| forevercloud3000 said: I geuss I can agree with your two points. From a distance, MS surely has made Natal look like the next big thing. Yet what do you think of the product so far? |
What do I think of the Natal product? Well its really hard to form a conclusive opinion on it. However I will try my best to relay what I think Natal is all about and what strengths/weaknesses etc I can forsee.
What Natal is:
Natal is attempting to be a very complete home media interface. It is important to think of it as both a hands free way to interface with the various Xbox 360 multimedia functions between music, movies, photo display, TV on demand etc as much as it is a games interface. However the games interface is probably more an extension of existing titles which use a regular controller as seen by Fable 3's touch system which was inspired by Ico as much as it is for a more casual style gaming interface on its own in games like 100 vs 1 which can reach a broad audience. It is not really a core gamer interface and core games can easily do without it when you think of many of your typical RPG, FPS etc style games.
Do I think Natal will be successful?:
It will achieve some success at minimum. The level of investment Microsoft is making towards the platform and the fact that its likely to be bundled with at least one important Xbox 360 SKU will ensure it will achieve a relatively decent level of exposure to most people. What I cannot anticipate is how the whole package will work together and what shortcomings there will be in both the voice and physical camera interface because Microsoft has kept information about how exactly the whole device works and how people will use it a secret. Without knowing how the whole system of software + hardware interact I cannot guess how people might react to the interface.
What Natal isn't:
Natal isn't attempting to be a finely tuned and accurate interface down to the mm^3 of precision. It isn't attempting to replace the standard controller but to compliment and extend the overall experience, especially when thinking of core games. Its best described as a broad stroke brush when comparing it to Move which is designed as a finely tuned instrument and the Wiimote is somewhere in between. Its not a hardware interface and people ought to stop thinking about it in terms of the hardware which enables it and think about the software which makes the system work. Its a first generation product, much of the precision of the Move etc won't be available until the 2nd generation product is released where they can significantly increase the capture rate and resolution in all 4 dimensions when you include time.
@Jeorc:
Move is complicated hardware with simplified software whereas Natal is more simplified hardware and more complicated hardware. Natually a software company would make Natal and a hardware company would make Move which is precisely why they diverge on the interface design. Im not saying that Move software design is bad, im saying that Sony simplified the software by making the hardware do more of the legwork so they didn't have to create as complicated software.
Tease.
