Hands on: Xbox Project Natal review

Project Natal games

Of course, the end result of that tech also involves a lot of jumping around. To demonstrate, a ball and wall game called Ricochet is proffered. It's a bit like a third-person version of the classic Arkanoid. Only you are the bat, thwacking the ball by waving your arms/legs/body about.

What's immediately apparent is just how precise the tracking is. Your onscreen avatar authentically mirrors your movement as you jump around in front of the sensor. The sensor tracks your joints and removes the background.

Consequently, lurking interlopers do not confuse the system. The required distance between user and sensor varies depending on what activities are taking place. To play our bat and ball casual game, which requires a fair amount of physical movement, we stood around 3m from the transmitter.

Less active control would require less space. Think of the tracker as a stationary camera; it needs to keep you in the frame as you move left and right.

JUMP AROUND: Project Natal isn't for couch potatoes

As Hofto moves backwards and forwards, the onscreen avatar mimics with astonishing accuracy. Unlike similar Eye-Toy-type products, the RGB camera maps skeletally and apparently understands how human joints work. It can also distinguish colours and it's this which allows it to cut the main subject away from the background.

Significantly, the amount of lag is minimal. The demo bat and ball game is dependant on very fast reaction times, but the system never seemed to struggle to keep up.

We ask if players will get to choose their avatar's body type or does the system need to map your actual shape?

"It would depend on the way the experience is built. This particular demonstration works with a basic male and female template," says Hofto.

Natal updates for existing games

It's unclear at the moment if existing games will receive Natal updates. Certainly Microsoft is concentrating on new fare, and regards Natal as the perfect lure to entice casual gamers from Nintendo's Wii.

"The Xbox 360 is thought of as a hardcore games platform, offering singular experiences. But Natal is a social technology, enabling us to introduce casual games we haven't been able to create before. It will be focused on fun, simple games. We don't know what third party publishers will do with the technology."

Adds Hofto: "All of our publishing partners have had Natal development kits for some time, but we have no idea what these third party publishers are up to. They might want to introduce a voice element to Bioshock 2, for example. But I don't know. We're focused on family content, titles that you can jump in and out of."

Why is it called Project Natal?

The moniker Project Natal stems from a long held Microsoft tradition of giving new technology city names as internal codenames

"Our Head of Incubation, Alex Kipman, is Brazilian and Natal is a beach city in Brazil that he used to visit. Natal also refers to birth and new life. The pieces fit together pretty neat. We think this is in some ways a new start for the Xbox 360. We're half way through this console generation and we're now bringing something to it that's brand new."

So will the technology come to market with its now well-known codename? "You know, we're debating that. We've talked so much about it and people know it, but we're not sure what we will call it when it arrives in stores this Christmas."

Project Natal prices and bundling information are currently unavailable, although we do know that the Project Natal release date is by Christmas 2010. It's pretty evident Project Natal will debut with a number of SKUs. Says the woman from Microsoft: "The important thing to realise is that all existing Xbox 360s are compatible, everyone will be able experience the Natal revolution."