Project Natal has been in the media spotlight since last year and much more so than Sony’s wand controller. One of the big reasons is due to the promise sold by the Milo demo during E3. However, one can’t help wonder if Microsoft may have over-hyped the device before it can truly deliver?
Peter Molyneux has been in charge of hyping Project Natal, which isn’t all that surprising given his Fable legacy, and has done an excellent job. The product was displayed with a bang that had many excited at its potential. However, this excitement waned overtime as many including myself started looking at it with a critical eye.
This can be you
Develop, a trade publication dedicated to video gaming development efforts, recently put out an interesting piece where they polled developers in the community to see where they stand on Natal. As Microsoft alleges approximately 70 to 80 percent of the publishers are playing around with Natal dev kits currently.
However, it seems that the development community is somewhat split as far as the potential for Natal. Developers and media outlets have voiced that there is a growing fear that it may become a platform for shovelware.
The EpicBattleCry crew even commented on this fear as well during a recent podcast. Late last month developer Traveller’s Tales expressed concerns over the lag issue in Natal, which became amplified by Microsoft’s recent announcement.
The Guardian also recently indicated that there is a growing concern in the development community in regards to the processor taken out of Natal. Also, the site believes that most publishers will just tack on Natal onto existing franchises similar to the PS3’s Sixaxis functionality.
I have to agree with Joystiq and Weaseltron studio, that unless Microsoft pushes out a killer app for Natal, interest is going to wane considerably towards it.
http://gamer.blorge.com/2010/01/17/xbox-360-developers-split-on-the-future-of-natal/
