Project Natal Forum

Really, the thing seems rather Gimmicky to me, just like the PS3 Motion controller. I really cant see a Controller less thing working in real life with any form of Fun or accuracey. I hope it does do well, and that its awesome, but I really cant see it being used for anything other than gimmicky Carnival wii style games.

@bonbolapti:

So its going to be shit?

I don't think it's going to be what Microsoft hope it will be.  It's not going to create Wii-style sales for the 360 and it will probably end up being used primarily by the OS and a few niche titles.  Why?  Because unless it gets really strong support from 3rd Party publishers it'll go nowhere.  Why wouldn't it get support?  Because if I were a 3rd Party publisher, why would I invest lots of money into an unproven technology on a 2nd place console?  Instead I reckon we'll see some 'natal-enhanced' games.  Unfortunately they'll probably be as good as the early DS games that forced touch screen controls on unsuitable games. 
 
Maybe.

Upon watching the Natal videos around the reveal of the project, I basically said to myself, "If it can do about half of those things it is trying to promise, I will be totally pumped."  
 
If you saw Natal actually in action, those are the videos that I actually believe. I think that it is totally working and that it is, at the very least, stepping toward its eventual goal. Some of what it does still jerks around (see Kudo showing you his Avatar standing there) But hey, the Wii Motion Plus still does that and that is Nintendo's second shot at getting it better. 
 
What I am mainly talking about is that demo video where they showed what they basically wanted Natal to do at some point. Girls trying on dresses, family voice / face recognition trivia, skateboarding, punching dudes, driving cars, etc. If Natal can do half of those things at about... let's say... 80-90 percent fidelity (no, I don't know if that can be defined that way, but I want it to be running better than waggle command stuff) then I will be pretty excited.  
 
If Natal can do a simple thing like Ricochet really really well, then I am pumped to see what developers will do with it. HOWEVER, I am NOT excited in the least to see a lot of stupid Wii style titles come to the 360. The Wii is already sad enough with its minigame collections, I don't want the Wii (or the PS3 for that matter) to be brought down to that level. 
 
I just hope developers use Natal in some really cool ways. I don't want to get it for one cool usage, and then wind up just ducking, dodging, swatting and waving for all my other games. 
 
As somewhat of a sidenote: No, I don't like the idea of Milo either, nor do I think it works nearly as well as it pretends it does. I can see him acting like that eye pet thing for the PS3, just interacting with what you throw at it, not expressing fake emotions and skipping his own homework. 
 
Another Milo note: I want Milo to have bad achievements in it. Zero gamerscore: You are a horrible parent figure! Your kids are going to be spoiled little brats and no one will ever love them. Or, Zero gamerscore: You stuck up jerk, just because you didn't make the basketball team in high school doesn't mean you need to treat Milo like crap till he makes the team! He just took up Heroine! Proud now? 

I hope it doesn't become the next big thing.

It's going to sell them 360's and I think Microsoft are too smart on some level to make something, designed to bomb from the start. They will have worked on it hard enough for us to get at least some kind of enjoyment out of it.

If MS markets this properly, and has a killer game that uses NATAL on launch, then it could be a big success. If, however, the games consist of Wii clones, then it'll be a flop because almost everyone who wants those kinds of games already owns a Wii.

Somewhere in the middle

I think it will kind of flop, but It depends. If the Natal will be exactly like that video we have all seen on Youtube with the kid skateboarding, the family playing that game and the girl picking out a dress then, it might make a show of the Wii. However i fear it will be far from that video and that was a highly exaggerated graphic representation of what they THINK it will be like.
 
I'd say people generally don't like motion control and would want to stick to controllers.

I think the concept is great, motion control is pretty fun if executed right. It sounds great on paper, more interactivity and more movement keeps us fit. However, like most people say when it comes to motion control, when they come home from work or school and they want to sit down and play a game, they don't want to stand in front of their T.V. and flail about. That is, not to say that such games require too much effort but it isn't as relaxing as simply sitting down and pressing a few buttons.
 
At the same time, I'm not sure if developers feel very motivated to develop for Natal since the Wii wasn't such a great success across the more "enthusiastic" gamers of the industry. I'm not saying you don't have to like the Wii to be a "proper" gamer but most people just prefer the more traditional controller. Having said that, it'll be interesting what Natal (or the Sony Sphere) would be like on more powerful hardware since most people seem to worry about graphics more, which the Wii didn't have the hardware like the 360 or PS3 did.