If you’re excited about Microsoft’s upcoming hands-free, motion-sensing peripheral, Project Natal, then you’ll likely jump for joy (like the kid pictured above) when the company finally debuts further details on the device at E3 in Los Angeles this June. This information comes by way of a press email from the company.
The “world premier” as Microsoft is calling it, will occur on June 13 specifically at the Galen Center in Los Angeles. This premier will actually precede the following morning’s usual Microsoft Press Event, which will be held at the Wiltern Theater.
The big three hitters, Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft, each hold their own press events each year at E3 immediately or shortly before the actual open-floor expo, which allows them to make their biggest announcements without journalists being distracted by sampling the plethora of new titles. So, in a way, Microsoft’s premier will actually constitute a company press-event before the company press-event. That ought to make the second company press-event slightly redundant if it reiterates Natal information at that time.
However, this should give journalists a chance to go hands-on (correction: hands-off) with the peripheral without being subject to absurdly large crowds typically herding at the June expo. Microsoft should be showcasing a majority of the launch software at this event, as well announcing a price point and a final name for the device.
No further details have been provided, but the email states that more information will follow.
What’s up with Microsoft’s motion-controller Project Natal? When will it be released? What kind of games can we expect? Will it suck the life out of video games forever? I don’t have all the answers for these questions, though I do have a few. According to MCV citing unnamed sources, Project Natal is slated to release in November of 2010.
Microsoft is planning to manufacture 5m units for day one release, with a mix of console and camera plus solus SKUs expected.
The device should cost under £50 when sold solo. One publishing source says Microsoft is “trying to get as close as possible to ‘impulse buy’”. Another even says the camera could even retail for just £30.
14 games are being readied for launch.
Activision, Bethesda, Capcom, Disney, EA, Konami, MTV, Namco Bandai, Sega, Square Enix, THQ and Ubisoft all committed to make games for the device in an announcement made at last month’s Tokyo Game Show.
It’s expected a large chunk of launch games will be first-party offerings from studios such as Rare with third-party games to follow. It is not known if Lionhead’s widely-discussed Milo, which uses advanced AI to create realistic characters, will be in the mix.
Natal will arrive almost five years to the day after the Xbox 360 and is perceived by many, Microsoft included, as a way to lengthen the lifespan of the hardware without resorting to a new console launch. The first Xbox was sold in the UK for only three years before 360 hit.
It looks like Project Natal, the nifty gesture-recognition system for Xbox 360, will be coming to Windows. According to who? None other than Bill Gates. In an interview with CNet, Mr. Gates said:
“I’d say a cool example of that, that you’ll see… in a little over a year, is this (depth) camera thing.” Gates said it was not just for games, “but for media consumption as a whole, and even if they connect it up to Windows PCs for interacting in terms of meetings, and collaboration, and communication. Both the Xbox guys and the Windows guys latched onto that and now even since they latched onto it the idea of how it can be used in the office is getting much more concrete, and is pretty exciting. I think the value is as great for if you’re in the home, as you want to manage your movies, music, home system type stuff, it’s very cool there. And I think there’s incredible value as we use that in the office connected to a Windows PC. So Microsoft research and the product groups have a lot going on there, because you can use the cost reduction that will take place over the years to say, why shouldn’t that be in most office environments.”
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