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viggity

Here is a video of the Natal. Wow.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03thQvGRVvQ&feature=playe...

I just hope it works as advertised and I hope it has an easy to use API/SDK.

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Yikes. I wonder how Nintendo can respond to this. Microsoft is really going for their throat here.

Just to rub it in Nintendo's face a bit more, during the demonstration at E3, the guy explaining the system said "This isn't a game where you end up on the sofa just kind of using some preset waggle commands."

Ow.

'Tis true though. I've worked briefly with the Wiimote, and it really isn't as capable as advertised - forget tracking any sort of complex gestural movements, it's really only good for jerks and twists - i.e. something that saturates the sensor good.

This thing is going to absolutely destroy the Wii, if it works as advertised...

In the Rayman: Raving Rabbids games, one of the minigames involves tracing an outline on the screen with as much accuracy as possible. I don't know whether or not you'd consider that "complex", but it certainly involves a little more than jerks and twists. (Just the first thing that came to mind :) )

The pointer and the accelerometers are two separate things. I haven't heard many complaints about the pointer accuracy (which is what Rayman uses for the section you're thinking of).

I don't know the technical specifics, so I'll take your word for it ;)

The Wii sensor bar combined with the little camera inside your Wiimote can give you a reasonably accurate estimate of where your wiimote is pointed on the screen.

This is quite bad at gestures though, particularly when the front of the Wiimote is pointed away from the sensor bar (as it is in games like boxing and tennis). In these cases, lacking a visual way to tell movement, the controller relies entirely on the accelerometer, which while theoretically capable, saturate very quickly with full body motion.

This is why in Raving Rabbids, where you have to play rabbid-DDR with the music, you have to jerk the controller - the accelerometer is neither reliable nor accurate enough to reliably infer your intentions through light motions.

Thanks for clarifying (I never can do those music minigames!)

If any of this is true and actually delivers, coupled with technical limitations on the Wii (1), it would seem the story is that they can't. At least not without pumping out a new console.

What will be interesting to see is how Sony responds to this. If the Xbox 360 software wasn't already a million times better than the PS3 software, project Natal seems hellbent on making it so. And Sony, unlike Nintendo, have a platform which to some extent allows expansion and further development.

Definitely interesting times ahead in the console world.

1: http://hackmii.com/2009/02/why-the-wii-will-never-get-any-be...

I don't know how much of a threat this is. I personally don't like the wiimote a lot, so there is definitely room for improvement. But the wiimote comes with every wii, and can be used on every game.

So the problem Microsoft has is that there will not be a large library to take advantage of the Natal. It seems like it'll be another eyetoy. The Natal will probably sell a decent amount, but its use will languish from a lack of compatible games.

And right now the wii is known for family and group games. One good product launch by Microsoft is not going to change that. Also, unless Microsoft lowers prices, or puts a new bundle out, the wii will probably be cheaper.

I can see one significant difference here: the Natal has what seems like a very intelligent camera system, and that can be a standalone product, whereas the Wii system by itself is useless.

A media center that allows one-click videoconferencing with your TV, bundled with a Minority Report style photo album viewer, DVD player, AND has the ability to play games.

If the price isn't anything outrageous I can see fast adoption. Oh, and they have Square Enix lined up. I'd bet it's a worthy contender.

Yeah I don't think it will work quite as well, especially since it says actual features and functions may vary.. reminds me of them hyping the Microsoft surface.

If it did work that would change games and tv apps so much more than the wii could ever do.

I wasn't aware that Surface didn't work, although it would explain the lack of news on it. Natal actually seems similar to Surface; I wonder if the two are at all related.

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