Another Natal skeptic. :)

http://gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/12/microsofts-project-natal-seeks-poetry-in-motion/

I wonder why they didn't allow him to record the TV image? Doesn't make sense as in other videos they do film the TV.

They didn't allow anyone to film or photograph the TV, the only videos released that showed the screen (the ones with the celebs) were released by MS themselves.  I guess they didn't want any videos or pictures to show anything they didn't want shown.

With the amount of press this is getting I think everyone is going to be in for a big surprise. Everyone expects this to be ages away from release however the biggest advantage of Natal is that ANY game can be tweaked to take advantage of the technology - meaning that by THIS Christmas there could be HUNDREDS of games that can use Natal to some degree.

For instance - to all the naysayers - lets look at the biggest selling title and STILL the most played game - HALO3. With a few tweaks of code they could optimise Natal so that things like throwing grenades, smashing out your elbow, reloading your gun etc could all be used IN CONJUNCTION with the existing controller. Thus Natal simply ENHANCES what is already a great experience. Then depending on how well it works there could be further updates that may allow you to play Halo COMPLETELY by using Natal, thus giving you the ultimate choice in how you want to play.

When you leave your hate at the door and open your mind, the possibilities of Natal are truly staggering.

I doubt Natal will come this year, let alone with hundreds of games.

What you're saying is far-fetched to say the least, given that Microsoft still has software issues to iron out, and then they need a period to ramp up production of the peripheral.

if natal really does the processing for voice and facial recognition I guess that the rumors of it costing $200+ US may be true,and this will mean that sales are going to be very low I mean how many people are going to fork out that much cash for controller, no matter how good it is and people think that it's going to bring new people to Xbox 360 think about it that's almost the cost of a wii.

The software issues MS had, seemed few and far between. I don't think it will take much time to perfect it, also, all they need to do is introduce a patch for games. Also, since the VR software and the motion controll software was already out for PCs, all they needed to do was tweak it. So, i don't believe it will be as expensive as you think.

voice recognition in vista or windows 7 doesn't work,
let's see what microsoft can do with natal.

I didn't say anything about price, in fact I don't remember writing a single post speculating what Natal's price will be.

It's wishful thinking to say Natal will be available this year with "hundreds of games" since 3rd parties got dev kits just now, and they have more things to do than "play" with Natal's devkit.

If Microsoft keeps Natal as on track as they plan, it will release in Fall 2010. It won't have a whole bunch of support from NEW third party games at that time, but will no doubt launch with some first party software. Many 3rd party developers will probably be issued to make updates to their games to make them Natal compatible, as was done to Burnout: Paradise, but may take a bit longer to start making high profile games for it.