The Project Natal. The Revolution has Come!

Posts Tagged ‘peripherals’

Guitar Hero peripheral maker Red Octane has been adding approximately 2.5 plastic instruments per year to each American household for nearly four years now. If you're using your computer from atop a stack of music game peripherals like we are, you'll be happy (or perhaps dismayed) to hear Red Octane prez Kai Huang told Digital Spy that his company is looking into Project Natal and "a lot of other different technologies that could enhance the Guitar Hero playing experience."

Huang specifically picked out Natal to address the "many different things you can do with it," echoing statements made by MTV Games last month on the next iteration of the Rock Band franchise. He outlined some potential implementations in the "motion detecting; maybe sensing how you're playing, or the ability to use it for interactivity purposes and taking advantage of it for party purposes." Huang, however, remained cagey on specifics, restating his company is still "evaluating it." Though the tech's still in its relative infancy, as of right now it seems that next year's music-rhythm games are going to feel very different than this year's bunch. We've dropped a demonstration of how awesome you might look playing them after the break!

Continue reading Red Octane 'evaluating' Project Natal, other motion devices

Red Octane 'evaluating' Project Natal, other motion devices originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 22 Sep 2009 12:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Do you get the sense that Project Natal is … missing something? Accessory peddler dreamGear does. The maker of such essentials as the 3-In-1 Player’s Sports Kit for Wii, the 7-In-1 Player’s Kit for Wii, the 10-In-1 Player’s Kit for Wii, and the 15-In-1 Player’s Kit for Wii is already hard at work trying to adapt its enhancements for Microsoft’s upcoming motion technology release. “One of the biggest challenges for peripherals firms is keeping up with changing technology, particularly the trend toward interactive gaming started by Nintendo and now embraced by Microsoft’s Project Natal,” dreamGEAR COO Richard Weston explains to MCV. Molding a plastic steering wheel that fits in everyone’s hands is a true challenge, you see.

“From all the recent revelations at E3 for Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii, motion sensing devices and add-on accessories for these devices will be the main focus in the future,” Logic3′s sales manager Paul Croucher frighteningly foretells. So then, the snooker cue attachment for the PS3 wand confirmed? Please, make it STOP.

Natal, PS3 motion wand inspire new wave of plastic props originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 26 Jun 2009 22:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Nintendo Wii, E3, Peripherals

When Microsoft unveiled its controller-free camera technology dubbed Project Natal during E3 last week, you’d think that gaming peripheral makers might start asking President Obama for a bailout.

But not so. At least not for Nyko. The manufacturer of third-party accessories, whose core business is unlicensed Wii products, doesn’t see physical controllers going away anytime soon. In fact, Chris Arbogast, Nyko’s director of marketing, has a hard time seeing casual gamers letting go of the Wii remote.

“People in the casual market like feeling something physical to keep your hands aligned,” he said. “When you grab the Wiimote and swing it, it feels like you’re swinging a baseball bat, versus pantomining swinging a bat. I think that if you take all [the controllers] away and you’re just pantomiming everything, there may be some disconnect with realism there.”

Obviously, working for Nyko, Arbogast has to stay positive. However, if Project Natal does take off, we wondered if the company has a Plan B. Arbogast said it might force Nyko to “think outside the box.” “We’ll have to think of other ways we can accessorize and augment the players’ experience,” he said. “Not with a controller anymore, but with other things to add to that camera functionality. It could be a whole new avenue of business that opens up for us because we’ll be forced to challenge ourselves.”

Luckily for Nyko, Project Natal is probably a long ways off, with analysts saying it won’t trump the Wii just yet. Until then, you can enjoy another innovation in camera technology: the Nyko DSi Zoom Case.

Nyko: Project Natal not a threat, but a ‘challenge’ originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 10 Jun 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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