Microsoft Debuts Full-Body Controller-less Gaming At E3

quintin3265 writes "At today's Electronic Entertainment Expo press briefing, Microsoft unveiled Project Natal, a technology that eliminates the controller from gaming on the Xbox 360. In one demo, a player used her arms and legs to hit balls in an attempt to destroy a brick wall, and in another game, an employee threw virtual "paint" on a canvas to create a painting, even drawing an elephant using a silhouette feature. An accompanying video also demonstrated automatic login using facial recognition, videoconferencing with other Xbox Live members, and participating in a gameshow against another family through the Internet using speech recognition."

Comments

too much work

[MooseTick]

This sounds good, but not the end all. The Wii controller can make things fun, but anyone who has used it much know how tiring it can be to have to stand or use full body motions for games for an extended period. Sometimes I just want to veg out on the couch and play a game. If I have to flail my arms all over the place I'm going to often consider it more work than fun.

Re:It's alright until..

[Leafheart]

But perhaps Microsoft expects people to play online, a console for people with no real friends.

That's one hell of a big market there. And always go for the biggest market.

Not impressed... yet.

[Chris Pimlott]

Hmm...

In one demo, a player used her arms and legs to hit balls in an attempt to destroy a brick wall, and in another game, an employee threw virtual "paint" on a canvas to create a painting, even drawing an elephant using a silhouette feature.

Sounds great, but I'd be much more impressed if they had a live demo with random untrained people. Even in the demo video, you can see a noticeable input lag, particular when the guy does his "victory dance" at around 27 seconds.

The devil is in the details with these things, Microsoft is certainly not the first to try at something like this.

Re:Activator

[Sycraft-fu]

"Everything old is new again."

Well it isn't a surprise. A lot of these concepts are things people have wanted forever. The problem was that the technology to make them work well was prohibitively expensive if even available. The Powerglove is a good example. It was a piece of shit, but there were and are high end controllers like that which work well. It just would have been $2000 to make.

So it is no surprise that with more advanced technology, there is a resurgence. Now that the shit actually works, people want to try it.

Re:Activator

[MooseMuffin]

From purely a tech perspective, it's pretty cool. The facial recognition to login and being able to control the dashboard by waving your hands was impressive. Ultimately though, much like the Wii, I don't think this will lead to many games that will interest me. Maybe even less so than the Wii, since the wiimote at least had buttons.

Will it be standard?

[SoftwareArtist]

There's a long history of innovative, unconventional game controllers. Most of them are nothing more than interesting historical footnotes. Few people bought them and few games used them.

What makes the Wiimote different is that it's the standard controller for the console. It comes bundled with every single console sold. That's why game developers actually use it: they aren't restricting their market.

If Microsoft decides to bundle this thing with every Xbox sold, then it's a big deal. If it's an optional accessory that you have to buy separately, then it's another historical footnote.