When the Wii first launched Nintendo made the brilliant decision to bundle the system with Wii Sports, thus giving every person who bought it a high quality tech demo of what the system can do, and subsequently defining the use of the technology. It appears Microsoft will be attempting to take somewhat of the same approach with Natal, as Rare's studio head, Mark Betteridge, says that first-party launch games will define the Natal experience.
“I suppose at Microsoft it’s about, overall, having the right content from first-party studios to define what Natal is,” he told Develop in an interview.
“We’re very confident we do have that, we will have that, and I think people are going to be impressed with what they see from ourselves and [other] first-parties,” he said.
The Natal launch line-up hasn't been announced yet, but that will most likely be done at one of Microsoft's two E3 press conference. For now it seems that the company really wants to come out of the gate flying with their first parties showing everyone how it is done.
Rare: We will define the Natal experience [Develop, via That VideoGame Blog]
Contest:
10:00 AM on 03.27.2010
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Wii Sports was a pretty good pack in, Natal will need something on par. A fall back game that will make buying Natal worth it.
yeah seriously,that statement would have made me feel better if they didn't trash so many of their first party studios a while ago.
It talks to you with the voice of HAL. Interested now?
(Disclaimer: Not really.)
I even like Perfect Dark Zero.
Might just not watch could get expensive.
It's a stupid idea. I don't have to stick my cock in a meat grinder to know it's a bad idea. I don't have to try to play Fable 3 on it to know it won't add anything to the game. No matter how much Microsoft tries to hype up Natal, it is still a glorified webcam game.
Normally I'd completely agree with you. My major problem with Natal is that it's actually based on tried-but-failed hardware. Sony tried this with the EyeToy on the PS2. Hell, they tried it with the PS EYE this generation, and it didn't work.
Also, if it's Peter Molyneux pushing it, you kind of have to lower your expectations about what he's saying. I wish that weren't true, but history repeats itself. I won't write Natal off completely, but I'm going in as a major skeptic.
"I dont think Natal will work" "its just an eyetoy" "I want buttons!"
Superior trolling from people who have no idea what this technology can do.
The same could be said of Move.
The best thing Microsoft can do is play to their strenghts; whatever those are. :P
In conclusion, motion control is dumb.
Having said that, you have a point with Peter Molyneux.
If I remember correctly, Bungie is no longer first party, nor does Halo Reach incorperate Natal. Now Microsoft is clearly intelligent enough to notice that the Wii is defined by it's first party games, but to be frank, Nintendo is a better first party than Microsoft. Sony may be stupid, but Microsoft is smart.
I agree with Nevi, Microsoft probably doesn't have any 3rd party killer apps, which it is downplaying in advance by saying Natal will be defined by first party games. The company is doing what it's good at; marketting.
I can't wait for E3. Microsoft's Natal, Sony's Move, the new 3DS from Nintendo, and maybe even Sony's response to Nintendo's new handheld. It promises to be the best E3 in years. And the winner will be whoever sells the most of their E3 showings by the next E3.
Why hasn't Natal been demoed by gamers (not journalists or celebrities, but unpaid gamers)? How has Microsoft been testing consumer reaction if the only people with hands-on time are professionals rather than consumers? (an entertainer is a professional at public relations, and a gaming journalist is a professional journalist. Neither are good indicators of consumer reaction to your product.) What is the reaction non-gamers have to Natal? These are the kinds of things Microsoft should be testing right now.
Personally, I think they're trying to keep quiet on Natal because they don't want us to have second thoughts about buying it. They want to build a mega hype storm at E3, and then hold our interest in a chokehold until release. If they give us all the details and time to think about the product, then people will probably lose interest and/or start to doubt the product. Microsoft definitely knows what they're doing...I mean, look at the reaction to the Playstation Move. When we see Move at E3, I bet a lot of people will be shitting their pants at how cool it is. But right now, it's REALLY easy for the gaming community to say it's just a cheap replica of the Wii Remote, because everything they've told us makes it sound that way.
It's also silly to question them. We know nothing. Just like we did about the Wii several years ago, and then Nintendo came out and wowed everybody and now here we are today. MS and Sony both want to do that. We don't even know what kinds of games are coming out. Rare has been very quiet. PD xbla was passed off to a different studio, 4J, while Rare has toiled away at something.
E3 should be interesting. It could be pretty awesome, or it could be a huge flop if MS and Sony fall flat.
We know Natal is very much like an eye toy, and that the eye toy wasn't very impressive. We know nothing much other than that. So they hype grates me a little. I don't see anything exciting, or even newsworthy about Natal yet.
Microsoft needs to make a Nintendo game and they are logically relying on the guys that have spent the most time with Nintendo to make Natal great, but the Problem is that the Creators of RARE have long gone left after joining up with Microsoft and now RARE lack the vision to really make a games like they use to.
Microsoft is incapable of making a game that would out do Nintendo.
Well done Microsoft. Please, just show me something good.