Gaming Should Big N fear Project Natal

[Commadore64]

Good thing your read the entire thread and links to arrive at your conclusion

This little hardware box is going to have to have so much built into it, the size would be half of an xbox

2 cameras are not going to motion capture that well. Plus lighting and the 'flailing' factor have to be accounted for... It is unrealistic to believe that it could be implemented and utilized so cleanly.
From the link from 2 frames above your comment:
The 3D sensor itself is a pretty incredible piece of equipment providing detailed 3D information about the environment similar to very expensive laser range finding systems but at a tiny fraction of the cost. Depth cameras provide you with a point cloud of the surface of objects that is fairly insensitive to various lighting conditions allowing you to do things that are simply impossible with a normal camera.

But once you have the 3D information, you then have to interpret that cloud of points as "people". This is where the researcher jaws stay dropped. The human tracking algorithms that the teams have developed are well ahead of the state of the art in computer vision in this domain. The sophistication and performance of the algorithms rival or exceed anything that I've seen in academic research, never mind a consumer product. At times, working on this project has felt like a miniature “Manhattan project” with developers and researchers from around the world coming together to make this happen.

The video for the Wii camera seems more realistic, with the camera, balance board, wiimote motion+ combo, you could have a fairly immersive game environment.

Of course - its like those 2 current games that takes advantage of the Wii's Guitar and balance board or camera and motion+that is in development that Nintendo talked about and demo'd at E3- those 2 games are just the few I can think of. Maybe Vitality sensor and a GC controller for sheer awesomeness

QUOTE

Microsoft is too far behind and nearly out of options for this to be a "Wii killer" that some expect or hope for...

Correct - too far behind. No more options for 360 - none that can be found

Great study

 

[EnigmaXtreme]

The $199 360 is nothing to be feared by Nintendo, aminly cause theirs no Hard Drive, no headset, no backwards compalitability. So no doubt youd spend another 50 or so dollars, not to mention Xbox Live fees.

So 250 for a Nintendo woith everything u need in the box sounds rrrrrrrrrreally appelaing

 

[Commadore64]

So the $260 version of 360 with hard drive is too expensive?
*backward compatibility is there for xbox 1 games - not all but a bunch. I dont have many xbox 1 games but the few I have work

xbox live online experience and Free Wii experience is 2 differnt things
If you cannot afford $50 a year - then the Wii is the way to go
Wii pro online:
Free news and weather
Purchase a browser (unless you steal it) to get online web pages
Play games with friends (but you need to know their friend code for each game)
Messaging
Wii Con online:
You need to know friend code for each game
Not too much other content - Vote channel, shop channel, etc...

360 pro online:
Download demos of games prior to purchase (unless you steal it)
Download movies before they are released in theatres (Mutant Chronicles in Hi_Def..I thought it stunk but it was a pre-release and legit) (you could torrent it I suppose but that doesnt count)
Download a lot of shows from a lot of channels (some free - some not)
Rent movies online
Play games against a friend
Challenge other players or get challenged by other players you dont know

360 con online:
Costs money
No wireless - you can buy it for a stupid price or tap off your router or computer if you can read instructions.
Costs money (points) to get content


So there you have it...
It's like a bicycle and a car...
If you can afford a car and car payments, you can drive around and listen to music with the air conditioner on and get far fast. It does cost gas money though

If you cant afford that - you can get a bicycle and accomplish same thing but its not the same

 

[9th_Sage]

Should they fear it? I'm not sure. It looks to me like they are both good (Wiimote/MotionPlus, Natal), but for different applications.

 

[Commadore64]

No fear
Competition is good

Case in point...
Look where Nintendo is now
Look where it was back then
--competition was
Atari
Colecovision
Intellivision (I think)
etc....
---

If there was not a threat from a competition - things would not mature
Competition is good

 

[godsakes]

natal doesn't look all that impressive IMHO, seems too limiting (can't imagine how you could play say halo using those controls) - but the sony tech demo however was far more impressive (assuming they stick on a anologue stick and enough buttons) i can see how a game like halo and oblivion could be used with these controllers.

 

[Smuff]

How funny to read people supporting Sony and moaning about other companies ripping this wonderful paragon of virtue's ideas.....

Sony are THE worst culprits at this in gaming history -they have never innovated ANYTHING themselves, just copied and repackaged other companies ideas from day 1 of their gaming divison's inception.

C'mon fanboyz.... wake up and smell the coffee.

PS. Your beloved George-Foreman-Grill-lookalike sucks ass

 

[Alato]

Hmm,

Ubisoft's "Your Shape" on Wii uses a similar camera. And apparently it's being developed closely with Nintendo. Wonder what will happen with that.

... And I don't get why everyone mentions the Eyetoy. The closest thing to that is the DSi's camera.

 

[Commadore64]

Notice the outrage to Ubisoft "Your Shape" from the 360 community? Similar to Nintendo community's outrage to NATAL
Pathetic 360 owners.... pwn'd - so totaly pwn'd - good nite 360

 

[triassic911]

Notice the outrage to Ubisoft "Your Shape" from the 360 community? Similar to Nintendo community's outrage to NATAL
Pathetic 360 owners.... pwn'd - so totaly pwn'd - good nite 360

I like that Your Shape camera, although I hope it has TWO lenses inside. Otherwise that vid that someone posted is false advertising. If I can get that and it works with Wii Fit Balance Board, I'm sold.

 

[ridgecity]

if the Big N uses the Eyetoy technology and mix it in with the wiimote, it would be even more superior

Hardly

Natal is pretty amazing by the looks. I know better than to get my hopes up though

and I'll wait until it's released before judging. Remember those first Wii trailers with the dude playing red steel barrel rolling and ducking behind his couch for cover? Sigh...all we got was a 'pointer' light gun style control and waggle.

I loves me some boom blox though...that worked well with the Wii controls.


QUOTEactually it's not that complex, most consumer digital cameras have those same features, the only difference is that this will be used for video games and not easier to use point and shoot photography. The funny thing is how most technology turns into amazing stuff once you get this level of interaction.

My digital camera has face recognition, but it can't recognise different individual faces. IT can't track a persons limbs motions through a 3D space either.

I'll definitely buy the natal if it turns out to be as good as it looks.

my camera does, it's a Panasonic TZ5. It can remember 25 people of your friends and family and 3d space can easily be implemented using zoom, but my camera doesn't have a powerful processor to do that single it's not necessary for anything, but it can detect if someone is moving too much.

The main thing is the software, the hardware is common stuff. Not to mention, hopefully Microsoft isn't just hyping years earlier it to steal sales from Nintendo because if it doesn't revolutionize gaming, the backlash will be hard. Jimmy Fallon asked the guy that making it if it's was going to be available on 2010 and he didn't answer, maybe he can cheat on E3 about dates but national tv is another thing.

 

[Guild McCommunist]

No matter how hard you try, you're NOT going to selll an Xbox to the casual audience. The Wii already has Wii Sports and tons of other casual games (Brain Age, Big Brain Academy, Wii Fit, EA Active). Trying to make an Xbox into a casual family system is incredibly stupid.

 

[bytor]

Adding to your user installed base by targeting a currently untapped source for the console is far from stupid.

 

[Guild McCommunist]

But in a marketplace you're bound to lose in? Seriously, look at the points:

1) The Wii has already outsold both PS3 and Xbox 360 due to casual gamer appeal (Wii has outsold it by approximately 20 million, that's a big ouch).
2) No one wants to look like a retard swinging a 360 remote around. Wiimotes fit firmly in your hand.
3) The Wii already has probably more casual games than hardcore games out (try competing with that market place)
4) The Wii already has major franchises Xbox can't match (Wii Sports is the best selling game ever, not to mention Brain Age and Big Brain Academy).
5) The Wii is cheaper. I know that's a "bad point" since this is about gameplay, but who wants to shell out the extra $50 for a system if they're only playing it as something to kill some extra time, not a "camp in the room for 17 hours playing Smash Bros." type.
6) WiiMotionPlus, EA Active stuff, and WiiFit are all out. Xbox won't be making any type of the similar technology.
7) They're late to the punch. I doubt Project Natal won't even have anything out by the end of '09, and the Wii was launched in '06 (right?). You'll be 4 years behind then.
8) A whole slew of trade marks. What casual guy wants to play baseball with Master Chief? I would, but I'm not casual. I'd rather go with a friendlier face (as the impersonated casual gamer) and go with Mario, Sonic, or any of their crew.

Overall, they're just too late and against too much. Project Natal will probably fail horribly.

 

[Commadore64]

1) The Wii has already outsold both PS3 and Xbox 360 due to casual gamer appeal
*Wii sold most systems, however when comes to playability, it comes in 3rd

2) No one wants to look like a retard swinging a 360 remote around. Wiimotes fit firmly in your hand.
*I didnt see a remote in the NATAL demo - but talking about retards swinging a Wiimote

3) The Wii already has probably more casual games than hardcore games out
*If by casual you mean rated E - the Wii does blow away the competition
Now QUALITY of games is a different story
Using Metacritic

Using games that rank 75 point or higher (100 is max)

Playstation 2 - 536 games (wow) out of 1594 ....or 33% of the games
Playstation 3 - 136 games out of 300 ... 45% of the games
Xbox 360 - 223 out of 582 games .... 38% of the games
Xbox 1 - 339 out of 856 games ... 39% of the games
Wii - 71 out of 374 games ... 18% of the games

4) The Wii already has major franchises Xbox can't match (Wii Sports is the best selling game ever, not to mention Brain Age and Big Brain Academy).
*Isnt Wii Sport boxed in with the Wii - so is that a captive audience sale?
*Bah I hate Halo but this response answers this

5) The Wii is cheaper. I know that's a "bad point" since this is about gameplay, but who wants to shell out the extra $50 for a system....
6) WiiMotionPlus, EA Active stuff, and WiiFit are all out.
*Doent you have to pay extra to get those - didnt that break the extra $50?

7) They're late to the punch. I doubt Project Natal won't even have anything out by the end of '09, and the Wii was launched in '06 (right?). You'll be 4 years behind then.
*So if it launched in '06 and 3 years later they introduce MotionPlus and Vitality Sensor, and 360 released in Nov 05 and introduce NATAL 4 years later, what does that say for the companies R&D into their consoles?

8) A whole slew of trade marks. What casual guy wants to play baseball with Master Chief? I would, but I'm not casual. I'd rather go with a friendlier face (as the impersonated casual gamer) and go with Mario, Sonic, or any of their crew.
*MMM...ok... I guess if this same concept over and over and over and over again is appealing, then yes play as Zelda the Quarterback. Personally I was love to take an Uzi to Mario
*However Sonic is not a Nintendo character - and does also exist on 360

But whatever - its a matter of if YOU have fun with your system.

 

[scousethief]

Cant blame MS for trying to jump on the band wagon. They will fail though.

 

[triassic911]

But in a marketplace you're bound to lose in? Seriously, look at the points:

1) The Wii has already outsold both PS3 and Xbox 360 due to casual gamer appeal (Wii has outsold it by approximately 20 million, that's a big ouch).
2) No one wants to look like a retard swinging a 360 remote around. Wiimotes fit firmly in your hand.
3) The Wii already has probably more casual games than hardcore games out (try competing with that market place)
4) The Wii already has major franchises Xbox can't match (Wii Sports is the best selling game ever, not to mention Brain Age and Big Brain Academy).
5) The Wii is cheaper. I know that's a "bad point" since this is about gameplay, but who wants to shell out the extra $50 for a system if they're only playing it as something to kill some extra time, not a "camp in the room for 17 hours playing Smash Bros." type.
6) WiiMotionPlus, EA Active stuff, and WiiFit are all out. Xbox won't be making any type of the similar technology.
7) They're late to the punch. I doubt Project Natal won't even have anything out by the end of '09, and the Wii was launched in '06 (right?). You'll be 4 years behind then.
8) A whole slew of trade marks. What casual guy wants to play baseball with Master Chief? I would, but I'm not casual. I'd rather go with a friendlier face (as the impersonated casual gamer) and go with Mario, Sonic, or any of their crew.

Overall, they're just too late and against too much. Project Natal will probably fail horribly.

You DO know that buying a wii is a fad right?

 

[Bladexdsl]

it's just a stupid eye toy that you can talk to when the eye toy came out they made like 3 games for it? so let them have it.

 

[pizzaman2893]

instead of wondering lets just wait and see what happens

 

[ZenZero]

It wont work for shooters - thus making it relevant to 1% of the 360 fanbase