Naughty Dog co-founder: Natal’s killer app “may not be a game” |
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| BY Rain Anderson Feb. 28th, 2010 | More on: |
Project Natal‘s killer app may not be a videogame, Naughty Dog co-founder and current social game startup Monkey Gods’ Chief Monkey Jason Rubin believes. It’s more about the interface, he says, and how it works into the rest of our living room setup.
“Things like Natal are going to revolutionize far more than gaming. I think putting Natal in the Xbox gives the Xbox an opportunity to become a lot more than just a game machine and I think there are things you can do outside of gaming that will justify buying the Natal. I firmly believe that if Microsoft plays its cards right that they could sell far more Xboxes next generation … they could sell it to people that don’t play games,” Rubin said on the latest episode of Bonus Round.
“The amazing thing about Natal is that never before has a piece of hardware hooked up to your television been able to recognize you and who you are, had information about you and what you like, and been able to hear your voice and understand your voice.
“And the capabilities that come out of that I believe go far beyond games and that the killer app for it — and all these things need something that catches people’s attention — surprisingly, we may find out that it’s not specifically a game. It’s not whacking balls against the wall. It will be the interface and what it allows you to do to all the other things hooked up to your tv.
“I’m a firm believer now, after playing around with Natal, that Natal and things like it are going to revolutionize our den.
“Once you have that interface and the ability to hook this up to your den, Natal will give you reasons to love it that aren’t games. Not calling games as bad, games will be good too, but the killer app may not be a game.”
I’ve been telling everyone I know that people have been forgetting all the other stuff Natal does beyond the motion controls. Seems like people keep forgetting that for whatever reason.
GDC and E3 should be most interesting..
Natal will fail. Mark my words.
I agree. Natal will be a fatal doaster for microsoft, just like everything they do is.
Diaster*
WHERE ARE THE GAMES FOR PROJECT FLOPTAL? 360 FANGIRLS ARE BRAGGING SO MUCH ABOUT THIS AND YET THERE’S NO GAMES TO BE SHOWN!
Wow, even a SONY, 1st party developer, (Co Founder!) can’t change the minds of the PS3 fanboys and anti everything Microsoft. I’m glad I own both. :) Go Microsoft! Go Sony! Go Nintendo(even though, I don’t own a Wii)!
noone is denying natal will be a success, we are suggesting it will do next to sod all for real gamers just like the wiimote
Natal will fail because of the price. How much will Microsoft sell it??? The price will not be under $300, mark my words.And what types of game will we play with Natal? Talking games???. What happen if you’re not good at English???………………..Many big questions that must be answered. Natal will be an EPIC FAIL.
I see it having some applications but yeah, it won’t replace the controller for hardcore games. Nor do developers of such games intend to do so. So the choice is rather simple: if you don’t see yourself using such a device for any reason, just don’t buy it. I’m very interested in seeing what non-gaming applications it will have myself though.
Oh, and I fully agree with Crooked: “Go Microsoft! Go Sony! Go Nintendo!”
Haseo, if you think Natal will cost more than the actual Xbox 360 itself then you should get your head checked, for real :)
Natal will be a total fail reguardless of the price.
Very very true Natal will be an utter fail…
Talking out of your arse again, are we Drake? :) Natal already has and once Microsoft will start pushing it even more agressively will have even more people talking around the watercooler. Like Rubin says, it will gain the attention of people who don’t even play games. And you can bet on Microsoft pushing it from that angle as well.
I don’t think there’s any doubt on whether or not it’ll be a success as far as its userbase is concerned. It’s more like ‘what will it offer to the current gamer’. People, like our lovable Drake here (love ya!), who go around trashing Natal (or Sony’s controller, for that matter) with simplistic ‘it’ll fail, n00b’ sentences are clearly fanboys of the highest degree.
Wii has already achieved that, the only people that natal will attaract is pedophiles and sex offenders with milo
Well, you’re consistent in your ways, I’ll give you that :)
rubin is just trying to sound smart ass, these same guys hopped in Wii hyped gimmicky wand bandwagon, now repeating it with natal, wii became shovelware, after first wave of softwares on natal believe it , rest will be shovleware for years to follow,
As much as I’d love NATAL to further interactivity in the hardcore realm ( FPS prop gun, etc.) it seems the technology is not quite powerful enough to do it justice. However, Microsoft knows better than any other console producer this generation that lower(ing) prices sells product. While MS isn’t known for its thrifty perephrials pricing, I see them wanting NATAL to become mass market quickly, and wouldn’t sell it at a prohibitively high price. The recent news of MS off loading processing power to the 360 hardware itself implies an aggressive MSRP. My bets on a $79 software bundle (a la WiiPlay – prob the stupid kick ball demo that’s making its rounds now, among other goofy “see-it-works” mini-games), and a stand alone SKU in at $59. I also believe HALO: Reach will use novel control methods that utilize NATAL to become more immersive. Nothing high-level, but simple squad commands, menu navigation, and NPC head tracking.
MS have a stigma of making crappy hardware, no one wants a jet engine in their peaceful living room while watching blu ray movies, the teens might put up with it, the adults won’t. Unless there is a hardware revision then NarTul (i know) will be the gimmick of 2010. They will spend more money on propaganda trying to push this thing into the market than probably developing the device/software its self.
Sony looked into this camera no control years ago and didn’t go with it. Nintendo was offered the tech by the company who sold it to MS but didn’t want it, it seems MS are picking up the sloppy thirds which is even worse! Perhaps they have hit on something the other 2 didn’t know about? or perhaps MS just will fool everyone with propaganda once again.
in the end, it’s all about the software, some might get sucked into the hype train, buy a 360 with Natal, NarTul, realize it’s a complete and utter failure but then buy some games anyway.
Anywho.
Natal will be $69.99-$99.99 USD. It’ll also get a new name at E3.
Note to brick: The entire point of Natal is the SOFTWARE. The recognition, etc. Please, learn basic computer engineering.
“Natal” is the new “Live”, even if it start slowly, or it’s a little bit early to get an amazing sucess, it’s going to be something that will be part of the M$ experience and that other will regret not to have, or will be late and few years behind…
as long as this tech is linked with the original marketed at hardcore gamers xbox brand, they ain’t selling any to people who don’t play games in my opinion.
people already have brand awareness as to what xbox and playstation is .
the wii bucked that trend through what it did and aimed at from day one.
I think success in none gaming markets,fringe gaming or family gaming will only happen by not carrying the xbox ident
I’ll stick with my normal Xbox 360 Controller and I would not be stock if Natal fails. Gimmick don’t last in the gaming world, all the Natal and Wii are for is someone who play games for 5 mins and then stops, not me I love the NES, SNES, N64, Genesis, Dreamcast, PS1, PS2, PS3, XBOX 1, and XBOX 360 so by looking at that you know that kind of gamer I am. I don’t like Gimmick it make you look really dispersed to sell you system, and if you got to do that you must not believe got a change to win the console race, some probably are saying well the Wii is doing good and that are, but the point is what are the Next gen race, and other after that, so I going to say no on Natal, sorry Microsoft cool product but it not going to work now that japan’s video gamers turn away from the XBOX 360 system.
Like it or not NATAL will probably be a success. It might be applied as a secondary remote in the end, maybe even used in tandem with a regular remote so that you could play games where a character has to actually move. The one thing it wont do is suck and no amount of flaming can change that.
I really want Natal to be a success because i believe tht if it does it will truly revolutionize the Gaming world and so much more but I do not beleive this blindly I am concerned about how it will run when the average consumer gets there hands on it but overall I really want this to b a sucess