Since we announced it today at E3, I can finally talk about what I've been working on for the past few months. Code-named Natal (rhymes with fatale, as in femme fatale), it's a peripheral for the 360 that brings full 3-D motion control and voice recognition to the 360 without requiring any controller in your hand. You just stand in front of the TV, get recognized, and control gameplay with your body. Your avatar mimics your body motion with real-time motion capture. Scratch your nose, your avatar scratches his. Do the moonwalk, your avatar does it with you. Every movement is tracked, analyzed, and processed.
The net effect is the most accessible gaming device ever. You don't have to explain to someone that they need to use the A button, a thumbstick, a trigger. They just get into the game and play the way they expect to play. Our team's demos at E3 showed two activities: Ricochet, a full-body Breakout game, and Paint Party, where you can free your inner Jackson Pollock by throwing paint at a canvas and creating stencils with your body.
I can tell you that Ricochet is super fun to play. You just get up and move your body. You can slam the ball with your hand, or you can just step into its path and have it bounce off your body. You can butt it with your head, spin a roundhouse kick, move in or out, etc. No controls to learn-- when you move your arm, your avatar moves his. It doesn't get more intuitive.
People are also floored by the simplicity and whimsy of Paint Party. This is a painting activity that isn't about creating the next great work of art. It's not about fine control and accurate rendering-- it's about the freedom to fling paint without worrying about the mess. It's about the fun of unbridled exuberance and expression. It's about the visceral satisfaction of flinging paint in a wide swath across a blank canvas. It's about the simple joy you had with fingerpaint as a child, before you were told to stay within the lines. And to play it, all you need to do is call out the colors and fling your arms.
Gamers frequently complain that motion control isn't for them. They're wrong. I think we're going to see some mind-blowing, innovative games developed for this platform that gamers will poop their pants for. Just imagine, for instance, what a great development team could do with the Star Wars license on Natal.
The big win, though, isn't with the gamers. It's with their families. There are a lot of people out there who are intimidated by game controllers. The Wii remote is certainly friendlier than most, but it's still something new to learn. Natal bypasses all of that. There doesn't even have to be a game to suck people in-- you'd be amazed how compelling and fun it is to just stand in front of the device and puppeteer your avatar. Everyone who uses Natal for the first time does some kind of silly dance or martial arts moves, just to watch their avatar mimic them. With your focus on your avatar, you feel free to experiment with your body in ways that you don't in front of a mirror. The fundamental functionality of the device is fun out of the box, before "game design" even enters the picture. And a lot of people who have never picked up a controller in their lives will get sucked in by Natal and have fun with a gaming console.
You can see the vision video shown at E3 here. Haven't found any online video of just the Natal E3 presentation yet, but our demos can be seen here.
Various news sources:
Time
Wall Street Journal
Yahoo
CNet
ABC
Update: complete footage of the Natal E3 presentation (albeit, sadly, without the elephant reveal) is here.
Posted by Peter at June 1, 2009 12:42 PM