The official website of Microsoft-owened British developer Rare has closed, the front page of the site replaced by a countdown that appears to be counting down to a website relaunch and the reveal of what the newly rebranded Rare have been up to for the past couple of years.
Rare recently recieved a new logo treatment, seen above, and have been confirmed to be at the heart of Microsoft’s plans for its new motion controller and E3 2010 announcements. The countdown conveniently ends as E3 begins, pointing to Rare’s importance at the show even more.
You can check out the countdown yourself and sign up for Rare’s new mailing list to be kept in the loop over at Rare.co.uk.
We’ll bring you the latest from the show as we get it, and we’ll be live at the Microsoft Media Briefing in Los Angeles next week, so stick with us!
Well, the internet world is abuzz with rumors regarding E3. And who can say what’s what?
But according to Game Informer, it looks like Harmonix is licensing a bunch of “dance” songs to help fuel the rumor that they’re developing a dance title for Microsoft’s Natal.
Three game retailers in Sweden have all made a listing for Project Natal, with the preliminary pricing of 1499kr. The three are cdon, Webhallen and Game.
While this price converts to around 200$, it’s important to note that the usual way of pricing here in Scandinavia is to add a zero to the dollar price. So a 60$ game will usually cost 600kr. This means that if this price is accurate, the most likely price would be 150$.
The price seems awfully high, which makes it suspicious. for 200kr more you can buy an Xbox 360 Arcade bundle on the same sites. What lends it more credence though, is that all three sites are independent of each other, yet lists the same price. So unless one had it first and the others copied it, then they seem to have a common source.
One of the retailers lists it as coming out in fall 2010, while another has October 2010, which is the current rumor. Two of them have a disclaimer that all info is preliminary.
What do you think? Early leak, or just a grab for preorders?
Speaking in a recent interview with CVG, Sega boss Mike Hayes revealed that the House of Sonic intends to show off a Project Natal “prototype” at E3 in June, with more games currently in the pipeline for the motion capturing games controller.
“We asked our Japanese studio to create something for [Natal] which we’ll show off at E3. They had a brilliant prototype up and running within six weeks. I mean a genuinely entertaining prototype you could just play.”
“As publishers, what we want is a very close early relationship on these devices. And all credit to Microsoft and Sony, they’ve given us early development kits,” he said.
Boss of Grasshopper Manufacture Goichi Suda (otherwise known as Suda-51) is known for being one of the biggest auteurs within the games industry. The man is known for producing some fairly quirky, but very original games. So what’s next for Suda-51? Project Natal and PlayStation Arc.
In an interview with GameSpot UK, Suda said he was interested in making games geared towards the new forms of motion control.
“I will make some original IP to fit that control system.”
That’s basically a confirmation, isn’t it?
He also expressed an interest in making a game similar to Heavy Rain, but said such an endeavor would be difficult to make with “the current generation” of Japanese game developers.
Posted by Michael O'Connor On February - 23 - 2010
Regarding an October release date for Natal tweeted by TV presenter Jonathan Ross earlier today, Microsoft has only one thing to say – no comment.
“There have been no further announcements on the release date of Project Natal,” a rep told VG247 earlier this morning. “it remains scheduled for Christmas 2010.”
The as of yet officially named motion capturing gaming device is currently set for an “Christmas” release, and we probably won’t get anything more specific than that until this years E3, in June.
Posted by Michael O'Connor On February - 16 - 2010
According to CVG a recent job listing from Microsoft indicates that the company is working on a “large franchise” for use with Natal.
The job page shows a listing for a Senior Level Designer, and keywords amongst the document are “mission / environment design”, “combat” and “strategy”.
Posted by Michael O'Connor On February - 15 - 2010
Talking to CVG recently, Aaron Greenberg has stated that he expects Microsoft motion sensing technology, currently going under the codename Project Natal, to be around for quite a while after its launch.
“The richness of the technology is going to really enable experiences that never had existed before. And we’re not just speaking about what we’re doing this year, but I think two, three, four, five years from now as this evolves.”
“We obviously could have done a motion controller if we’d have wanted to do that, but we felt that would be a much more interruptive experience. We had an opportunity here to really do something that’s transformative and brings a whole new category of experiences to life.
“Now we’re saying to creators: ‘We can see when you move your hand, when you move your feet, we can track your body. I can stand in front of this sensor and it can recognise my face and know if it’s me, or my brother or my sister.”
The real name of the hardware is expected to be announced at this year’s E3, though this journalist has become so used to calling the thing Natal that calling it anything will probably come as a shock to the system when its true name is finally revealed.
Posted by Michael O'Connor On November - 27 - 2009
Hey, like that remote control you use to change your channels? Well, Microsoft is convinced you won’t need it anymore soon, or so says Xbox Live general manager Marc Whitten when discussing the Natal.
Talking at the Streaming Media West show recently, Whitten described the increasing number of 360’s video applications as the “biggest surprise” of his job. “With the flick of my wrist I can change a channel,” Whitten said. “With the power of my voice I can start a movie.”
He added: “I don’t believe we are currently in the golden age of the television or the golden age of the game console or the golden age of the Internet; frankly, five years from now I don’t know that you’ll be able to tell the difference between those worlds.”
Can Microsoft add a motion controller to the Xbox? They seem to think that they can. And they are, in camera form.
“For far too many people, the controller is a barrier preventing people from enjoying the game,” said Don Mattrick from Microsoft. “Can we make you the controller: Yes we can.”
A trailer then popped up, showing us various gameplay modes that featured no controller at all. A kid was playing a kung-fu game by acting out in front of the TV. A family was playing a racing game together, moving their limbs and bodies to interact with the game.
The camera, Project Natal, will feature “Full motion body capture” according to Don Mattrick, as well as being able to scan your own items, like skateboards, and put them into the game. There’s also facial and voice recognition.
“When it launches, it will work with every Xbox 360 sold, and ever Xbox 360 we will sell in the future, including future Xbox models.”
According to Kudo Tsunoda, the creative director of Project Natal, the camera will recognise player’s faces and sign them into Xbox Live. Natal will also allow your movements to be mimicked by your own Avatar.
Tsunoda promises that, “This is a full-body experience, not something you can just do on the couch by waggling your hand!”
New games and features exclusive for Project Natal is Ricochet, a 3D, full-body version of Breakout. A young girl on stage smacks balls into a wall of blocks, destroying them. Another feature, Paint Party, allows a player to fling paint against a virtual canvas. Speaking the name of a colour brings a bucket of said colour into the Avatar’s hand. Blue, green, brown and light brown are all summoned by a simple voice command.
Next, Peter Molyneux walks out on stage! He agrees with the principle behind Natal. The controller is the biggest barrier, and Project Natal is going to change how we game. Lionhead have been playing around with Project Natal for a few months, creating a character named Milo.
Milo can recognise your face, as well as recognising the tone of someone’s voice. He’s a fully interactive virtual human. A player, Claire, interacts with Milo, connecting with him and acting out various scenarios with him. A hand up to the TV swishes water around in a pond. Every hand movement is being recognised.
Claire draws a picture for Milo and holds it up to the Natal camera. It is instantly recognised and appears in Milo’s hand. Molyneux believes this is a real character, someone who knows you personally.
“This is a landmark in computer entertainment.”
If this works, nothing is going to stop Microsoft.
