Exclusive: Getting up close and personal with Natal
Project Natal is both great gaming and a great workout, as CNET News' Ina Fried experienced firsthand when she got to try out the technology last week.
(Credit: CNET News)REDMOND, Wash.--One of the reasons that Microsoft got such buzz for Project Natal is because it is so easy to see how the technology could change the face of gaming.
But it's even easier to appreciate once you get a chance to try the gesture recognition technology yourself. When I was in Redmond, Wash., last week, I got a chance to do just that.
Playing Ricochet, a 3D breakout-like game, I found myself wanting to do whatever I could to stop the balls from passing me. It felt less like a traditional video game and more like I was a soccer goalie and an entire team was firing shots at me. (For a firsthand look, check out the embedded video below.)
It was both a lot of fun and a bit of a workout. Apparently, I'm not the only one who has noticed that.
"Since I started working on this project, I've lost almost like 10 pounds," said Kudo Tsunoda, general manager of Microsoft Game Studios and the creative director for Project Natal. "We're going to have the most in-shape development team you've ever seen."
The effort is important to more than just the waistlines in Redmond. Microsoft is counting on Natal to give an important bump to the Xbox 360, which Microsoft has said is only mid-way through its lifecycle, even though it has been on the market since 2005.
After Ricochet, I tried my hand at an existing driving game that had been connected to the Natal interface. And while my steering hasn't gotten any better than when I checked out a set-up from GestureTek earlier this year, Microsoft's technology is quite impressive. The steering and other controls were both intuitive and responsive.
I moved my foot forward to accelerate and backward to slow down, brake, and eventually reverse the car. To steer, I simply used my hands like a steering wheel.
Although Microsoft demonstrated Natal at this year's E3 trade show, the software maker hasn't said when the technology will be available. The company has said that Natal, which incorporates face, voice, and gesture recognition technologies, will be sold as an add-on to the current Xbox 360 console.
The effort to turn Natal from concept to shipping product has been something of a mini Manhattan Project inside Microsoft, according to former Carnegie Mellon researcher Johnny Chung Lee, who is among those working on the effort.
And while smashing bricks and cars are some of the first ideas on how to use Natal, the vision clearly goes a lot further.
Inside Xbox, Tsunoda noted that Natal can be useful for more than gaming. He noted that for many first-time console users, the controller itself can be intimidating, even when trying to do things like navigate through menus. Oftentimes people get their first experience with the Xbox when they are at the house of a friend or family member who has an Xbox and they are handed a controller with lots of buttons.
"For a lot of people that can be intimidating," Tsunoda said. "You don't really know what to do and you're starting to feel stupid and everyone is looking at you and you are not being successful. That's really not a good first way to interact with our console."
Tsunoda and Entertainment Unit President Robbie Bach both said they are confident that Natal will also have great appeal for the core gamers already spending hours a week playing on the Xbox.
"Even the folks who are hard-core Halo or Splinter Cell players, they are also going to want to play Natal games," Bach said in an interview.
In an interview with CNET News last month, Bill Gates talked about how the technology has applications well beyond just gaming.
"I think the value is as great for if you're in the home, as you want to manage your movies, music, home system type stuff, it's very cool there," he said. "And I think there's incredible value as we use that in the office connected to a Windows PC. So Microsoft research and the product groups have a lot going on there, because you can use the cost reduction that will take place over the years to say, 'Why shouldn't that be in most office environments?'"
At last week's analyst meeting, Bach and Craig Mundie, chief research and strategy officer, also outlined the broad appeal of being able to interact more directly with computer interfaces. After Bach tried his hand at some Natal gaming, Mundie offered a demonstration of how gesture recognition might function in a work setting, saying that the desktop PC of the future could in fact encompass the entire office.
During her years at CNET News, Ina Fried has changed beats several times, changed genders once, and covered both of the Pirates of Silicon Valley. These days, most of her attention is focused on Microsoft. E-mail Ina. 
Why do you say they abandoned you? The console had a short but pretty decent lifespan of 4 years, new titles were still released even after the 360 became available, and the original Xbox is still supported.
Natal looks great, but it won't necessarily be the "nail in Sony's coffin". The PS3 does extremely well in Europe and Japan and will continue to do so.
I'm not entirely sure if you're trolling or not -- but I'm not inclined to give you the benefit of doubt right now. I'm so sick of seeing every thread related to MS/Apple/Google/FOSS turned into a silly slug-fest by silly comments like the one you just posted.
So I'll keep things simple by replying with bare facts.
You say "MS has abandoned quite a lof of its products and its user base"
Here are the facts:
1) " Windows 2000 -> XP"
- Windows XP was released in mid-2001
- Windows 2000 mainstream support continued until June 2005 (four years after XP's release)
- Extended support for windows 2000 (including security hotfixes etc.) will end in July 2010!
2) "Visual Studio 2003/.NET1.1 -> VS 2005/.NET 2.0"
- .Net 1.0 released in 2002. Mainstream support ended in 2007. Extended support ended July 14th 2009.
- .Net 1.1 released in 2003. Mainstream support October 2008. Extended support July 2015!!
- Are you beginning to get a sense of how ludicrous your comment was now?
3) "Windows Vista -> Windows 7"
- Windows Vista released in early 2007. Mainstream support will end in April 2012 (5 years)
- Extended support will end in 2017.
- Extended support for XP will end somewhere in the middle (2014 -- a *thirteen year* lifecycle -- based on customer demand).
Good stuff.
ps3 will follow soon
and pc will get natal and ill be jumping around trying to manage my finances
I am still holding off on purchasing a 360, and certainly would not buy one because of Natal the second it comes out unless there was plenty of software supporting that would actually interest me. The game shown in this article - neat but I'll pass. This really could revolutionize gaming, but early days yet IMO. Still, if this technology can deliver on its promise then it would more than likely result in me purchasing a 360. That being said, when I think of the games I usually play I wonder if this system would really work effectively (at least without having some sort of handheld unit to supplement it). I've been playing a lot of Fallout 3 most recently - it would be interesting to see how this sort of technology would work on a game like this. Aiming a gun, punching out an opponent, swinging a bat - this would be great for that, but then again the Wii could do those motions at the moment. Navigating a bunch of menus, running around wastelands and sewers - not sure if this would translate so well. Certainly will be interesting though to see what happens with this technology.
I see a brighter future for project Natal in the non-gaming areas of Microsoft. It seems like a wonderful way to navigate a menu and control media playback.
Imagine walking into your home office and your PC reconizes you and says: Good Morning Roger, would you like an your normal morning update? Roger replies, "yes". The system reports todays weather, traffic issues, morning and afternoon appointments as you sit down behind the desk. A similiar Natal unit siting on your desk does a quick scan again for security purposes and brings up all the apps you normally use this time a day on your full glass 3 ft x 5ft wall of glass monitor.
Using a combination of voice and hand gestures you open a doc and create it through dictation. Creation is fast and easy as the system does not mispell words and corrects grammar automatically. Once complete, you request a voice dictation at 1.5 times normal speed to confirm your satisfied. You apply some formating through a combination of voice and hand gestures from menu and available layout options and ask the system to save, attach the an email that came in late last night and send to a business colleage.
You walk over to pour yourself a cup of coffee as you ask the system to scan this mornings incoming emails from anyone on your high priority list of business clients. Two are read to you as you watch hightlights of last nights basketball game from the opposite side of your glass monitors since your desk faces out to the room and you are not on it's opposite side, Everything is reversed but it doesn't matter to you.
Your ready to go to work now and ask the system to forward those two emails to your work computer as you walk out of your home office. The system complies and goes into hibernation mode after 5 minutes of you leaving the room. However once inside, your Ford Tauris notifies you of a change in this mornings work appointments and asked you asked to quickly go to a meeting with a report ready by 9:30. You request two docs and one spreadsheet to be sent from your home system to your work system and smile.
This last scenario is made possible by the Ford Sync features of your Taurus that have been upgraded to include Natal components and software. The Ford/Microsoft collaboration has now begun to make real strides in making scenarios like this in the near future possible.
I wouldnt want to have another wife at work....... silly
While I agree that Natal can be used for other purposes. (I definitely think menu navigation / interaction is a good idea) Natal will be nothing more than a novelty for video games.
How will Natal work with fighting games. (It won't)
How will Natal work with First-person shooters (It won't)
How will natal work with RPGs? (It wont)
I can only see limited uses for Natal in video game enviroments.... Wii has a huge jump-start in the motion control area of video games... but what truly innovative titles have you seen from the Wii outside of Wii sports or Wii Resort?
Get ready, folks. Natal will only be purchase number one. After that, you'll find yourself buying $100 games with plastic peripherals that work with Natal and have normal controller components built in. I can't wait until everyone has to create silicon sleeves (ala. WiiMotes) for their peripherals that busted someone's TV. It will be like a room full of toy guns, swords, and steering wheels in bubble wrap!
2) Guitar Hero isn't a console add-on, it is a game that comes with a unique controller. It was released across all systems. A console add-on is something like the Power Glove, Eye Toy, N64 Ram Upgrade or that N64 Japanese add-on drive. The Sega CD and 32x are more examples. Add-on type stuff have never worked in the console world, perhaps this will be the first time, however I am skeptical.
I think Natal team is doing a very bad job conveying this message.
One thing I've learned after many years as a (self-titled) hardcore gamer, is never to underestimate the creativity of game developers.
How will Natal work with fighting games you ask?
>> You already have to know all kinds of button and stick combinations for fighting games. Imagine that getting converted to gestures that bear a closer resemblance to the actual move you're trying to make.
How will Natal work with FPS games?
>> By enhancing them. Here's an idea. Imagine an FPS game in which you have to take cover a lot because there's no respawning. How do you glance out from under cover / tuck your head back in quickly without getting sniped? Guess what -- with Natal, you could just stick your head up and then back down.
How will Natal work with RPGs?
>> Depends on the RPG -- but I predict this will actually be one of Natal's strengths. I mean, it mostly depends on the specific RPG, but in general RPGs are actually limited by what you can do on a controller. Natal increases the possibilities big-time. Same case for open-world games.
How will Natal work with First-person shooters It does already
How will natal work with RPGs? I does already.
You dope look up the original video releases of this. Man this thing rocks.
But this.... Project Natal... this is the future of motion sensing gameplay! If it's as good as it sounds, the 360 could dominate the console market over the Wii and PS3.... actually the 360 already outsells the PS3, so now all it has to do is kill the overrated Wii.
Oh, yeah... don't cry when all the first Natal games are just ports of what already exists on the Wii rather than the future of gaming you are so hoping for.
i think natal will be everything the wii wanted to be.
How about learning martial arts, tai chi, yoga, pilates with appropriate form and feedback in your own home, without being embarrassed in a class of 20? Multiple levels could be taught all through the system. What about learning to play an instrument? How about learning proper workout technique to avoid injury before you go to the gym using simulated weights as a way to demonstrate form? This could be used to assist Olympic athletes by analyzing biomechanics. How about a computer that knows when you are slouching at your desk and changes your personal ergonomics? This is just the beginning folks.
Sure it might be difficult to use Natal to control complex games, but then maybe complex gestures will accompany that make a compelling argument?
On a side note does anyone know if Ina is a man or woman? I always thought that Fried was a man but I was confused by the video. I'm not trying to be rude I just don't like being ignorant.
If Natal can follow through with its promise and not just put out something half-arsed like wii did. I wouldnt be suprized if this did change the way users interact with AI forever.
- by kwhsy82 August 7, 2009 10:16 AM PDT
- There's a reference to a Manhattan-style project -- maybe MSFT is having challenges getting this out in a cost-effective fashion?
- Like this Reply to this comment
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Showing 1 of 2 pages (84 Comments)Also, I vaguely wonder if the folks at Nintendo are taking all this in. I doubt they want to cede their current position in the market. I really like our Wii -- if Microsoft can produce something better at a reasonable price, more power to them.
I think all this dialog about "more complex games" is a bit off track. Maybe you can, maybe you can't. But Wii took off because it makes simple games more compelling or created new alternatives, like exercise or yoga.