The Project Natal. The Revolution has Come!

Posts Tagged ‘motion’

Speaking to the Financial Times (registration required) Capcom president Haruhiro Tsujimoto declared that the success of Microsoft and Sony's upcoming Natal and Move motion controllers depends on sound planning. "If there isn't a strong business model message from the platform holders about how they will develop [motion controllers] with users," said Tsujimoto, "then I don't think it will go well." In other words, Tsujimoto places the onus of success on the manufacturers of the motion controllers, and not necessarily on the games that will be created for them.

Tsujimoto also took time to reiterate Capcom's stance on overseas game developers, noting that the company will use them for sequels to established products. Regarding E3, Tsujimoto discussed a shift in the gaming industry toward downloadable titles, devices like the iPad and social networks. He added that Capcom will be heavily pursuing downloadable titles, the iPad and Facebook.

As for the likely star of Nintendo's E3 showings, the 3DS, Tsujimoto said he is "interested" to see what the device does "apart from 3D."

Capcom president on E3 2010, new motion controllers originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 17 May 2010 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Last September, Sega promised to clue the world into its plans for Project Natal and PlayStation Move in early 2010. Actually, back then, we were still calling it the PlayStation Motion Controller. Oh, so young and naive! Now that we and Sega are both a few months older and wiser, the latter's plans have been pushed back a bit -- in a recent interview with IndustryGamers, Sega West president Mike Hayes explained that the company's Natal and Move plans would be revealed at E3 2010.

Though we haven't heard much about Sega's feelings on the upcoming wave of new motion control technology, Hayes explained the company is excited about "the fact that Move and Natal will bring in more of what I'd call the PS2 type of consumer for those platforms, which then suits very much the IP that Sega has." We've hypothesized that the PS2 IP he's referring to is the already motion-infused Sega Super Stars (pictured above) -- in our heart of hearts, though, we're secretly hoping for a motion-controlled Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future.

Sega to reveal Natal, Move projects at E3 suited for 'PS2 type' audience originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 22 Apr 2010 09:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It's been a while since we've heard anything regarding Braid developer Jonathan Blow's next project, The Witness -- however, if a recent post on Blow's blog is any indication, the "philosophical, and quiet" game might be moving in an unexpected direction. According to the post, Blow is "hiring another programmer into the new company, to do very interesting work with full-body motion tracking."

We contacted Blow to see if this new hire would be working on The Witness, and whether the motion tracking technology mentioned is Project Natal. He responded by saying he "can't talk about this right now," and added, "it may not even actually happen (depending on whether I can find someone qualified to do it!)."

So, there you have it. If you've got experience with body movin' (body, body movin'), it sounds like Blow could use a hand. And an arm! And a torso. And a ... yeah, you got it.

Jonathan Blow hiring 'full-body motion tracking' programmer originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Shingo Takatsuka, the progenitor of the long-running Pro Evolution Soccer series, recently had a few choice words to share with IGN on the subject of incorporating motion control into the franchise. Though the producer of that other soccer game has stated his indifference to motion control schemes, Takatsuka explained Konami is highly intrigued by Project Natal and the heretofore "officially" unnamed PlayStation Motion Controller -- intrigued to the extent that he's "looking at integrating those devices into our games very aggressively."

As we all know, soccer is the most fatiguing activity any human can participate in, so we expect that a Natal-ized version of PES would be appropriately taxing. However, given the sport's limited employment of hands, we'd be curious to see how Sony's motion-sensing peripheral would be utilized. There are few pieces of gaming hardware we'd outright refuse to give a fair shot, but shoe adapters might just be beyond our capacity for humiliation.

Konami 'aggressively' looking into motion control for PES series originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Speaking to Destructoid, Microsoft's Kudo Tsunoda had some bad news for gamers hoping to see old Xbox 360 game updated with Natal controls. The Natal team has been able to effectively implement motion controls in older titles -- like Beautiful KatamariSpace Invaders Extreme and -- but Tsunoda intimated that it required large portions of code to be changed. According to Tsunoda, it's not something that developers could easily patch into older titles. In other words, if you want your favorite pre-Natal title to support motion control, you'll have to hope for a full-fledged re-release from the publisher.

That's definitely a blow for those hoping to enjoy some of their favorite games with motion control, especially considering Sony can patch motion control into older PS3 titles. Here's hoping Namco sees the light and releases Beautiful Natal-amari once Project Natal hits retail shelves.

Don't expect old 360 games to add Natal support originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The new motion controllers for both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 are likely to make big appearances at this year's Tokyo Game Show. While both Microsoft and Sony are attempting to take away some of Nintendo's mindshare with its new controllers, Square Enix head Yoichi Wada believes neither company will be truly successful. "Present game machines already have a lot of functions: they are a network terminal, a Blu-ray or DVD player, and a gaming machine. Compared to these three pillars, the [new motion] controllers are quite limited, so the impact may be small," Wada told the Financial Times.

Wada also believes that the three platforms will start looking more like each other by the year 2011, when he believes Nintendo will release the fabled successor of the Wii. The system will add features found on the PS3/360, and may also introduce a brand new controller. It'll certainly be interesting to see what moves consumers when an HD Nintendo system exists concurrently with motion-enabled Microsoft and Sony systems.

Square Enix head predicts new Wii in 2011, says motion 'impact' for Xbox, PlayStation will be 'small' originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 21 Sep 2009 05:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While most people were struck with thoughts of the future when Microsoft’s motion-control apparatus Project Natal was unveiled, Rare couldn’t get its mind off the past. In a recent interview with VideoGamer, 15-year Rare veteran George Andreas explained the device “gives us an opportunity to maybe at some point in the future investigate some of those older IPs.”

Andreas was particularly excited about one unnamed Rare franchise which would be “absolutely phenomenal, absolutely phenomenal” if it should incoroporate Natal. He added, “I think it would be an absolutely world-beating product. But we need to explore a little bit more in that direction.” Got any ideas? Our money’s on Jetpac — though we suppose a motion-controlled Conker’s Bad Fur Day would have its humorous, bawdy merits. Just … make sure the blinds are closed while you’re playing it, okay?

Rare wants to revitalize classic IP with Natal, beat world originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 17 Aug 2009 11:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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