Am I the only one that read this to state the furthest back Natal will detect a individual is 13 feet? I'm pretty sure it will detect and capture somebody closer than that, it is merely highlighting the limitation of the IR camera in terms of the window it can capture. There is no requirement to have a room that extends the full 13 feet back I'm pretty sure and when this is confirmed, some people might look a bit foolish jumping on the hate bandwagon right now.

well I already have a hard time with wii fit :p

I guess i'll finaly have to change appartements (errr that might be a bit too high for my gaming budget though =)

To be precise, you’ll want to clear an area extending at least 4 meters (a little more than 13 feet) away from the television.

That’s the back edge of the space to be taken into account by the Natal sensors.

It seems to be suggesting that while you can certainly stand closer, 4 meters should be it's clearance zone. So having furniture or friends within 4 meters could throw Natal off. That would certainly be a pretty big limitation even in American households where you have friends sitting on the couch. It would certainly deny the Natal entry in to dorm rooms. And the 360 is a pretty big staple of most dormrooms.

It uses IR for its depth sensing, I'm 100% sure the device can filter stationary objects such as furniture and walls behind a player.  As for furniture around the player, well you're an idiot for playing in an area with such obvious health hazards imo. 

I must ask but why do I get picked out for actually reading the article where as everyone else in the thread who skimmed the title and came in to troll Natal just breezes along?  No need to reply anyway as I'll not be posting on this forum for a while now as I'm sick of the continual crap in the Microsoft forum.

Wait can you sit down and play natal or you have to be standing? I don't wanna sound lazy here but when you come home from a long day, you just want to sit down, watch some tele or play a game and relax... not be jumping around

I think everyone's missing the point here.
Natal will give your living room an extra 4 meters.

I am shocked, I tell you, positively shocked.

I could get 4 meters depth in my living room but I would have to reorganize it. Making the TV or the couch face the window? I don't think I'll do that unless Natal is the best thing since sliced bread.

I think your right.... it makes no sense that you would have to clear a space for 4metres... this is just a stat for how far it can accurately do it's job.

Even most European households don't have that much space in front of the TV (we have 2metres max)

there we have it! Microsoft copies Sony!!!

Making people get a second job so they can afford a bigger House!!

Copycats i say!

I read the quote again and it seems it's a bit of both.

Even Wii Fit already forces you to move out a coffee table to play it, now imagine a game where you can move in all three dimensions, and potentially playing with someone else at the same time.

That's not to mention playing with 3 or 4 people, which I can't imagine at all unless they keep punching each other or stand really far from the TV... Well, maybe if you have a huge TV which stands on the wall.