Sony Initially Offered Natal Tech...and passed

[thebay408]

http://www.psxextreme.com/ps3-news/6831.html


As of now, we all know it's Sony's PlayStation Move vs. Microsoft's Natal. But did you realize things could've been very different...?

First things first: you should listen to the podcast of the recent Engadget Show; you'll learn a lot more about the future and potential of Move, and how the technology came into existence. But if you'd simply rather read a brief summary about it, we've got you covered. It seems that 3DV Systems, the company behind Natal, first approached both Sony and Nintendo with their motion control idea, and in this show, Dr. Richard Marks explains why Sony passed:

"We tried a lot of different 3D cameras. I love the 3D camera technology; personally, I like the technology part of it. We worked closely with our game teams at what it would enable, and it enabled making the things we already did with EyeToy more robust. But it didn’t really enable as many new experiences as what we were hoping it would, so it made the things we were already able to do a little bit more robust — which is good — but it added a lot of cost and it didn’t enable some of the other experiences we wanted to achieve."

Marks goes on to talk about why they chose to use those colored tracking balls for Move (it's about helping to control the light conditions, which Natal can't do), but it's most interesting to learn about the early days of motion sensing research for Sony. As for Natal, Microsoft says they've improved the software, despite the fact that the original co-processor in the system had to be removed due to potentially high costs. It'll be Natal vs. Move out of the gate but Sony could very easily have gone with Natal, and that's something worth talking about. Important business decisions are always entertaining.




Sooo is Natal basically the Eyetoy with a couple of tweaks?

[Mex]

I think Natal will be as succesful as 3D TV's.

[kiggidykev]

I think Natal will be as succesful as 3D TV's.

ha ha

[Bobman32x]

And the Playstation was originally supposed to be a Nintendo product to be a SNES add-on, but they chose Phillips and the CD-i over Sony. We all know how that ended

[SequenceF]

Natal will do quite well. I see absolutely no reason why I wouldn't buy this on day one, even with limited game support initially.

Motion controlled games are the future of gaming and controllerless motion recognition feels quite a bit more 'futuristic' than holding a controller.

[XxxadxxX]

I think Natal will be as succesful as 3D TV's.

Or as succesful as the Power Glove

[kiggidykev]

Now I want to get a 3DTV just so I can play Power Glove games on it

[ultimatespidey81]

the power glove was bad ass in "the wizard" :D

[XxxadxxX]

the power glove was bad ass in "the wizard" :D

Funny thing it ONLY worked in the movie.

[Daemius]

Natal will do quite well. I see absolutely no reason why I wouldn't buy this on day one, even with limited game support initially.

Motion controlled games are the future of gaming and controllerless motion recognition feels quite a bit more 'futuristic' than holding a controller.

Bleh, I don't want motion controls. Call me old fashioned, but I prefer pressing buttons.

[monkeyfish]

Natal will do quite well. I see absolutely no reason why I wouldn't buy this on day one, even with limited game support initially.

Motion controlled games are the future of gaming and controllerless motion recognition feels quite a bit more 'futuristic' than holding a controller.

This sounds all well and good until - what was it, 100ms lag? - kills you in shooter games, or let's the soccer ball right past your goal. It will never, ever replace the archaic button boxes we still know and love today. ...At least nowhere near enough to make a dent.

[Starfleet_Rambo]

Bleh, I don't want motion controls. Call me old fashioned, but I prefer pressing buttons.

Nothing beats maxin' & relaxin' to play video games.

Being more active with a game is nice, but sitting will never go out of style. Especially when tired.

[animemetalhead]

This sounds all well and good until - what was it, 100ms lag? - kills you in shooter games, or let's the soccer ball right past your goal. It will never, ever replace the archaic button boxes we still know and love today. ...At least nowhere near enough to make a dent.

And that's without making the point that without feedback, motion controls are unimmersive. It's like playing a racing game with a steering wheel, sure, it's more realistic than a controller, but you still don't get the forces in actually piloting a race car, and it's difficult to accurately portray the feel of actually controlling a vehicle.

Motion controls will all die out eventually, hopefully the next advancement can actually do something useful for gaming rather than just taking up resources that could be used for doing something fun.

[monkeyfish]

And that's without making the point that without feedback, motion controls are unimmersive. It's like playing a racing game with a steering wheel, sure, it's more realistic than a controller, but you still don't get the forces in actually piloting a race car, and it's difficult to accurately portray the feel of actually controlling a vehicle.

There's actually been pretty good improvements on the wheel front, force-feedback on the steering column and such. So even these gimmicky controllers offer more immersion than a camera.

I gotta say, one bit of motion control that may be awesome, is the accelerometer stuff found in iPod Touch and like two DS games. It's the only new control style aside from the Wii's FPS method that I genuinely like, when used right.

[Soja]

I love Project Natal. It's so bad.

[Mex]

Natal will do quite well. I see absolutely no reason why I wouldn't buy this on day one, even with limited game support initially.

Motion controlled games are the future of gaming and controllerless motion recognition feels quite a bit more 'futuristic' than holding a controller.

Don't you want to wait and find out how much it costs first? How much support it's going to get from developers?? How well it will actually work outside of a demo?

My prediction, it'll be a pretty cool niche technology but very few people will actually buy it. That will lead to horrible developer support. And then it will die.

It's like 3D movies. They've been around FOREVER. They've never replaced traditonal 2D movies because of costs and the gimmickyness of it. Which is what is going to happen with 3D TV.

For what you pay for a 360, plus the costs of the Natal technology itself, plus games, the casual market will most likely just continue to support the Nintendo Wii because it's relatively inexpensive and they know what they're getting.

[topperharley]

Bleh, I don't want motion controls. Call me old fashioned, but I prefer pressing buttons.

I don't want them either. Long live sitting on our asses pushing buttons!

[vedis]

motion sensors imo suck, but the are the next nesisarry step in the evolution of games(but not a step thatl outdate anything really)

but until we have the tech to make a replica .hack world, played just like it was in the series, screw it all

thats the advancement what i want

(and for those who dont realize this, they STILL used controls with buttons in that on top of the VR)

[macamatic]

Is it just me, or did that whole explanation sound like a bunch of side-stepping and marketing BS? Seriously, just say you didn't think it was worth the money.

[Billy-93]

He refers to a development conference Microsoft held not so long ago in which Peter Molyneux of Fable fame (presently, creative director at Microsoft Game Studios) took the stage and attempted to demo the publisher's much-publicized Milo Natal project. Molyneux apparently called someone from the audience to the stage and asked them to interact with the virtual boy, but it didn't go to plan. Natal's camera failed to see the person accurately because he was wearing a black trench coat. After some fiddling, he was asked to remove his trench coat and -- whoops -- wore a black shirt underneath. When it still didn't work, he was invited to take his seat again.

Next, Molyneux said that Milo could interact with illustrations drawn to paper and scanned by the camera. He asked the audience for suggestions. "You could see him cocking his head and listening for the right key words, and then finally he heard something the game would recognize," my development source explains. It was a cat. So he invited someone from the audience to ascend the steps to the stage and illustrate the feline on paper. When Natal attempted to scan the horribly scribbled drawing, it instead picked up the Abercrombie & Fitch logo on the person's sweater.

Posted from my friend on skype, dunno what site he got it from but it sure sticks it to those stupid fanboys.

[ffwarrior47]

And finger guns. Don't forget finger guns.

[Mystlyfe77]

I think motion technology will get the best results when it's integrated into an existing gaming set-up. Use it with the controllers, not instead of the controllers. Same with voice recognition.

Honestly, I still that the Playstation Six-axis technology has the most potential for all the current motion devices (and its not so distant cousin, the iPhone's motion controls). Not necissarily as "let's use this as a steering wheel," but more as an auxiliary function to improve gaming controls. Resistance: Fall of Man has the best usage of it, imho. Pity they scrapped it in the sequel. Tilting the controller to bring up maps and scoreboards was intuitive and freed up buttons for real game controls, and shaking the controller to extinguish fires and shake off locks was efficient and quick.

[killer_roach]

Funny thing is how many people think Microsoft developed the Natal technology...