Now I’m not much of a gamer but I’d love to get my hands on a slick gaming console even if it’s just for causal gaming purposes. I had my eyes on Nintendo Wii for quite some time and then my friends wanted me to buy Mixrosoft Xbox 360 console instead. While I was in the confused state of mind I came across the Microsoft Project Natal. Now that is something that could bring the gamer out of a lazy arse like me. Project Natal is a highly futuristic gaming concept developed at Microsoft or I might say it’s being currently developed at Microsoft. Project Natal is due this holiday season and I’m desperately waiting for it apart from the zillions of other gaming fans.
Project Natal involves no gaming controllers, instead you can interact or play games using gestures like hand and feet movement, speaking to the console or presenting objects and stuff that’ll be picked up by the Godzilla or sensors in a tiny console. Now we can only imagine what all Project Natal could do with this. So here’s my list of five features I’d love to have in Project Natal.
1. Social Media Capabilities
Apart from most of the gaming that takes place offline, there’s an equal amount of online activity involved. Social media is something we all swear by. Project Natal could mean new cool ways to manage your social media activities. Imagine speaking out your next tweet, updating your Facebook status using gestures and writing a blog post while speaking to the console. The possibilities are endless. I can already imagine tons of application potential that Project Natal and social media sites could deploy.
2. Backward Compatibility with Xbox, Xbox 360
While Microsoft has reportedly gone on record saying that Project Natal will support Xbox 360 consoles there’s little information that it will be compatible with the really old Xbox console. I’d love to see Project Natal supporting both the console versions. The reason being that those who’re casual gamers or those who don’t play very high end gaming might just buy Project Natal for the sake of convenience in the living room. People could stock up on second hand Xbox and Xbox 360 gaming consoles and bundle them with Project Natal. How about that?
3. The cost! Oh lord!
The word has been out since Project Natal’s preview that it’ll be sold for around $100. The price tag is highly attractive especially if you’re going to be buying Project Natal as an add-on to your already existing gaming console, anything above the $150-200 range would be a pretty expensive one-heck-of-an-add-on. For Project Natal to be really successful and to make it the holiday gift of the decade Microsoft needs to chalk out a marketing strategy that will let people as broke as me buy it or even gift it to someone.
4. More and more games
Almost all major gaming publishers have struck deals with Microsoft to port their games for Project Natal. Games likes Burnout Paradise have already started the process of moving to Natal, a demo was shown in which a user had an invisible steering wheel as the controller for the game. Happy news! I’d love to see as many games as possible on the Project Natal platform. I hope Microsoft won’t let me dig out an old Xbox 360 controller, stashed away something in the store room, for just one nasty game that is incompatible on the Project Natal platform.
5. Applications err..App Store?
Something like Project Natal has got a huge potential when it comes to developing applications and widgets. Will Microsoft keep Project Natal open to developers? That might still be a questions far far away but I’d love to see a dedicated App store on Project Natal. You cannot dismiss the web based potential of applications along with seamless integration with the social media and multimedia content. Project Natal is just the beginning of a new era of gaming. Bring it on Microsoft!
Article by Harry
Harry has written 461 awesome articles on HarryJerry.com.
About: ...an engineering student, a freelancer, a professional blogger, a loving lover, too shy, an Internet freak....and everything I shouldn't be.
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Tags: controller, features, gaming, microsoft, project natal, social media, specifications, xbox
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