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.

That’s not exactly the successor to the Dreamcast that you’re looking at above.  It’s the Sega Zone, the newest addition in the long lineup of proprietary consoles – or plug-n’-play systems – that come bundled with a limited number of games (such as the Atari Flashback).

Sega’s Zone contains a Wii-like controller (as well as upright console design), 20 classic Sega games and 30 additional games, 16 of which are motion controlled.  The system contains two of these Wiimote knockoffs which can be used with familiar sports games such as golf and table tennis:

The Sega Zone is reported to be releasing this summer in Europe for a price of £50.

Source: Pocket Lint.

Never one to let another company’s innovation go unchallenged, Microsoft has received patents for a ‘magic wand’, which one can only assume is a forthcoming Xbox 360 controller and not something that makes rabbits appear from top hats.

So Says The BBC:

The patent application also describes “biometric sensors” that would examine “fingerprint, hand geometry, hand vein pattern, palm pattern, and grip configuration” along with “facial thermogram, a facial feature, a retinal feature, or an iris feature”.