Monday may mark the beginning of the end for pushing buttons or even holding something in your hands to play a video game. At their annual Xbox 360 E3 (or, the Electronic Entertainment Expo, an annual trade show for the computer and video games industry) Media Briefing in Los Angeles, Microsoft announced Project Natal, a seemingly highly-accurate motion-sensing camera that makes players the controller.
"It's not about reinventing the wheel, it's about no wheel at all," – Stephen Spielberg
Using camera technology presumably from 3DV, a company Microsoft was reportedly in talks with to purchase after the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show, has positioned Microsoft as the one video game console maker to be out-done at this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). While Nintendo and Sony have yet to reveal their announcements, Microsoft looks like it has the hit of the show on its hands as its made games even more simple and accessible than Nintendo has done with the Wii.
"It's not about reinventing the wheel, it's about no wheel at all," filmmaker Stephen Spielberg told the audience of the Xbox E3 09 Media Briefing about Project Natal. The video game industry has seen many innovations in the controller department over the past few years with such new modes of control such as guitar and drum controllers and most notably the Wii remote. Project Natal doesn't reinvent controllers, it makes them obsolete. Well, there are some games that are best played with a physical controller, but what project Natal promises is quite amazing.
Have a bone to pick with the name Natal? As it's only a project name for Microsoft's new camera technology, it's highly likely that it's name will change radically. Still hung up on the name? Let's move on to what really matters, the features:
This article appears in May 27 – Jun 2, 2009.