By this time tomorrow night, the mainstream gaming press will likely be heralding the end of Nintendo’s long reign of terror, courtesy of Microsoft’s “revolutionary” Natal camera stick. The Nintendo presser? “Lame,” they’ll say, chortling about Cammie Dunaway or some other such extraneous nonsense.
And in one year’s time, gaming will look incredibly different than it does today. I agree.
But peering into my crystal ball, it’s not dancing Milo freak children lying about their homework that I see. Nope. It’s MotionPlus. 1:1 swordfights. Accurate sword fights, mind you. Ones that don’t require you remain fixed in the center of the room. Oh, and that’s Surface there in the image. Another high-priced MS marketing project whose life will, in two years time, uncannily resemble Natal’s. Just my opinion, of course. Not like I’ve ever been right with these crazy predictions before or anything.
And yes. This post was completely predictable coming from me. Kind of like Microsoft descending from the heavens today claiming they saved gaming with a motion controls “revolution.”
I agree. Especially since this idea is poorly executed when comparing a motion sensor on the body to a camera with motion recognition at a distance.
If this really did come out, I want to test it. I want to see if my cat will be misrecognized as a human player.
Pretty cool tech outta Microsoft I must admit, I wont hate :).
But its funny that during the Ubisoft presser tonight, they announced another pretty impresive camera game coming out exclusively for the wii this year and it was made apparently in conjunction with Nintendo.
In the post before this one I freely heaped praise on Natal in the comments. It's incredibly cool for a tech demo. Nice for a concept. Just like Microsoft Surface.
But $200 for an accessory? Ambiguous 2010 launch date? No Wii Sports-like launch software? Milo and the Perilous Journey Through the Uncanny Valley? Please.
This is one of two things: A marketing ploy meant to deter people from buying a Wii over the next year; or a really desperate move that won't actually come to fruition until sometime in the next decade, by which time, well, MotionPlus will have buried it before it's even born.
And I'll be waggling away the whole time, oblivious to it all.
It will be interesting to see what happens. I just see every game that comes out for this being something that might as well had been on the Wii.
Are they going to have Halo Natal? I doubt it. So what happens to that "hardcore gaming = real gaming?
One thing I am happy for is this:
Now that motion is being taken pretty seriously by pretty much everyone (third parties included) as well as the casual market getting pretty good press time at all the conferences so far, this garbage about "waggle" and "wii sucks cause it waggles" can finally die.
It's the future and Wii ushered it in.
"Ones that don't require you remain fixed in the center of the room."
Well on this point, it's not like the Wii is all that much better. The Wii sensor bar pretty much requires you to be in a specfici area as well.
But I do agree that it's way too early to get too hyped up for this. This was a demo, and I'm sure most of that commercial "demo" we saw the footage was filmed on screen and the actors acted out the motions. And the price will be a big deal. I don't care how great the technology is, if the thing is $200, then it will be thrown on the heap of dead consoles and accessories.
@ ResidentialEvil:
I was able to (poorly) play Wii Sports Tennis from my living room downstairs, where the Sensor Bar was picking up faint signals in my room.
You called it Jack… a very typical post from you.
Slightly taken aback by hearing hundreds of people cheering about Natal down the hallway at work…
I know it's not going to fly off the shelves.
But hey, on the other side, Surface is pretty awesome – have you ever tried one out?
Natal could be out next week. I mean all they have to is speed up production on the paint jobs on the PS3's eye toys then ship them out.
Natal could be great, but really? Too late in the life cycle. WMP is barely OK itself since the system has been out one year less than 360.
As a tech demo Natal is impressive, as was Surface. To be implemented in an affordable manner any time soon, however, is unlikely.
I don't disagree about the enthusiast press calling for the downfall of Nintendo, that seems to happen regardless (and it will happen, eventually, so in that sense they can all claim they were right).
I think this is the future for motion-control games (if it's accurate enough) perhaps not this generation but definetly the next. The only problem is that even this thing needs a nunchuck or something that makes moving in the game possible.
I think the difference is that Surface was never intended to be implemented in an affordable manner from the get-go. It was always intended to be a device for retail establishments first, not something your average consumer would be getting anytime soon. And I think it could still succeed quite well there in the long run. I also think multi-touch table pcs are likely to eventually replace at least some of our older interfaces at some point down the line when the tech is cheap enough. It makes too much sense for too many applications.
Natal on the other hand, really doesn't seem like something well suited to the current console generation. I could understand if the next Xbox used it as it's primary controller, then it'd make a little more sense, but in absence of that? I have to wonder if MS still doesn't get that it's Wii Sports and Wii Fit's software that sold both the wiimote and the balance board. They'd need something comparable.
Also, there are a number of distortions and factual errors in that piece by Malstrom, which is relatively disappointing. He's usually more on the ball than that.
I don't necessarily think that the sentiment regarding the Natal itself is horribly off, but how he got there lacks the same sort of sound intellectual framework that he typically applies. It comes off an an anti-Microsoft rant that's primarily based on assumptions of motivation without clearly defined basis in fact.
The attacks on Surface in particular make no sense, since it was from the very start intended to be for the commercial sector, and was pretty upfront about that. Even back in 2007 they talked about how initial availability would be limited to that sector. And it is and has been available to that market for some time now, so it's not pushed back into 2010 and forgotten, it's just not a mass market consumer product, and was never intended to be.
There are plenty of valid angles to talk about why Natal is poorly placed and the difficulties it faces in becoming a viable product, but the one he went for makes the least sense and is the least grounded in clear objective reasoning.
My previous experience with the PS2's EyeToy makes me wary of controllerless input. Lighting had to be right, your position from the TV was predictated, and the motions had to be exaggerated past natural. It's been a few years since then, and I'm sure the technology has improved, but it doesn't remove the trepidation people would have with motion control. People laughed about Wii waggling initially, and removing the controller just makes the movements seem even more crazy.
even the EyeToy's sucessor, the Playstation Eye was pretty much ignored apart from its bundled (and admittedly impressive) card monster game.
I thought Milo was impressive from an A.I. standpoint, but rumors that a behind-the-scenes developer was massaging a reporter's handson experience makes me cautious on how much it will deliver. In any case, that kind of stuff excites me, as it has the potential to change computer kiosks at, say, the library or the airport terminal. The Librarian in "The Time Machine"? Yeah, that's potentially Milo in a few decades time.
trust me jack, natal will be a platform.
you know that feeling in your stomache when your right all the time? well, it's probably irony.
i missed the part where microsoft claimed to have saved gaming, though admitedly i havent paid the closest attention this week. but maybe that was just predictable hyperbole in a predictable post. but hey! at least you got a page view out of it from me! now if i'd only click on that ridiculously unappealing ad at the bottom of the screen…