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How Microsoft will drop the ball on Project Natal

Joe Dusbabek writes:
"Over the last year, we have witnessed people everywhere claiming Project Natal as the true herald of interactive media. Director Steven Spielberg even went so far as to claim that Project Natal would carry with it a range of change, the ripples of which will reach far beyond video games."

The only thing Project Natal will carry with it is failure.

Motion control has obvious potential, and the aforementioned Nintendo Wii's sales figures do nothing to dissuade that opinion. But for a video game format to succeed, it must have a resonating feature - or 10 - that validates the purchase. It's the same reason Sony putting Blu-ray into the Playstation 3 was such a risk and didn't succeed until recently; the PS3 didn't have the gaming library to back up the technology."

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wildcat.arizona.edu
Jamie Foxx5893d ago

And the new info of the restrictions and what can and can't be done with natal, this could be the most expensive egg+face move in gaming.

But Ms will advertise with unlimited budget so aslong as its in consumers homes I guess for ms that's the main thing regardless

People say wait till e3 but to be honest after the staged faked milo act what can we believe from natals showing at this e3?

dangert125893d ago

THQ said the got 40mil sitting down for a natal game that uses everything natal has to offer I.E full body recognisation etc plus do you think MS would let so info out before it's release if it was true?
we all original thought the wii was 1:1 nintendo i'm sure knew thought that but did the say it's not accurate before it came out? no is suicidal allowing such info to get out

Megaton5893d ago (Edited 5893d ago )

The advertising will cover up whatever real failures it has. It's how Microsoft rolls with every single one of their products. PR + ads > quality. You already see fanboys here pretty much copy/pasting pro-Natal statements from Microsoft's press sheets. What's been shown in the past year exactly, aside from tons of PR? A faked Molyneux pedo sim, people crashing into walls in Burnout Paradise, chucking paint on an elephant's ass, and a whole lotta ball slappin'.

Not an Apple fan by any means, but they completely nailed Microsoft's business model with this commercial.

5893d ago
5893d ago
iFLOWLIKEWATER5893d ago

I never understood what people meant by Natal=Fail. Do you mean that it won't sell or make money? Do people think Sony's offering will sell more? Where is this fail located so I can see what you all see.

van-essa5893d ago

You mean the fanboys that post here? They aren't people, they're conditioned robots.

Syronicus5893d ago

"I never understood what people meant by Natal=Fail. Do you mean that it won't sell or make money? Do people think Sony's offering will sell more? Where is this fail located so I can see what you all see."

Why is it that Xbox fans think when somebody says Natal = Fail that they are actually saying PS3 Move = Win?

Just because somebody thinks a product will fail doesn't mean they think that something in the same casual market will succeed...

iFLOWLIKEWATER5893d ago (Edited 5893d ago )

Take off those Sony glasses and you would be able to answer your own question. First 3 or so comments in here are from Sony trolls.

And if you're going to quote what I said at least attempt to answer my questions. Because to me all you did was defend Move...

Edit: Sikbeta, you need to sober up or something, that way you can type up something a little bit more coherent.

sikbeta5893d ago (Edited 5893d ago )

Please, people need to take this in "consideration"... even IF in every site x360 supporters act like If they Love the [Variety of Gaming Genres], there is a Huge number of x360 owners that are "hardcore FPS/TPS Gamers" and they don't going to "pew-pew-pew" in any "hardcore" FPS or TPS Game

From that natal-ad I saw something Really Similar to [Rampage] when that Blonde-Caucasian-kid was "playing" it, also something Really Similar to [BUZZ!™] when that Caucasian-Friendly-Family was playing like "the Ingalls family"

Something is Wrong There, kids/teens/adults that play on LIVE, insulting one to each other almost all the time Don't going to "Share" their respective Gaming Experience because of natal, also [Family+Gaming] = Casual Crap, oh, that sounds great for a Guy that spend a Lot of Time Killing other Dudes on MW2-Multiplayer, Just saying...

Edit:

Nice, -1 bubbles, thanks guys, I didn't start a Flamer-war, I didn't insult anyone, you know what, OK, Family+Gaming is not casual Crap, is "da Hardcorez".... ah, At Least Wait For The FINAL PRODUCT!!!!

Inside_out5893d ago

How dumb is this guy...Natal releases at the END of the year...the big unveil is in June...LOL...M$ wants third party developers on board, and they need to be on board if Natal is to be successful...that's why the are courting them...Doing close door testing is normal....This guy is an idiot...Natal will have its own showing at E3, people can judge for themselves then....moving on...

van-essa5893d ago (Edited 5893d ago )

Take Syronicus for instance, he doesn't have a X360, doesn't plan on getting one either and loves Sony a lot.
My question for him (and the others like him) is this:
Why do you guys keep commenting on every X360 article when you obviously don't care about the console? Seriously I'd like to know.

-MD-5893d ago

Because they literally have nothing better to do.

AAACE55893d ago

The thing hasn't even come out yet and it is being hated on! I think that is a first for this industry...Sarcasm.

BldyShdw5893d ago

how fanboys like to call other people fanboys :)

HolyOrangeCows5893d ago

Microsoft wants the media on its side because they know that Dan Rather will be more impressed with their laggy product than gamers ever will.

Jaces5893d ago

It's not the sales or games that will fail but the tech itself. If the product doesn't work in the first place then everything around it will fall. Natal has a lot to answer for before people can go claiming that it will change the future of gaming.

Now I'm not saying it won't work but I tend not to believe anything in the gaming industry until I see some real world evidence that X works. So as far as MOVE goes I have a feeling it'll have some impact but perhaps not as much as Sony would like unless they really push it unlike the Eyetoy.

Natal....well I haven't seen anything (real) on what Natal can really do, just a bunch of talk and some faked vids. I really can't get hyped up about something I've seen so little on, like most people here I'll wait till I see some real footage before I judge.

iFLOWLIKEWATER5893d ago

Its ok to be a fanboy...in your own neck of the woods. But with that said, deep down everyone in this article is a MS/360/Natal fanboy/girl, if not then why the f*ck are you in here?

Megaton5893d ago (Edited 5893d ago )

Awesome, apparently I'm a Sony troll now because I see past the smoke and mirrors surrounding Microsoft and Natal. I must be doing a pretty bad job though, since the only console currently hooked up in my house is a 360.

On that note, if any of you non-fanboy 360 gamers are interested in doing some co-op in Mad Moxxi's Underdome on Borderlands, PM me. I wanna plow through the harder challenges ASAP.

boodybandit5893d ago (Edited 5893d ago )

If you don't support the cause you are labeled a troll or fanboy.
That is the logic of the fanatic at heart.

Personally I don't understand why there is so many articles speculating what Natal will or wont bring to gaming. Personally I just don't see it in mainstream gaming regardless of how well it is implemented. I will always prefer the accuracy of a controller over motion controls. I don't see that changing any time soon.

I cant say I'm not intrigued by what they (motion controls) will offer but I don't see them replacing standard controllers, racing wheels, fight and flight sticks, in my home this generation.

I have a Wii, which we (my family) picked up during the holidays, and it has been collecting dust since the beginning of 2010. It's neat to fool around with but in my home we prefer kicking back with a controller in our hands. It was a waste of money. At least for my family it was.

I just hope during E3 both Sony and MS spend more time on games played with controllers than focusing on Natal and Move.

Anon19745893d ago

Natal may turn out to be all that Microsoft says it will be and more, but I can't see it selling. Consumers, for one thing, don't like addons and Gamers don't do motion control.

It's as simply as that. While some casuals may be interested in Natal, that's it. The Halo/Gears crowd isn't about to storm their retailers to plunk down $50 or more so they can all play Paint Party. And casuals aren't going to buy an Xbox with Natal to give Milo a talking to when they can spend less on the Wii and play the latest Mario game, a character they all already know and love.

I really don't know who MS thinks is going to buy Natal.

EVILDEAD3605893d ago (Edited 5893d ago )

Another dumb Natal hater article pulling out the silliest reasons for it to fail..

There have been some silly arguments made against Natal in the past..but this one that HHG and now this fan blog bring up is as bad as it gets.

The haters are now bickering because of how Natal has been marketed as opposed to Move.

Microsoft:

E3 reveal in June..followed by talk shows like Jimmy Fallon and press junkets with celebrities..All deemed a success.

Sony:

E3 reveal that looked like a quickly made response to Natal's demo. Followed by NO information until GDC EIGHT MONTHS LATER. They made some announcements (like Socom)..but mostly showed games that were on Wii Sports and Wi Sports Resort. Followed by the fact that they completely stole Natal's commercial for Move.

So I ask anyone with a brain..would you rather promote your console with the celebrities having a blast playing it and wait for E3 when EVERYBODY will be watching to show your cards..

...or show a prototype..then reveal at a low-profile conference that had hands-on mock-ups for average joes and a press that have responded with mixed reviews.

Once again..silly argument..Micrsoft is promoting Natal how 99% of hardware and games are promoted..

Look..we get it..these PS3 supporters are worried about Natal..and they should be. Because it's potentially doing something that they despise..push a major amount of 360s and solidifying it's success this gen.

Will it be an overwhelming success? Who knows..but the fact that the usual suspects are grabbing at straws and praying daily for it's downfall means Microsoft is definately on to something big.

Can't wait to go back to these article at the end of the year..

Evil

Cenobia5893d ago (Edited 5893d ago )

I believe the tech will work fine and it will sell off the charts.

I think the real problem is the "fun factor". I honestly don't think Natal has any real potential to be consistently fun to use in any core games. I am willing to bet that it will follow a similar trend of the Sixaxis motion controls. Maybe 3 games that use it well and the rest have stupid, tacked on and optional utilization's that people will try once and disable.

The problem with that is, it has no traditional controller to fall back on (within the Natal package I mean). Every single game that uses Natal only has the potential to become Lair on the 360 with 0% chance of any patch if it sucks. The investment will be much more significant than the Sixaxis was and there will be nothing to fall back on if people don't like it (except minority report controls for the xbox interface, which will probably be pretty cool).

I cannot think of a single way in which I would like to use Natal. Are there that many applications that you are actually getting excited about? I have yet to see how you can use Natal to move more than 1 foot in any direction in a 3D world. If you could alleviate just that concern in a realistic way, I might be more willing to accept the hype.

Syronicus5893d ago

I simply state a fact and you assume I do not have a 360? Not sure what me owning a 360 has to do with my comment but I have to admit, I LOL'd when you said I didn't have an Xbox 360. Internet anonymity does not = clairvoyance.

dabri55893d ago

Because like Nintendo fanboys of old, they are bored waiting for the next great Sony exclusive to come out since those are the only games worth playing on the system.

The people that really love gaming are busy playing all the great releases on all their systems and don't have time to troll the comments.

FragGen5893d ago

I'll admit I didn't read the article but, FWIW, if history is any guide the first generation of ANYTHING Microsoft does FAILS massively. If they're really on the ball the second works but it may take even more spins than that.

It took them, what, 20 years to figure out how to write a decent OS? And then they forgot (Vista) and then they remembered again (7). <facepalm>

Cenobia5893d ago

"Because like Nintendo fanboys of old, they are bored waiting for the next great Sony exclusive to come out since those are the only games worth playing on the system."

That makes no sense. Is your logic system broken, or are you implying that the multiplatform games (appearing on the PS3 AND 360 by definition...)suck? If that was the case then people with 360's would be doing the same thing.

What the fudge are you trying to say? Was that an intentional compliment to Playstation, or are you just really bad at slinging insults?

dabri55893d ago

Not a insult. After the super, nintendo fell into a rut of poor support of 3rd party exclusives. The only games(with exceptions of course) worth playing were nintendos first party games which only came out about twice a year leaving the system pretty unused most of the year.
Multi play games sold bad on the 64 and game cube because people bought them on the ps2. It was the more popular system at the time.

This hardly made nintendos systems bad because the exclusives were that good.

Fast forward to now. Ps3 is a great system with great exclusives. The multiplat games could be better and have gotten better over time but I think it's safe to say most people buy the ps3 for the exclusives... and the blueray player but that's beside the point. Now I don't have numbers but I would say it's safe to say that a bunch of ps3 owners own a second system as well. A good percent of those are 360s. Now if those people are smart they buy whatever multiplat game for whatever system it plays better on. Normally that has been on 360 ( not the ps3 fault). Point being: like the last 2 nintendo consoles you buy the Sony system for it's exclusives. You buy the 360 for everything else (always exceptions).

boodybandit5893d ago (Edited 5893d ago )

This isn't 2007 any more.

dabri55893d ago

Fine fine. I got some disagrees but I do want to make clear I wasn't trying to say anything bad about the system. To me, if a system has one great game it's worth the purchase. The ps3 has many. The best ones are it's first/ second party exclusives

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iMad5893d ago (Edited 5893d ago )

Microsoft is really silent for the past 12 mounth. But they have reasons and stategy to win this gen:
1. They let their Natal devs to prepair well for E3.
2. They want you to surprise in many ways at E3: Natal, better then PS3 GFX and xbox slim.
3. Sony is affraid of Natal and spread lies all over the net.
4. And know what? Wii2 will have Natal-like technology.

So don't worry xbox fans. That is sonydroids who worry now.

DigitalRaptor5893d ago (Edited 5893d ago )

@ point no.3 - what do you mean Sony are spreading lies? I'd like to see the links to those lies, if you'd be good enough to provide them.

Negative points against Natal are usually genuine and backed by good points. It's not hard to see that Microsoft are going to neglect their core audience with Natal. It likely won't be patched for older games because of the memory issue already known.

And they have successfully mislead their audience to believe that Natal will be this amazing thing for games like Halo and Gears, when it will only be a hybrid experience. Natal will be focused on the casual market and like this article mentions not enough care will be on making full hardcore experiences where "you are the controller" for the whole game. Hybrid experiences with Natal go against that concept.

Smoke & mirrors is what Microsoft is good at. It will nowhere near match the expectations they set out and it will only confuse their current demographic, who right now think it will be the best thing for hardcore games, when it will be best for casual games. Hype tends to blind people. That's why a lot of people are skeptical. If something amazing is revealed at E3 then that would be great, but for now you can only take what facts exist.

Sony's Move will be consistent and accurate for both hardcore and casual games. That is fact.

awesomeperson5893d ago

LOL, your a funny one.

"1. They let their Natal devs to prepair well for E3."
Well lots of the devs are complaining about how glitchy Natal is to develop for and how it dosent do what they want. I can't wait to see it :)

"2. They want you to surprise in many ways at E3: Natal, better then PS3 GFX and xbox slim."

How is Natal a suprise, we already know all about it. Also I'm bookmarking the better then PS3 GFX to use against you when E3 comes. I don't think its really possible for the 360 to get better gfx hardware wise unless lots of smoke and mirrors are used. Yay an XBOX Slim, it'l help those who are effected by RROD.

"3. Sony is affraid of Natal and spread lies all over the net."
B-b-but the conspiracy theories!Sony regected Natal-like tech for its motion control.

"4. And know what? Wii2 will have Natal-like technology. "

Oooooo I'm scared now! The next generation of console MAY have no hands! This has been available for a long time now... And nintendo also previously regected Natal-like tech for the Wii. Please source where you got that info from ;)

claterz5893d ago (Edited 5893d ago )

Their will be no Wii2, Even if there is it definitely won't do as well as the first. What can Nintendo add to another console that uses the same motion controll concept as the Wii? the only way they could improve would be to make it better than Move/Natal, which means using more advanced tech, which they won't be able to do without making it just as expensive as the PS3. We all know the main reason Wii sold a lot is because it was a new idea and it's cheap because the hardware doesn't compare to the 360 or PS3's. Now that all 3 consoles have motion control, there is realy nothing that sets Wii apart from anything else anymore.

iMad5893d ago

LOL pals, there is can not be a source link because i am telling you insider info.
I am your IGN and gamespot now. just get it and wait.

Nitrowolf25893d ago (Edited 5893d ago )

"Spread Lies all over the net" Sony isn't Aron Greenburg
"I am telling you insider info"
lol wtf, so how exactly are these lie spread if you are the only one who knows them then? I mean Spreading lies all over the internet doesn't mean just you knowing we would see aricles on N4G all over the place, because these lies all over the dam place right?

Icyhot5893d ago (Edited 5893d ago )

Lol iMad you are the biggest pathetic fool on this site. That 'INSIDER' info is nothing but things you have farted from your @ss. I remember last year when you had an 'INSIDER' info on 360's X-Engine which would make PS3 games look last gen LMFAO. Still seeing only Sub-HD games on your console

Just look at what this fool posted 6 months back..

"155 days 5 hours ago
Yeah..people who saw Halo reach
people who saw Halo reach can't beleive it's possible on 2005 hardware...

X-engine is a real deal..just wait till super bowl final and you will be very surprised by the power of 360.

MS don't need many first party studios...Sony have about 20 of them and they get no profit for Sony now...because they make games with low sales. Insomniac is looking to lost exclusivity...and after X-engine will be showen many other devs will speck open about that too. X-engine and xbox brand, next xbox are the future for earning money.

When X-engine will be show it is all over for PS3. Sony will be forced to bring Ps4 as quickly as they can...but xbox 720 and wii2 again will be sooner...

Things not so good for Sony this and next gen. just remember that and see what is going to happen in the next 6 mount."

LMFAO... Dude 6 months are over and I see nothing that you have pulled out of your @ss to be true. Lol Halo Reach looks like something that came out from the rear end of Killzone 2.

Wrathman5893d ago (Edited 5893d ago )

another anti-natal anti-xbox article..wow you guys are pullin out all the stops to diss anything xbox this week.

i sense the fear.

oh and i like how all you tards avoided this article: http://www.n4g.com/xbox360/...

gotta love the hypocrisy..

Hellsvacancy5893d ago

Even more fail cummin from the 360, sais alot bout the people that still support it

avengers19785893d ago

Speilberg like many people was probably paid by MS for his comments. There is an article currently on this website that talks about developers having serious issues with Natal.
From the device not picking up two people, to picking up objects as people, they were also told to avoid certain game types like FPS'.
Sounds like failure to me.

spinbot_lv15893d ago (Edited 5893d ago )

"4. And know what? Wii2 will have Natal-like technology."

nintendo already rejected natal technology few years ago. your insider info is inaccurate.

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stonecold15893d ago

be dead on arrival ps3 will finsh it off for good the road is near the end for 360 good luck oh yeah i might well put this in you guys are missing out on ps3 get vs exclusive agent gt5 the last guairdian and if eyeidentify comes then goodbye project natal ps3 is 4 times more powerful than 360 anjd the 360 cant handole killzone 2 let alone heavy rain hehe uncharted 1 , and 2 and japan europe and australia newzealand sweeden xbox is dead in all those countrys even gt5 will finish it off this year m$ should be scared of gt5 beccause they had to brag about it a few mnths ago and shows how desprate they are hehehe

5893d ago Replies(2)
awesomeperson5893d ago

How Microsoft will drop the RED BALL on Project Natal. Fixed.

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30°

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Omar writes: "With the Horizon Festival coming to breathtaking Japan, you’ll need the essential gear to prove you’ve got what it takes to become a Horizon Legend as you cruise, drift and explore an open world full of spectacular driving experiences. That’s why we’re happy to announce the newest Limited Edition Xbox Wireless Controller and Wireless Headset collection, featuring inspired designs from Forza Horizon 6. The bright cyan and lime colorways celebrate the Horizon Festival’s recognition of iconic cars and hit music, with special features that are sure to impress any collector."

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Killer2020UK35d ago

Oh my, that is one gaudy design

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italiangamer36d ago

"Gaming’s Biggest Fighting Franchise"

Press X to (seriously) doubt.

DarXyde34d ago

Underrated comment. I used to hate that game so much that any time my siblings asked me to play it, I just picked Hom and shut myself down mid-match.

Soy35d ago

And then MK1 killed it again.

DivineHand12534d ago (Edited 34d ago )

15 years went by so fast. I remember playing through the story mode at launch.

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Well if that 44% left im sure there would be a lot less redundancies