In an announcement that will surprise no-one, Microsoft has stated today that the brunt of its Natal line-up with be show off at this year’s E3.

“We have very strong first and third-party developer support for [Natal]. Needless to say, we’re putting some of our best people on coming up with great game ideas for this, and we’re going to have some great stuff,” said Microsoft CFO Mindy Mount, speaking at the Jefferies Annual Global Technology Conference in New York today.

“As a history, Microsoft works very strong with third-party developers, so we’re hoping that we’re going to get some great titles from that. You’ll be able to see more news about that this summer at E3. We’ll show you the full line-up.”

The yet-to-be-officially-named motion-capturing gaming device, Natal, is currently rumoured for an October release date. This journalist, personally, is very excited about seeing what Microsoft has to reveal for the device at this year’s E3.

Well, all-around genius and gaming expert extraordinaire Michael Pachter once again indulges us with his genius.

He told Industry Gamers that his $50 estimate for Natal was probably too low.

As for the DSi XL, he speculates that it won’t sell very well considering it’s only $10 less than a Wii system (and $20 more than a standard DSi system).

We all look forward to Pachter indulging us with his bottomless well of knowledge in the future.

The DSi XL comes out March 28th in the US and will come in three colors (red, black, and wine).

“Hopefully we’ve gotten past the point of mini-games,” Valve’s Chet Faliszek told CVG. “I’m sick of that [makes arm movement]. That’s not a game for me anymore. Let’s get some real interaction going.

“We have these technologies now that let us interact in different, really exciting ways. It’s developers’ jobs to do something with it. Impress me. Don’t just make shitty games I wouldn’t want to play if I had to use a joystick,” he went on.

Preach it, bruthaman!

Finally, someone who’s as tired of mini-games as I am. That’s all there seems to be on the Wii. Hopefully Natal and Arc have something serious in their upcoming repertoire.

Jason Vandenberghe, creative director for Red Steel 2, spoke with Play.tm and said that the success of Red Steel 2 was “absolutely crucial” if there is to be a Red Steel 3.

“It was clear from the beginning we had to succeed. It was absolutely crucial,” Vandenberghe said. “It was obvious that, if Red Steel 2 came out and it was not well-received by the fans, we were done. There would be no Red Steel 3.”

The first game is rated 63% on MetaCritic.

Vandenberghe also spoke with VideoGamesDaily about how the Red Steel series would flourish with the PlayStation 3’s Arc, but would do poorly on Microsoft’s Natal.

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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.

Yesterday we posted a story about Michael Pachter predicting something about Microsoft’s Project Natal. Today we bring you another story about Michael Pachter predicting something about Microsoft’s Project Natal. And the PlayStation Arc controller

Good ol’ Pach believes Project Natal will outsell Sony’s motion controller 5 to 1. Why?

“I think that the Sony motion controller will have some problems gaining traction, since it’s not an ‘in the box’ solution,” said the Wedbush Morgan analyst in an interview with PS3 Center.

“A year or so after launch, there will be 10 million [Project Natal units] out there, which will probably attract more third-party support,” he added.

What’s an “in the box solution” you ask? We don’t really know.

Video game analyst Michael Pachter has surmised that Microsoft’s Project Natal will sell for $50.

The Wedbush Morgan analyst stated his speculation on his new GT spot Pach-Attack.

“My guess is, talking to my hardware specialist colleagues at Wedbush, it’s about $50 in cost.

“I’d be very surprised if the thing is more then $79, and I really think it’s going to be $50. Microsoft’s not trying to make money on the device, trying to get everybody to have the device so that they can sell us other things, eventually can sell us a lot more Xbox 360s.

“My call is $50, I think that’s where it’s going to be launched.”

Project Natal has no confirmed price, exact date of release, or even an official name, but the name will be unveiled at this year’s E3 (most likely along with a price) and the item itself is confirmed to be released this year-end holiday season.

Pachter seems awfully confident, especially when he’s been wrong before.

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”.

Halo Duck and Cover, anyone?

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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.

According to MCV some details about Project Natal were leaked during a “secret Microsoft tour”, and I’m actually intrigued.

MCV’s sources say the Xbox 360 camera hardware will ship worldwide in November 2010, with Microsoft planning to manufacture 5m units for day one release.

Project Natal will be sold both separately and bundled with 360 consoles. When sold solo the device should cost under £50 (about $80), but sources at Microsoft says the company is “trying to get as close as possible to ‘impulse buy’”.

14 games are being readied for Natal’s launch, and Activision, Bethesda, Capcom, Disney, EA, Konami, MTV, Namco Bandai, Sega, Square Enix, THQ and Ubisoft are all committed to make games for the new hardware.

After the reveal of Microsoft’s Project Natal at E3 this year, a lot of gamers were sceptical to what sort of games it would be compatible with. Driving games, rail shooters and point’n'click games seems like an obvious choice, but it was agreed upon by many that FPSs didn’t seem compatible.

Okay, so maybe it was only me, but Rare has their hopes up that this will change. According to Rare’’s design director George Andreas, shooters do work with Project Natal. You just need to approach it differently.

“To take a shooter, as an example, you would just have to rethink the way a shooter works,” admitted Andreas in an interview with VideoGamer.

Shooters work the way they do at the moment because they’re based around the original Xbox 360 controller. You throw that away, you throw that interface away and here’s a completely different interface – now how do we create a shooter for this? Does it mean that you have to run, strafe, turn, throw grenades in the way that you’re used to? Maybe not. Maybe there’s another way of doing shooters.”

According to Andreas, Rare has been working with Natal for a while now and are learning new stuff about Natal every day. Hopefully they’ll be able to bring back their a-games after the abysmal Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. Or maybe that was only me as well?

You certainly can’t fault Peter Molyneux for his enthusiasm.

“Just about everything you think is the Holy Grail in design, throw it away and start again.” This is what the man himself believes Natal will achieve.

Have a watch.

Chatting with  TimesOnline recently, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata discussed his thoughts on Microsoft and Sony entering the motion controller market, and he seems pretty happy about the whole thing.

“To tell the truth,” said Iwata, “I expected them to come up with stuff like this last year. So in my mind they’re later than expected.”

“We are happy that it is now becoming an industry standard. However, we still have no idea about when their products will be available, or how much they will cost, or what sort of software they will be used with.”

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Disclaimer: This views expressed in this article are those of the writer, and do not reflect the general opinions of The Gaming Vault or its staff, so take it as is.

Why do we still have E3?

Three years ago it was announced that 2006’s E3 event would be the last event of its kind in the gaming industry. The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) decided that booths, booth babes, massive press conferences from everybody and a yearly takeover of the LA Convention Centre was not worth the time, effort and money to run anymore.

To be fair to the ESA, they had good intentions. E3 was originally set up to give some credence to the emerging industry as it was in 1995. By 2006, the games industry was one of the major economic earners in entertainment, and easy access to information via the internet had began to render the show a bit of an expensive, moot, point.

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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.