Microsoft readies virtual controller
PHYSICAL: Whole-body scanner lets players control game with their limbs
By Susanne Ault -- Video Business, 6/1/2009
JUNE 1 | PHYSICAL: LOS ANGELES—Taking a direct shot at Nintendo Wii, Microsoft’s Xbox 360 has invented a revolutionary new game controller: the players themselves.
Unveiled at the company’s E3 Expo press conference here Monday, the “controller” technology features a whole-body scanner that recognizes individual players’ movement and voice. Acting as their own navigators, people can then drive cars with just their arms and hands or kick balls with just their legs and feet. There will be no other devices required.
Nintendo’s Wii motion-sensor control device was similarly considered a gaming breakthrough when it launched. Microsoft’s gadget-free controller, dubbed “Project Natal,” arguably trumps Wii at its own game, however.
Even Steven Spielberg, the creative force behind Wii’s Boom Blox game, is already a Project Natal fan. “This technology doesn’t just recognize your thumbs and hands, but your entire being,” Spielberg said at the Xbox media briefing. “I’m fortunate to be here for this historic event.”
He hopes Project Natal will open up videogames to as wide an audience as blockbuster films attract.
“How can we make interactive entertainment as approachable as other forms of entertainment?” asked Spielberg. “Some are too intimidated to pick up a videogame controller. Sixty percent of households don't own consoles. We wanted to make the technology invisible.”
Microsoft promised that the new technology, which gamers will have to buy as an add-on accessory, will be compatible with all current Xbox 360 consoles. The company did not specify pricing or a launch date. A finished device was not shown in detail at the press conference.
The scanning technology does involve a camera, depth sensor, microphone and custom processor.
Games in development for the technology include Ricochet, where people whack balls to destroy various objects.
There also is an application in the works in which a 3D animated boy named Milo interacts with users in an eerily human-like way. In a demo, a girl is holding a piece of paper, swipes it near the camera scanner, and the paper instantly moves into the animated video environment where Milo can grab it.
Though clearly a milestone for videogames, this people-as-remotes development wasn’t the only rabbit Xbox pulled out of its hat for E3. Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr made on-stage appearances to hype the Sept. 9 release of Rock Band: The Beatles.
The game will roll out on a wide variety of platforms, but an additional track download of the band’s “All You Need Is Love” will be exclusively found on online marketplace Xbox Live.
All Beatles were represented at the event, as Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison (surviving wives of John Lennon and George Harrison, respectively), also were there in person.
“Who would have thought we’d end up as androids?” joked McCartney, referring to how the game features the band members as avatar versions of themselves.
“The game is good, the graphics are very good, and we look great,” added Starr.
Xbox 360 trotted out the first demo of Rock Band: The Beatles, as well as sneak glimpses of a number of titles, including Tony Hawk: Ride. Shipping later this year, Ride uniquely incorporates a skateboard controller.
Event attendees also saw world premieres of Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Conviction and Forza Motor Sport 3. The company also hinted at a major new Halo installment, Halo Reach, coming in 2010.
