Media Man: Electronic and Mainstream Arts
Project Natal: The next big leap in gaming or the newest letdown?
At the most recent Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles, Microsoft revealed its newest innovation, an attachment, or peripheral, titled Project Natal (pronounced Na-taal). Microsoft promises a brand-new gaming experience, calling it “a revolutionary new way to play: no controller required.” According to the website, http://www.xbox.com, “the only experience needed is life experience.” With a variety of uses planned, including full-motion sensing games, voice recognition, even a webcam chat, and what looks like some pretty advanced technology, this could be a fantastic leap for the gaming medium.
However, I am still rather skeptical. I can’t help but be reminded of the EyeToy for Playstation 2. Don’t remember it? That’s the point. It was very similar to Project Natal – full-motion sensing, face recognition, lots of fun minigames – but it ended up failing pretty hard. As one of the few people who bought one, I can say it was mildly fun, if just for the gimmick value, but it got old quickly and didn’t work nearly as well as advertised. Come to think of it, when that came out people were comparing it to the Nintendo Powerglove, a SNES peripheral that supposedly allowed full-motion sensing. That’s still considered one of Nintendo’s biggest failures, considering it couldn’t sense anything at all. I suppose the reason I’m so skeptical is because motion sensing has a history of not working as planned. But forever the optimist, I’d like to highlight some of the reasons why we shouldn’t write it off immediately.
Nintendo’s most recent console is the Wii, which boasted full-motion sensing controllers. Though it hasn’t been a colossal success, the motion-sensing works well enough, especially with games such as Wii Sports, the free series of minigames that comes with the console. Additionally, Sony thought it would be fun to steal Nintendo’s idea and added in a motion-sensing ability to the Playstation 3. While this was hardly used, it seemed functional in the few situations where a game included the option. Perhaps the technology has advanced to the point where a motion-sensor could actually be a viable option. At the very least, the webcam and face/voice recognitions probably won’t be too bad. A bold move on Microsoft’s part to be sure, Project Natal may show some promise yet, perhaps expanding on the old idea, making interactive gaming practical. Whether or not it’s the future of gaming though remains to be seen.