Microsoft expects Project Natal to sell millions of units by the end of the year.
The new Xbox 360 motion sensing tech - which tracks body movements in 3D using an RGB camera, depth sensor, microphone and custom processor - was recently confirmed for a 2010 launch.
"We think that there will be millions of Natals in consumer's homes this holiday," Xbox product manager Aaron Greenberg told Joystiq.
Earlier today we reported that fellow Xbox exec, David Hufford, said there "is no need" to launch a new console because software upgrades or hardware upgrades like Natal can give "new life" to Xbox 360.
Hufford reckons the console may not have reached the midpoint of its lifecycle, meaning we're unlikely to hear official word of a new Xbox for at least another couple of years.
Never underestimate the power of advertising on the masses!
Maybe they will sell over a million of them, then MS will claim they have sold millions. Or shipped millions!
We need to see a price point really and some demos of actual games, but I could imagine lots of people with kids/families going for it for the party games. Say what you like about the wii, but for multiplayer/a-group-sat-around-a-TV-gaming, it is really good fun. My parent's wii was on loads over christmas - mainly playing Wii Sports, Wii Sports Resort and Mario & Sonic.
They weren't interested in watching me play Muramasa though - the bastards!
I look forward to seeing Natal's games at E3. If it has even one good game I'll be both surprised and interested. And if you have to stand up for all the games I definitely won't be buying (on Wii's decent games you don't actually need to stand up and wave your arms, contrary to the myth that many people like to believe. In fact I reckon Wii's control setup is extremely relaxed and comfortable for games like Galaxy and Zelda).
For now I still say it looks like a gimmicky piece of sh1t.
Depends what they price it at... under £50 and more people will be prepared to give it a shot... and then maybe millions of sales is not as far fetched as it sounds.
Doing this would do it.... It'll release in November packaged with Natal paint for £79.99! (yes, that's £30 less than the GOW trilogy on the PS3- ). Alongside it will be:- Dedicated Natal updates built into Halo Reach, Left 4 Dead, Rock Band, Forza 3 & Guitar Hero. new Natal Titles:- Fable III Ricochet Milo Natal Puzzles (A Spielberg title) FIFA Natal Sports Killer Instinct and Skate!
Yes, I'm just guessing, we can wish though can't we?
Has anyone seen how this will work with regular type games, ie racers, FPSs, platformers and RTSs? Or is it just for waving-at-the-screen-like-a-lemon(WATSLAL) games?
For such a forecast on this, they better have a solid advertisement strategy in the works as well as the games for it. Remember the Segway's pre-launch forecast? 40,000 in the first year? Still never sold that much today.
Never underestimate the power of advertising on the masses!
Maybe they will sell over a million of them, then MS will claim they have sold millions. Or shipped millions!
It's going to sell 'millions' in 2010 even though it's only released in November... some advertising. I think the price and the games will be more important.
Unless this thing has killer apps, it's not selling anywhere near 100k. The Wii has basically taken the casual gamers already, so unless this thing has more casual gamer appeal than the Wii already does, it's not going anywhere. The solid gamer isn't going to buy add-ons like this unless the games are worth the money, and it has to come with a free game that makes it plenty appealing.
This thing better have considerable backing, as Microsoft's console is going to be the first one showing it's age in this HD console race, PS3 has already shown that it can grow and continues to do so. I own all the systems so I can only reap the benefits each has to offer.
No I'm not mad; personally there's not much that interests me as a gamer, but I'm pretty sure my kids will love it. And that means I won't have to shell out for a wii and all the associated gubbins that requires.
This is gonig to fail badly i'm afraid. Motion sense control with no feedback? There's a reason the Wii doesn't sell well in the Xbox's target audience, can you imagine trying to play a complex game with the natal's controls? Not only would it be infuriating, but also the gimmick would wear off after a few tries. Its just another EyeToy as far as i'm concerned.
ITS GOING TO SELL MILLIONS WELL THATS COMMON FLAMING SENSE MICROSOFT 2 MILLION IS MILLIONS
THIS IS MIRCOSOFT BEING CLEVER WITH WORDS THEY KNOW IT WILL FLOP THEY KNOW IT LAGS THEY KNOW ITS A JOKE THAT CAN NEVER EVER BE LIKE WII-MOTE AND NUNCHUCK AND AGAIN WITH WM+
SO THEY SAY IT WILL SELL MILLIONS YES MICROSOFT SO WHEN TYOU GOT A 2 MILLION GLOBAL NATAL USERBASE AND SLOWING SALES WII HAS A 60/70 MILION WII USEWRBASE ALL WITH CONTROLS OF MOTION AS STANDARD
AND MILLIONS APON MILLIONS OF WM+ OWNERS AND GROWING
MILLIONS DEFINE MILIONS MCROSOFT AND STOP HIDING BEHIND MARKETING BS
I am unsure why most of you guys WISH this to fail. MS are giving us a new product, which they are very proud of. You DONT have to purchase it. If it is as good as it seems on the demos it will be an amazing bit of kit, much more advanced than anything the Nintendo Gash has and better than the PS3 WAND. I hope it is a success and it sells well (as long as it is backed up by some great games and original ideas to play these games)
I always find it quite funny when CVG or other sites post these kind of sound bites and the anger they cause.
What I would like to know is, do microsoft (or others) just come out into the street and preach these statements or is it the journalists asking stupid questions.
Guess its a bit of both. If I had a site like this I'd put these stories up as they seem to create quite alot of (the wrong kind of) interest/unrest.
On natal I think it will sell ok but its going to be down to that first game. The Wii would not have had the success it has had if Wii Sports hadn't been so accessible to anyone. It was so easy to show people for 5 minutes and people had a connection with it instantly. That impact will be hard to reproduce.
Personally I will buy it if devs show some truly interesting ways to use it. Just using motion control is a little dull for me. When different types of control all work at the same time that will be interesting.
I want to be able to control a character with the pad but perform actions with natal. Eg. walking with the pad but having the option to lean over edges, pick things up, last minute dodges with natal.
Enough time has passed from the reveal for me to sit back and think about this as a concept. I have come to the conclusion that, in it's infancy at least, this will hold little to no appeal for the long time gamers out there. And why should MS cater to the "Hardcore" as they are known? MS knows it has enough gamers that take their gaming seriously and want appropriate games, that do not mind complicated stat screens, twitch game play or encylopedic knowledge of button combinations and presses.
What they're really after now is some of that sweet, sweet casual money that Nintendo have been enjoying, Despite what the press releases say. Cynical? maybe, but can you really see the "hardcore" that doesn't have cash to burn rushing out for this on day one? or will they be taking a more considered approach to the purchase after thinking about it and comparing reviews etc.
I cannot expect this to be anymore than a gimmick in the short term, maybe branching out into something a little more useful than a way to navigate the dashboard as time goes on...
But as Dag said... All they need is one killer idea...
For £50 (if that has any truth to it) it shouldn't be hard to shift, but like some have said: it needs that killer game to get it off to a good start.
Personally, I think M$ suck at hardware and the like, so I'm not expecting much from it. I could be wrong of course, but it won't convince me to buy another 360. Ever.
It also remains to be seen how the devs will push this since they can't even be bottomd doing games for the Wii properly
I always find it quite funny when CVG or other sites post these kind of sound bites and the anger they cause.
What I would like to know is, do microsoft (or others) just come out into the street and preach these statements or is it the journalists asking stupid questions.
Guess its a bit of both. If I had a site like this I'd put these stories up as they seem to create quite alot of (the wrong kind of) interest/unrest.
On natal I think it will sell ok but its going to be down to that first game. The Wii would not have had the success it has had if Wii Sports hadn't been so accessible to anyone. It was so easy to show people for 5 minutes and people had a connection with it instantly. That impact will be hard to reproduce.
Personally I will buy it if devs show some truly interesting ways to use it. Just using motion control is a little dull for me. When different types of control all work at the same time that will be interesting.
I want to be able to control a character with the pad but perform actions with natal. Eg. walking with the pad but having the option to lean over edges, pick things up, last minute dodges with natal.
It just needs one killer idea.
Good post - I totally agree with everything you've said there.
We all know that the likes of Natal and the Wand will live or die on the software that is available and - even though most seem to be writing Natal off as a simple tool for 'casual' games - it probably does need a great 'casual' title to really kick it off.
Although I fully realise that you may not be refering to my post precisely, I am not writing it off as a casual thing, at least not in the long term. I would love to see it go wild in the future.
Imagine the impact it could make on games like Oblivion or Fallout, if adopted in the same way as the Milo demonstration? Even if the dialogue trees were still in place (as they would have to be lest you want a game where the most spoken phrase by NPCs is "sorry I didn't understand that", things like facial expression or body language could be taken into account. However I can't help but feel that this is not going to happen anytime soon, certainly not this/next year at any rate.
The only conclusive evidence we've been given as to its early use is people flailing around like they're having a seizure playing casual games or using it as a Phillip K Dick-esque way of navigating screens.
I'm sure Microsoft are working on a way for Natal to be applicable to more involved gaming, but will the developers not owned by/sponsored by Microsoft be quick to adopt? And even if they did, might it be too late in the day?
Although I fully realise that you may not be refering to my post precisely, I am not writing it off as a casual thing, at least not in the long term. I would love to see it go wild in the future.
Imagine the impact it could make on games like Oblivion or Fallout, if adopted in the same way as the Milo demonstration? Even if the dialogue trees were still in place (as they would have to be lest you want a game where the most spoken phrase by NPCs is "sorry I didn't understand that", things like facial expression or body language could be taken into account. However I can't help but feel that this is not going to happen anytime soon, certainly not this/next year at any rate.
The only conclusive evidence we've been given as to its early use is people flailing around like they're having a seizure playing casual games or using it as a Phillip K Dick-esque way of navigating screens.
I'm sure Microsoft are working on a way for Natal to be applicable to more involved gaming, but will the developers not owned by/sponsored by Microsoft be quick to adopt? And even if they did, might it be too late in the day?
Well, that's the $64M question....I guess we won't know until we actually see some of the games using it.
We'll no doubt see more in the next 6 months. I'm very interested in Natal, but I'm yet to be fully convinced that it'll be the 'Big Thing' that MS say it will be. Hopefully, if it is used well, we could have some very interesting titles in the pipeline.
I believe Natal isn't being primarily targeted towards the hardcore gamers, but to try and get the more casual of gamers to the xbox! Microsoft already has a good solid base of gamers who enjoy gaming! but to earn more cash they basically want to rain on the wii's parade! thou I do think they are adapting natal to work on some games already released!
I think in games such as fable etc, natal will only be used now and again to do certain things that use hand gesture or voice recognision! other than that I can see you having to use the controller 75% of the time!
Never underestimate the power of advertising on the masses!
Maybe they will sell over a million of them, then MS will claim they have sold millions. Or shipped millions!
It's going to sell 'millions' in 2010 even though it's only released in November... some advertising. I think the price and the games will be more important.
Well, I did say "maybe"! It was just a response to SVD saying it won't rope in new customers. Of course it will have to have the right price and software - I did mention that also. But as the wii has shown, getting the advertising right will get you a few sales!
It's getting a lot of main stream press over here, so I would imagine even more over there.
If they get that all right, I could see it selling a million through November/December. Will I be one of that million? It's too early to say.
Either way it's still just a guy from MS bigging up his own products.
Speculation is a good thing, to consider what it might be like, what games will come out for it.
But I think people are writing Sony and MS off to quickly I have a suspicion that they will be amazing, think of the possibilities, its fairly huge, unlike the Wii both bits of Tech from both companies will be utilizing motion but in much greater graphics and HD. Feed back is my only issue right now maybe MS will introduce some feedback gloves?? (as long as it doesn't look like Nintendo's Gauntlet of Tripe back in the day).
I know Fable III will be good, it has the pedigree and now has the tech to interact on a level we always dreamed off having, that will be Key I believe ...Can't wait to be king in Fable and slap my servants for being lazy lol
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