Fallout 3 head developer Ashley Cheng has suggested that Microsoft let developers loose on it’s Application Programming Interface (API) in a bid to really open up the full potential of Natal. The Bethedsa employee thinks that Natal has almost endless possibilties beyond games and that app developers and not just game developers should be allowed to tinker with it. Cheng remarked:

“Microsoft should open the NATAL API up like Apple does with the iphone/ipad. Let anyone make a NATAL “app.” I bet someone makes a killer app that has nothing to do with gaming”

Project Natal - A Shot Across The Bows

We agree, come on Bill, let ‘em have it, isolationalism will stifle Natal development. Look what Apple did with iPhone apps.

What do you think, what non-game apps would you like to see with Natal?

Steve Q

After demoing Natal, British TV gobshite Jonathon Ross tweeted that the performance ‘wasn’t quite there’… like he would know. Ross is well known in the UK for opening his mouth without engaging his brain. The Natal unit that he demoed was a Summer 2009 version, do us a favour Jon?…. Keep it it shut…

Jonathon Ross TV Airbag Rubbishes Natal Camera

Hosting an  event in London with various media bods a few days ago Molyneux showed his disgruntlement being blocked from demonstrating the latest versions of the Natal sensor and software. He claimed “It’s always a huge frustration as a designer when you see somebody play a version when you know it’s been exceeded many times over” That’s good news cos I, as well as many others, were a wee bit concerned… More good news, Molyneux also said:

‘So very often you get a position that what a person’s looking at is two, three, four months, a year old and you kind of want to go, ‘no, no, it’s 10 times better than that!’ So it is very, very frustrating; it always is – there’s just countless revisions of cameras since the one at X10 and countless revisions of software’

Another source, probably from Microsoft itself, claimed that the sensor in circulation was only 10% as sensitive as the current version. We’ll see when the ultimate iterration is released, along with a full line up of games, at E3 in July. Peter Molyneux will also reveal details of the much anticipated Fable III at E3.

Fable III for Project Natal

Anyone else think Jonathon Ross is a jumped-up brainless airbag? Do PM’s words fill you with hope for Natal?

Wedbush Morgan expert Michael Pachter has forecast a brand-new lean-Xbox 360 hardware mod just before the end of 2010. Speaking about the possible sale price reduction to combat loss of marketplace share to the PS3, Pachter informed investors, “It is far more likely that we will see a slim version of the Xbox 360 with a 250 GB hard drive and with Project Natal bundled into the box while maintaining the $299 price point, especially if Sony does not lower the price of the PS3 by the time Natal and Sony’s Move controllers launch in the fall.”

Kate Moss - Slim, But Not as Slim as an XBox 360

This is actually not the very first whisper of a possible 360 component modification in the recent past. Several weeks back, Joystiq obtained pictures from a Far East technical online community which were proposed to show a size-zero variant of the actual 360 system board. Include to this the quotation from Steve Ballmer which referred to “more form factors in the future,” as well as a recent Microsoft employment offer with regard to an Xbox 360 Motherboard Design Engineer, and Pachter’s proposal appears much more than a possibility.

Fresh designs tend to be at the core of the video game sector. Recently, Sony launched a leaner model of the PS3 this together, with a big marketing push, was able to significantly enhance consumer attention for the system. The Xbox 360 has already been on the marketplace for nearly five years and might be looking slightly tired, and it would certainly make good sense for Ms to pursue a corresponding strategy to overlap with the release of Project Natal this ‘holiday’.

We’ve reported this before but this seems more concrete evidence….. Of course what I’d really like to see ia a hardware upgrade along with the sleek new case… this seems less likely…

What do think? Will a slimmed down size zero 360 revive the comsoles reputation? Or are the PS3 fanboys rubbing their hands and saying ‘told you so’?

PS3 Fanboys Not Wanted Here

Let me know . . . (PS3 fan-boys need not reply )

Steve

Sony’s David Cage, a lead developer on the PS3 only Heavy Rain, has been kicking off about Project Natal again. This time it was about the skateboarding demo shown at E3 last year, see below:

Click here to view the embedded video.

“I thought it was a little bit lying to present it that way because it will let (consumers) think that they will (see) something that they are not really close to getting.”

I love this demo and I think Sony should button it, pull on their big boys underpants and stop telling porkies about what is obviously far superior technology to their new “improved” EyeToy.

Cage’s whinging comes 12 months too late, the demo was released a year ago, he also said: ‘”When the kid comes in with the skateboard and the laser ray, scanning the skateboard, and then it’s in the game” and made a sceptical gesture.

I say, “Oi Cage! Shut it dude, stop your barking little doggy, big hat and no cattle…”

Anyone out there agree with Cage? Big hat, no cattle…

Ste

Ever heard of Monty Python? Or ‘A Fish Called Wanda’? What about ‘The Life of Brian’? I’m guessing then that you might recognize the name ‘John Cleese’ too. Our scoop today is that John Cleese will play a lead part in the upcoming and much anticipated Lionhead RPG Fable III.

Cleese Grows Horns for Natal Fable III

Lionhead supreme Peter Molyneux let slip the JC info at GDC in San Francisco.  Apparently the haughty voiced Cleese will play a condescending ‘posh’ English butler, very well casted in my opinion. I met Cleese once and was, let’s say, ‘not amused’ by the stuck up Python star.  

The Fable franchise has been lauded for it’s Pythonesque smartness and this led Molyneux to invite Cleese onboard. ‘He’s not the Messiah, he’s a Tolkien inspired elf with oversized ears and crap hair’

Unlike Bioshock 2, Fable III will not be a Me2 clone of Fable II but rather a whole new idea sphere. Molyneux was censored by his peeps but was obviously buzzing with what he wanted to reveal but couldn’t.

Peter Molyneux buzzing about Natal enabled Fable III

Fable III will be a landmark game for Natal, fingers crossed that Lionhead get it right… Cos if they do then FIII will be awesome…

L8RS

Ste

Spielberg gushing over Natal, and he doesn’t need the money, so he really means it (unless he’s really, really greedy  . . . )

Click here to view the embedded video.

Ste

Misty May-Treanor – Pro-Beach Volleyball Player

Click here to view the embedded video.

Incubus – they look bored, do you think they were getting paid to do this?

Click here to view the embedded video.

Rapper ‘The Game’ making a dork of himself . . ‘you don’t even need a steering wheel, insane’ …. That’s the point dude, the whole point. It’s like trying instant coffee and saying ‘ Wow it’s instant, insane’……

Click here to view the embedded video.

Ste

this is hilarious . . . Jimmy Fallon when faced with the amazing future of gaming asks ‘What sized room will this fit into?’….  WTF?

Anyway this is another cool vid showing what Natal can do . . .

Click here to view the embedded video.

Soon

Ste

How much did Microsoft pay these guys? I mean Sugar Ray on the X-Box?  Makes great viewing though and Sugar Ray really does look like he’s enjoying himself…. Watch out for the nose scratch Burnout bit ….

Click here to view the embedded video.

l8rs

Ste