In 2002 Sony brought us the Eyetoy peripheral but failed to capitalise on its potential. At the 2005 Tokyo Game Show Nintendo revealed their Wii gesture interface that was probably the biggest ever single step change in video gaming. Now Microsoft, after a long gestation, have taken both these ideas and developed them several steps further for the Xbox 360, adding voice control whilst they were at it.
If this works as well as portrayed in the video above then it will be little short of revolutionary, the imagination of game designers can take flight in limitless ways. Removing all control input limitations means gaming can go places we would never have dreamed of.
From a hardware point of view the change in abilities that this brings the Xbox 360 are so great that it is almost like they had launched a new console. But the upcoming Xbox 720 will still be on schedule, Moore’s Law and competitive pressure will make this inevitable.
And competitively, if Natal works as advertised, the Wii will be in severe trouble with its main party trick trumped. And the Playstation 3 is looking distinctly old generation with no gesture interface. All this could change over the next 48 hours as Nintendo and Sony make their E3 announcements. We live in interesting times.
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If this works as shown in the advertising, then it will blow Nintendo out of the water.
Imagine playing a game like Fallout 3 and interacting with the characters using your own voice, emotions and hand gestures.
Obviously still needs a lot of work but this could be the next big thing in gaming.
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have you seen milo simulation…. imagine an rpg with this
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Will it recognise my trigger finger, if not that’s FPS’ down the pan
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The ads are always so gay. The driving one is retarded, for a simple reason: no one can hold his/her arms stretched in front, up in the air more than 30 seconds without already experiencing muscular fatigue.
Beyond one minute, it’s not even a game anymore.
Now, there are obviously plenty of very nice options, but a hand controller will soon prove necessary.
A good voice recognition would really be a nice addition to games. Other options, I don’t know. I never really associated games with abundant sweatin’.
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well.. I can’t wait to check it out myself, and I think it’s great that we see competition from Microsoft side and we’ll have more good stuff out of it. I’ve seen more new games at: http://www.microsoftrnd.co.il
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This is so fake. No way Microsoft will pull this off as advertised. The real version will be so glitchy that it will make this hardware useless.
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Iraj,
Here is a great article for you: https://www.bruceongames.com/2008/02/17/fanboys/