Posts Tagged ‘xbox 360’
Of course, this still doesn't confirm the price for certain -- the retail side may have no more inside information from the company than any other retailer does, and may be simply listing what it expects the price to be. Or, the price may have gone live early accidentally, pending an official announcement. Either way, throw another piece of evidence on the pile for a $149.99 price on Microsoft's controller-free gaming system.
[Thanks, Michael!]
Microsoft Store website lists Kinect for $149.99 originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 22 Jun 2010 01:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
The first is "Obstacle Course" (which was briefly hinted at in Parade's wildly flailing Natal preview), in which players will have to navigate a "summer camp"-esque row of hazards. As dangerous as that sounds, it's pretty tame compared to the other unveiled application: "Living Statue," which lets players record and send video messages using their Avatars. Which is great, because we were just talking about how awesome it would be to be bombarded with videos of our friends' Avatars doing pelvic thrusts and other suggestive maneuvers every time we turn on our Xbox 360.
We look forward to learning about these applications (and more) during Microsoft's Natal sneak preview this Sunday.
More Natal applications revealed in LA Times preview originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 11 Jun 2010 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Of course, both the rumored pricing and release date remain uncorroborated (we repeat: wait till E3). But, hey, that doesn't mean we can't have a bit of fun with the supposed intel. And by "fun," we mean, "host an online poll asking if you'd spend $150 on Project Natal" ...
Rumor: Project Natal priced at $150; bundled with Arcade SKU for $300 originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 26 May 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
The surprisingly cheerful documentation included with the supposed test kit explicitly warns against tilting the camera manually, as it's already equipped with a "motorized tilt mechanism" -- all the better to see you with, my dear. The "Quick Start Guide" also shows how the early model of the camera connects to an Xbox 360 development kit via USB and a power outlet via a split cable.
It's not known how representative these photos are of early Project Natal development kits, nor how much of it will change by the time the final product arrives this holiday. Microsoft did not comment on the veracity of the images, with a representative telling Joystiq: "We announced earlier this year that Project Natal will launch this holiday, and our teams are working hard to bring the best experiences to life. We have nothing further to announce at this time."
[Via Engadget]
Rumor: Natal test kit photos reveal 'motorized tilt mechanism,' power cord originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 20 Apr 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Though muddled, Bach's comment does not suggest that Natal will hit retail costing an arm and a leg (geddit?), but rather the device's launch price will be set high enough for significant discounts to go into effect over time. Using Wii as the bad example, Bach emphasized that Nintendo's launch price and its new discounted price aren't notably different. "When you start at $249, I don't know that a [price drop to] $199 -- I don't know how much difference that's going to make in the marketplace," Bach observed. "We'll see."
Project Natal price to launch with room to drop originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 07 Oct 2009 11:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
It’s not every day that the head of a multi-billion dollar corporation apologizes to you, so excuse us if we drink deeply of Steve Ballmer’s statement to IGN, in which he apologized for referencing a new 360 console to launch in 2010 last week.
Specifically, he said “I confused the issue with my poorly chosen words. There is no news in my comments. Things are as reported after E3. Sorry.” Tell you what, Steve, you give us one of your patented “World’s Greatest Back Rubs,” and all is forgiven. (Also, we’re sure you meant a new Xbox 360 bundle, right?)
Ballmer sorry about confusing Natal 2010 statement originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 22 Jun 2009 10:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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When Kudo Tsunoda took to the stage on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon earlier this week he and everyone else playing the game were decked out in matching red jump suits, leading some to speculate it was because of tech issues.
Not so, says Microsoft. The red jump suits had nothing to do with Natal’s difficulty in picking up certain types of clothing or to compensate for the studio lighting, it was just a joke.
“Actually, the red jumpsuits were just for laughs,” a Microsoft spokesperson told Kotaku. “The Jimmy Fallon crew wanted something funny for the guests to wear and decided on red jumpsuits and turtlenecks. We just wonder if the red jumpsuits will start a new fashion trend.”
No. No, they won’t.
One of the biggest announcements at E3 was undoubtedly Microsoft’s Project Natal motion-sensing system. Based on the many conversations IndustryGamers had with publishers and developers during the show, the game industry is quite enthusiastic about the possibilities both Project Natal and PlayStation Motion will create.
What you may not have known, however, is that Epic’s Unreal Engine, which is already powering some of the biggest games in the business, was utilized by Microsoft to create some of the tech demos for the E3 Project Natal demonstration. Speaking to IndustryGamers as part of a larger interview, Epic VP Mark Rein noted with a grin, “I think [these technologies] will create great opportunities for us as an engine. The Paint Party game they showed and the other one [Ricochet] are both Unreal powered. Microsoft licensed Unreal Engine 3 for a whole bunch of games for that thing – you just saw the first two. We’re really excited.”
“We’re going to work with Microsoft and share all that stuff they added into Unreal with our partners; not just Natal, but also things like avatar integration. We were like, ‘if you’re developing all this stuff, do you mind if we share with all our licensees to give them a big head start?’ So Natal we’re just over the moon about – it’s the new platform and who’s the first engine on it?” he said excitedly.
Although Epic is clearly involved with Natal from the start, Rein also said Sony’s PlayStation Motion setup looked “quite cool.” He added, “Again, I think that creates big opportunities. We’re the biggest 3D engine on the platform, so hopefully lots of developers will want to make 3D things for that and [work with us].”
He noted that what impressed him about Paint Party is that you think about painting as a 2D experience, but “they actually managed to incorporate some of the motion sensing – like
how it reacts depending on how hard you throw the paint – to make it easier and cooler for kids and families to play.” Rein continued, “It really used our engine, like some of the particle effects, our 3D rendering, etc. The other game used our engine even more, since it’s more into the screen 3D [motion].”
We’ve all seen the Microsoft Press Conference, Peter Molyneux’s Milo, and Kudo’s avatar glitching out. So, as the dust settles on what was arguably Microsoft’s biggest E3 announcement – the motion-sensing Project Natal – what’s there to say about it?
It’s certainly an interesting idea. To remove controllers from the equation and have players sit in front of the screen with a pair of cameras and a microphone sensing their visual and aural input and interpreting it for gaming.
Amazingly, after a wave of speculation at the press conference, it seems to really work. What impressed the most at E3? Read the rest of this entry »
Kotaku editor Stephen Totilo had the opportunity to give Microsoft’s Project Natal the once-over, thought he had the device all figured out, spotting three flaws in the system. However, it would seem that by his own admission, all three analysis were wrong.
His first thought was that it would not be able to handle multi-player gaming, but project director Kudo Tsunoda directed his attention to a display which showed how easily the device was reading both their bodies as they stood before the sensors.
“We appeared on screen as simplified, mutli-jointed stick figure skeletons within silhouettes of our bodies. It clearly saw us as separate people. There would be no problem, he said, for the system to support a game that let us play at the same time and track our movements separately.”
Totilo thought that he might be able to get away with playing Burnout Paradise one-handed, but it seems that notion, too, was in error.
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