http://www.vg247.com/2009/06/02/spielberg-throws-away-current-work-to-focus-on-heart-breaking-natal/

Steven Spielberg has told the BBC that everything he’s working on with EA is now in the bin. Why? Because now he’s got Natal.

“I’m currently making videogames through EA, and right now I’m so excited to be able to write for [Natal],” he said, talking alongside MS entertainment boss Don Mattrick after the Microsoft E3 press conference last night.

“That’s what I’m most excited about, because it sort of changes the paradigm of what I would have written for last week, now all that has been thrown away and it’s a whole new world, a whole new beginning.”

The body-sensing tech, the creator said, will pull down the barriers experienced by many when they first pick up a game controller.

“This is going to try to bring those that are intimidated or scared of the technology, with what the buttons do or what the controller does, this is going to give people that don’t usually play videogames access to a whole new world that we know is compelling but they haven’t quite discovered yet,” he said.

“I think they’ll discover it through Natal.”

Spielberg added that Natal is a step in allowing developers to create truly emotional content.

“I don’t really know of a convergence, and I can’t give you a date for convergence, but so far, the videogame industry has not allowed us the opportunity to cry while we’re playing a videogame because we’re too busy putting our adrenaline rush into the controller, or to wherever we have to swing our arm with the Wii controller, to get a result, to achieve a level of success,” he said.

“Because of that there’s no room for a videogame to break your heart. I think, in terms of a technology, we have a little more room, to be much more emotional with the Natal technology than we ever have before.”

You must watch that interview.



He's made some great, can't wait to see what he can do. It's also a blow to whatever console he was currently working on.

yay!!!!!!!

boomblox 360

i loved the game on thee wii.

“This is going to try to bring those that are intimidated or scared of the technology, with what the buttons do or what the controller does, this is going to give people that don’t usually play videogames access to a whole new world that we know is compelling but they haven’t quite discovered yet,”


Are people really that scared of controllers? Does rumble run off a flux capacitor or something that may explode in our hands if used wrong?

people that never used a controller aren't very good at using one. I tried getting my sister(16) to play on my 360 and she was terrible at it and she was frustrated.

I hope this means we can play a game where we curl up in a ball inside a virtual fridge, which then gets virtually nuked.

..and now presenting EMO gaming. *shudder*

Btw, I doubt that EA is going to let him just stop making current projects. Contracts trump all.

Everybody is embracing this new tech....a tech which is basically the wii tech but bigger. Poor Nintendo

I doubt its "poor nintendo", since they have the similar technology coming before Natal, with the Ubi-Cam. Some fine tweaking might put it in the same capacity as Natal, but before Natal hits the market.

At the Ubisoft conference, they said they've been working closely with Nintendo on it, so Nintendo's hand is in the development process. Ths, it could happen.

The eyetoy has had a lot of this kind of stuff for years and it never really took off as more then a novelty. The Wii has had this technology for years and again, almost all the third party games that use the wiimote are pretty much using it as a novelty (that often controls worse then its controller counterparts, see the Madden games for a good example).

What makes everyone think that somehow this implementation of motion controls and camera positioning will be way different? Take pretty much every major game and tell me how any of them would be improved with these kinds of gimmicks.

   Come to think of it Nintendo has been trying this stuff for 20 years not just 3 with the Wii.  Anyone remember the power glove and that pad you could run on in the track and field game?  Natal might work for that kind of stuff.