At this years E3 Microsoft stunned the world when they announced Natal an interactive Camera/mic that would launch likely fall 2010. But that same day UbiSoft announced Nintendo Wii also had a camera coming out but theirs was set to ship fall 2009 with UbiSoft heading the launch with their new fitness title. UbiSoft said they and Nintendo were hard at work on titles for the new camera. So could Nintendo and Microsoft be set for a major battle next E3 and fall 2010? Also with both companies claiming to have an interactive camera and both announcing their camera's at the same time who copied who and what can we expect from Nintendo?
Natal shown at E3 showed a interactive Camera and Mic. But Nintendo could easily utalize WiiSpeak and the new Camera UbiSoft announced to create an almost identicle experiance. In essence it will be a battle of software, Nintendo could bundle the new camera with WiiSpeak and launch it this fall or next year with almost identicle and just as revolutionary software as Microsoft. This year at E3 Nintendo obviously didn't see the signifigance in their own camera since it never debut at Nintendo's own press conferance. But now that Microsoft revealed Natal Nintendo could easily produce the software required to give gamers an identicle experiance.
So with the camera and WiiSpeak Nintendo could have their own Natal by this fall, with software showing up at next years E3 to counter Microsoft's Natal software. Who will win, we already know Nintendo's camera is probubly cheaper since it's going to be bundled with UbiSoft's new Fitness title. Bundle it with WiiSpeak and your talking an under 50$ Natal from Nintendo. Of course the developers of Natal have had a jump start having shipped external dev kits last week. But UbiSoft has already been hands on with the new Camera for Wii and I'm sure Nintendo has had plenty of time to work on similiar technology as Natal.
UbiSoft claimed that Nintendo's camera will be able to recognize all of your body moves in real time just like Natal. Its unknown whether Nintendo has the facial recognition software ready or not or just how in depth the current camera software is when compared to Natal. But I'm sure with a little sweat and blood Nintendo could create the facial recognition software really quickly.
So who's Natal will win if Nintendo pits its camera against Microsoft's?
Also poor Sony will be stuck ripping off Nintendo and Microsoft again. They will barely have their new motion controller out and if they want to continue competing ripping off Microsoft/Nintendo's camera recognition software will be necessary. Actually I bet you anything Sony scraps the wand and just moves straight onto recognition software for that new camera they showed off (Used for their new wand)
So what do you think, does Nintendo have a Natal in its back pocket too, was UbiSoft really not joking about having Natal like functionality on the show floor today? With dev kits and Nintendo/UbiSoft hard at work on new camera utalizing software could Nintendo actually best Natal by next E3?
It's a classical fight, who will win?
-JC7
"In God We Trust - In Games We Play " - Joel Reimer