NINTENDO REJECTED PROJECT NATAL TECHNOLOGY

It has been revealed that the technology that is used in Project Natal and the new Sony Motion Controller device was rejected by Nintendo.

The Financial Times have this week revealed that Nintendo rejected the camera-based technology for the Wii.

The Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has said that the company tried to develop games controlled by camera-based sensors but received better results using accelerometers eventually utilized in the Wii hardware

As we saw at the E3 Conference earlier this week, Microsoft and Sony are both using camera technology to track gesture and movement-based controls in a three-dimensional space.

The Xbox 360's 'Project Natal' can perform full three-dimensional motion tracking and can scan items into the system. Whilst Sony's new motion controller is a lot like the Nintendo Wii's.

http://www.gamingfront.net/news/828/nintendo-rejected-project-natal-technology/

More to show that Nintendo may know what it is doing

____________________________

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3174645

Nintendo "Flattered" by Sony, Microsoft Motion Controls
Shigeru Miyamoto says it "shows that they have looked at what we have done with Wii.'

By Steve Watts, 06/04/2009

Nintendo might have been the first major console manufacturer to popularize motion controls, but Microsoft and Sony's press conference proved that they won't be the only ones for much longer. The BBC reports that Nintendo executives are taking the new competition in stride. Shigeru Miyamoto actually takes it as a compliment. "The fact that both of those companies are looking at getting the gamer off the couch, taking advantage of motion control, and getting them to control the game by moving their body shows that they have looked at what we have done with the Wii," he said. "And now they are moving in the same direction. To that end we are very flattered."

But he's reportedly "not worried at all" by the competition. "What we're really focused on at this point is taking the experience we gained over the past five years and applying that in a way that creates extremely deep game play experiences that takes advantage of motion control," he said. "Based on the announcements we've seen, they are still in the initial stages and are trying to create experiences that at this point don't seem like they have the type of depth that we're able to provide with Wii Motion Plus."

Miyamoto also took the opportunity to clear up any confusion about New Super Mario Bros. "People may mistake the game as a straight port of Super Mario Brothers Nintendo DS. This is an all new game," he said. "I think the idea of taking a four-player element of a classic game adds a new element of fun to the Super Mario Brothers series."

______________________________

(The last paragraph has nothing to do with this thread but is interesting in its own right).

______________________________

Nintendo either (a) realizes that motion can't do everything, so betting the bank on cameras is not the way to go, (b) has too much invested to change technologies, or is too conservative to see the next wave.

Since it caused this wave, I don't think it is . In my opinion, it is probably 80% (a) and 20% (b).

______________________________

Can you imagine if Sony and Microsoft are going in a direction that Nintendo dismissed? The PR war will be very interesting.

______________________________

Mike from Morgantown

well, i don't think this has much to do with sony's, because theirs just uses a camera to do what nintendo did with accelerometers, while microsoft is using the camera to control games

Not surprising. Nintendo has found a good balance between classical controls and motion controls. The Wii Remote is versatile enough that you can play virtually all the gaming genres efficiently.

It looks hard to find that balance with Natal. If it is to be used for a lot of genres, Microsoft will have to add more peripherals to it. Unless you think moving in a 3D world will be done by walking in place (lol).

does anyone know what inconviniences or short comings the camera based system might have?

What it shows is that these other companies are going with the tech that Nintendo rejected due to complexity.

As a result, they'll likely end up wishing they had Nintendo's motion control options as well.

I just want a combination of all three. =|

Off the top of my head:

- it doesn't have any buttons, triggers or analog sticks which makes it hard or impossible to make certain games. How are you going to walk in a 3D world (and at different speeds)? Is it accurate enough to detect individual fingers to perform actions like firing a weapon? What if the fingers can't be well seen by the camera?
- you have to set up your room so that your whole body can be seen by the camera
- it requires you to have a lot of free space, especially for multiplayer games where everyone has their personal "arm flailing" space, and you can't put people if front of each other or they'll block the camera's view of the other players.
- it only works at 30 fps
- in the E3 demo it looked like it had some lag
- inaccurate tracking problems (the BAM moment)

The biggest problem is the first of course. The only games Microsoft has shown are some simple "casual" games, and a racing game (with no word on how the control compares to the normal 360 controller). Until Microsoft shows more games, many people are going to be rightly skeptical.

natal isnt only for videogames.it is for movies for comunications.and it works realy well to all these things.in my opinion natal is the future,,but not the videogame future.so dont act like crazy against microsoft.sony is really a joke.2 sticks with a silly design and the same results with motion plus which is allredy something old and we all know it will be very expensive.come on sony ,,,,,you can do better than that!

My first thought is that, while it is highly hyped at the moment, we don't really know what the technical limitations and problems with Project Natal are (and probably won't know what they are until it is close to release); and these technical limitations and problems would have certainly been much worse in 2004 and 2005 when Nintendo would have evaluated the technology (if it was evaluated as a standard control system for the Wii)

Too many possible interference with camera based detection, IMO.

What if I want to play in with all my lights off? Which I usually do.