode on the bus with an idiot? I do that every day!
By Neuromancer at 10:33 PM ON 06/05/09
And by bus I mean a subway.. You know, underground bus...
By Yora at 11:54 AM ON 06/06/09
So what?
Isn't that why we come here and read the articles? ^^
By _Nocturnal at 4:56 PM ON 06/06/09
Now imagine how much scarier would the Terminator franchise have been if it was about robots from the future (named Milo, of course) that wanted to help you with your emotions!
I may have committed a terrible transgression with the tenses here, English not being my first language.
By Awesome Fool at 7:24 AM ON 06/07/09
If you're looking forward to Project Natal, check out http://www.project-natal.com, bringing the latest news on Project Natal daily.
By Jimmie at 12:25 PM ON 06/07/09
Let's not forget Apple had plenty of plunders in the 80's that almost brought the company. It will be interesting to see if Microsoft has learned from its blunders. Microsoft hasn't had to compete until the last 5 years or so.
By Steiner at 5:05 PM ON 06/07/09
Uh, yeah, Jimmie. Let's not forget that...
...what???
By Anonymous at 9:50 AM ON 06/08/09
I think he means 'blunders'. Newton, anyone?
By james at 10:51 AM ON 08/27/09
Project navel does look interesting funny that the cant even show a live showing of it rather than pre made videos I watched all the e3 shows and xbox for me was an epic fail, nintendo and ps3 were showing real footage and live gameplay of really cool looking games, as for microsoft they just invited two of the beatles to talk about ther new game yay and showed a load of videos no actual gameplay just pre made bollocks. sure there are really cool games on xbox but they didnt show it off at e3 at all. btw project navel is probably gonna be coming out soon right? they have hyped it up to the max with all the pretty videos, but did anybody see the ps3 eyetoy controller on e3? even tho its only a prototype atm it will rip project navel apart and possibly even the wii, if you watch the video you will see what I mean.
james:
Project navel does look interesting funny that the cant even show a live showing of it rather than pre made videos ...More »