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

EA will annouce a big bucket load of new games at E3 in Los Angeles in June.  The slew of new releases will also be available for the PS3 Move toy.  E3 is the biggest gaming extrvaganza on the planet and EA wil use the platform as a showcase for their new addtions.

John Schappert, EA big boss, said: “We’ve only announced Tiger Woods for Sony Move to date. We have more announcements at E3, inclusive of demos of some of this technology. That said, we’re bullish on these new controllers and the new technology.”

Schappert didn’t go so far as to announce which games would be available but Need for Speed is a likely candidate. Another big games manufacturer throws it weight behind Natal super cool.

What do you think, which games are you waiting for for Natal?

Ste

Everyone wanted a Lightsaber game for the Wii, Nintendo kept drip feeding us the promise of a Lightsaber game for Wii, but it never arrived… Now though, it looks like Lucas Arts are seriously considering the idea for the 360. Darrell Rodriguez, head-boy at LA told MCV that the new improved Natal Camera might just provide the precision that the company needs to make rumors behind the much-vaunted Lightsaber game come true.

Rodriguez, in an interview with MCV, said: “I’m very excited by the new interfaces, either Natal, Move or iPad. It’s something we’re definitely watching and we will consider in the future,”  ”The regular suggestion of a lightsaber game is one of the reasons why we are excited about it — but we’ll keep looking at it and see what we can do”

Coming soon to your games room, XBox 360 Natal Lightsaber Battles

I have no details to add, and there doesn’t seem top be much else floating around the web BUT a Lightsaber game would make complete sense for Natal, imagine jumping around your games room, cutting bits off your mates arms and legs… hilarious. Lets hope they do it, may the force be with them….

Which bit would you chop first? I’d go straight for the head, try and call that just a ‘flesh-wound’

L8rs

Ste

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?

Another strange piece of Project Natal news today, this time from Dawn of the Dead, Slither writer and director James Gunn. The horror specialist play-tested a couple of Natal Games at a recent Microsoft bash. One was Richochet, which we reported on here, and the other was a brand-new offering called ‘River Rush’

Zombies Not in River-Rush

Gunn reports on his blog:

“It’s a game where you stand side by side in a river raft, so it’s two people playing at once. To move right, you have to step right; to move left, you have to step left.  As you rush down right rapids, you have to jump up and slap floating stars in the air – the whole raft jumps up every time you do.”

No gore, zombies or shotguns in sight but the director was suitably overwhelmed by what he saw, particularly with the marriage of gaming and fitness, he added “it’s “sort of a dream come true, an hour of playing Natal every night will definitely burn calories” And also “Gunn concluded, “The Natal was an amazing piece of technology and I’ll be the first one in line to buy one when they come out during the holidays… I really, really can’t wait to shoot someone on that f***ing thing.” So he wants one!!!

Project Natal River Rush Weeeeeeh!!!!

Whilst it remains to be seen where exactly in the market MS will pitch Natal, more and more evidence seem to point to a direct attack on Nintendo’s Wii market. I’m not a fan of the Wii, it’s a toy, and I hope Gates’s people don’t turn the 360 into a  me-too glorified Wii with improved graphics.

What do you think? Will MS dumb down the 360 to pull in the dollars?

Ste

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

Microsoft’s movement-control device, Project Natal is already gonna be huge but it may get even bigger than I predicted. Toy Head-Quarters, usually known as THQ in the video gaming world, could be designing a brand new game that will include production cost of upward of $40 million. THQ wants to show the world what the Project is all about and a game of such complexity and depth should just do it for the unique gaming system. But $40,000,000 (count the zero’s!)

Saints Row 3 - Worth $40 Million?

Over to Danny Bilson, THQ’s games big cheese:

“I have some concepts and some ideas that use Natal in a core game in a really, really cool way. But I don’t think the install base is there because the game I’m thinking about is a $30m to $40m Natal game and the install base isn’t there yet to support that”.

But we’ll have to wait, Bilson also said that the game delelpment could take up to two years and gave no hints as to the nature of the ‘uber-game’ . . . So don’t hold your breath.

But don’t panic :-O THQ also plans to release an ‘awesome’ Natal enabled game in time for the ‘holiday’ release of Natal.

$30 to $40 Million? WTF are they planning…? Anyway watch this space, we’ll let you know first . . .

Ste

A slimmer, sleeker Xbox 360? Looks like Microsoft will release a super-model super slim Xbox alongside Project Natal later this year. The size 0 box will most likely be bundled with Natal and will extend the product life of the Microsoft Console. Rumors are being fuelled by new 360 motherboard and portable hard drive developments for the 360. Obviously MS remain tight lipped about these whispers.

Super Slim Xbox Coming Soon?

Would seem logical that if you make the console smaller then a stand-alone hard drive could avoid any storage issues? Don’t bet your house on it but I reckon a ‘wow have you lost weight’ 360 is incoming…

Now if only they’d make it in black . . .

What do you think?

Will 2010 FIFA World Cup support project Natal? What’s certain is that 2010 will be an important year for Sports FIFA, the World Cup will certainly boost sales of the football franchise. Football and Natal would seem to be an obvious match and soccer would be great fun with a hand free motion controller.

‘Wow dude, I’m David Beckham’

‘More like Dudley Moore’

FIFA World Cup 2010 for Natal

EA is playing its cards close to it’s chest. Simon Humbler, 2010 FIFA World Cup producer said “Whenever any of these peripherals come out we think about what they could add to the football experience. I think the hard thing in respect of PlayStation Move, which has comparisons to the Nintendo Wii device, is that the type of football you can provide for this isn’t particularly authentic”

Doesn’t sound particularly promising, but the EA team are still considering options. Humbler said:

“As you can see from our Wii version, the game is a lot arcadeier, with the big gestures and actions,” he said. “I think there is a different experience there waiting to be uncovered, perhaps, but personally I think it is hard to integrate that into our football game.”

We hope EA at least do the groundwork to see if FIFA World CUP 10 and Natal could work together, it would be a truly awesome achievement if they could pull it off. However, if it doesn’t work it doesn’t work and hopefully EA won’t release anything that’s broken, we’ve seen that approach on the Wii … and it’s not pretty.

What do you think, will Natal work with soccer?

Ste

Please don’t associate us with this tw*t, but there’s some interesting tech stuff in the vid . .

Click here to view the embedded video.

Is it me or is this guy a …..

Ste