Natal without its Processor: The beginning of the end
Last year at E3 2009, Microsoft showed its new control free peripheral (project Natal) to the whole world. Just after they had demonstrated some casual games like Ricochet and the infamous Milo, the gaming world went crazy and Natal had become the next big thing and the talk of the media and videogames experts.
Then, the E3 buzz cooled down and gamers started to wonder if all of the buzz surrounding Natal was in place. Some gamers said it’s revolutionary, while others said it’s an Eye Toy with a new paint, and a lot of people were in the grey area; waiting patiently for Microsoft to show something that Justifies all of the talk about Natal. Guess what? Grey is my favorite color when someone discusses Natal with me.
If you are a hardcore gamer (like me), I think that you are not liking what Nintendo has been doing this generation. Just look at Nintendo and their Wii games this generation; other than some high profile games such as Twilight Princess, Mario Galaxy, Super Smash Bros, and some third party exclusives like Muramasa and Mad World the system is filled with meaningless casual video games. They are having the success, they are making profit, why would they stop? Believe me they won’t. And that’s why my worries about the future of the gaming industry I adore and love is becoming stronger. In fact, Natal and other motion control devices (I’m also in grey area regarding Sony’s motion controller, but to a lesser degree) are ruining the videogames industry for us, the hardcore gamers.
You might say, they are bringing video games to the masses. I will tell you one thing: When I see the same person who plays Wii Fit also playing games like Uncharted 2, Forza 3, Assassin’s Creed 2 and other hardcore games, I will stop complaining and start enjoying this motion control nonsense.
Major Nelson has stated that Natal won’t replace the Xbox 360 controller:
” I think you and I can both agree that if we were playing Call of Duty or any type of FPS, you don’t really want to run around to the back of your couch for cover. That isn’t fun. You may haven’t a couch to do it, or you may haven’t room to do it. With Natal, we want to bring new gaming experiences to the living room.”
Ok. But what’s about their new gaming experiences? New gaming experiences mean here more casual games, and the fact that Microsoft stripped Natal from its Processor is another prove to my whole point. I guess Now, everyone has been informed that Natal is a software based device, and it’s no longer has a Processor power within itself. Also, Kotaku reported that Natal would actually need to use up to 33 percent of the 360′s CPU, and games like Forza 3 is possible while using Natal, but compromises (reduced artificial intelligence, sound or physics) might have to be made in order to run the game properly.
So you won’t be able to play FPS games according to Nelson comment, no high end games; can Xbox 360 run the upcoming Crysis 2 which will have a very sophisticated physic calculations while using Natal? In fact, Natal is putting more limitations on the capabilities of the Xbox 360 hardware, and if we are discussing the issue here on a Logical manner, we are going to see the graphical gap between Xbox360 and PS3 exclusives becoming larger and more obvious in the future.
Which brings us to the main point behind this article: What is the type of games we are going to play using Natal in the future? I guess I have the answer right now: Ricochet and more of them. Nintendo had started this, and in the eyes of hardcore gamers they are doing things in a very wrong way this generation. Until now, the Xbox 360 and the PS3 are consoles dedicated for hardcore gamers. But if they Insisted on conquering the casual market, we will be saying goodbye to hardcore gaming sooner than later.
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I don’t understand the use of the word “hardcore” in conjunction with gamer.
A real “gamer” has no need to use that stupid hardcore word in conjunction.
A decent read though.
Posted on January 8th, 2010 at 9:04 pm
I would not worry about it. I think Natal will be proven to be a fad because no one is going to want to dance around their living room and those that due will get mad over how inconsistant the device will be. The PS3 might actually catch on but only as an option for certain games. I think it will be as relevant as the PS eye.
Posted on January 8th, 2010 at 9:13 pm
Good point, and the fact that so far nothing that impresses me has been shown with Natal. Its just an eye toy 1.5, same games, just a little more dedication maybe
Posted on January 8th, 2010 at 9:26 pm
I thought it only used 10% of the XBox CPU. Let’s hope games that support both inputs don’t need to be downgraded(Fable 3 comes to mind).
Posted on January 8th, 2010 at 9:29 pm
Nice read. I don’t really get the big fuss over Natal. It’s just an extension of the experience that the Xbox 360 provides. Personally, I will get Natal so the wife and kids can enjoy the xbox 360 as much as I do and that’s what I think Natal is really about. What’s really wrong with that? What happened to Nintendo will NEVER happen to Sony and Microsoft just because of the nature of these companies.
Nintendo has always been a fairly family friendly console manufacturer in terms of its philosophy when it comes to their products overall whereas Sony and Microsoft would like to think they are as well but are more focused on a more “mature” individualistic experience complemented by simulated group experience through online modes. That’s why Natal will be a good complementary peripheral to the Xbox 360 and will draw some people in out of curiosity but never to the point that 1st, 2nd and 3rd party publishers will focus all their efforts on a motion controlled experience that most of its 30M+ user base is resistant to. The nature of the Xbox 360 as a console will prevent Natal from overriding everything that defines it. That being said stop the fear-mongering. If the next xbox 360 (e.g. Xbox 720) comes out with an advanced version of Natal then I would say worry but for now just relax. Natal and the PS Wand are just Sony and Microsoft’s pre-emptive strike to make a Wii HD look irrelevant and force Nintendo to find another way to compete in the next generation of consoles.
Posted on January 8th, 2010 at 9:42 pm
a dev source revealed to kotaku the overall hit to the system was 30%. The 10-15% figure is MS damage control
Posted on January 8th, 2010 at 9:59 pm
lol the idea of crytek now having to work with even less power is ridiculous. ms’s lack of actual demos showing natal’s advantages over the eyetoy make it a failure product in my book. wont be successful in non casual games
Posted on January 8th, 2010 at 10:06 pm
Casual gaming is the focus for 2010, yeah!!! I guess when we thought of the future back in the day we thought holograph-phones and teleporters… not typing on tiny handheld keyboards and terrorist-delayed airplanes.
Now the new game direction is wonky controllers and poorer graphics… seems like the future is bright.
Posted on January 8th, 2010 at 10:31 pm
Natal looked great at first with milo but now im just waiting
they havn’t really showed anything just talked.
so when it comes out ill buy it but otherwise i like my controller.
On top of that if the games for natal are lowered im sure they’ll still be fun one or two of them
Sony tho they have good intentions needs to stop tho…..the wand……wii rip-offs i got use two but now there 3d gaming is stupid just like 3d movies….i wear glasses so i can see i dont wanna wear another pear of stupid looking red and blue glasses to play a game or wacth a movie i dunno who dug up 3d from the grave that it was buried in but it should go away i like my loud ps3 and quite 360 with there controllers anyday
Posted on January 8th, 2010 at 10:43 pm
I’ll get ‘Natal’ when it comes out, im just not jumping to conclusions so soon as everyone else likes to. Microsoft is waiting to show what ‘Natal’ can really do until later in the year (E3 anyone?), but im still going to get it because I see what potential ‘Natal’ brings. Its just up to the devs to make use of it and create some groundbreaking games. Wii jumped out of the shadows and shocked the world, ‘Natal’ can do the very same.
Bringing up the 3d topic that Warrka said, I agree that 3d is extremely bothersome. Being somebody who already wears glasses, I would hate to have to put another pair on top of my original and hate having to attatch clip-ons to mine. And 3d glasses arent what they used to be, they arent red and blue anymore, they are one dark shade of grey now. Regardless, most gamers wear glasses anyway, so its going to be a pain no matter what. On top of that, maybe .3% of people even have a 3d monitor to play 3d games on, much less the TV’s that havent even been available to purchase yet. If 3d gaming does catch on, it wont be for another 2 years at the minimum.
Posted on January 8th, 2010 at 11:07 pm
“Just after they had demonstrated some casual games like Ricochet and the infamous Milo, the gaming world went crazy”
lol the only ppl that went crazy over natal were the 360 fanboys. but hey u 360 fanboys can play dress up game on natal before u go to bed lmao!!! cant believe u guys r waiting for natal, u sad sad little ppl rofl!!!!
Posted on January 9th, 2010 at 1:04 am
Very good read, though I don’t think major hardcore franchises (Final Fantasy, Halo, Call of Duty, God of War etc.) will ever vanish as long as there still is a strong demand for them.
Posted on January 9th, 2010 at 4:04 am
Bioshock 2
Heavy Rain
Halo: Reach
God of War 3
Crackdown 2
Dead Rising 2
Metro 2033
Battlefield Bad Company 2
Last Guardian
The list goes on and ON!
Please STFU about the “hardcore” gamer going away for the casual. 2010 looks like the biggest year yet this generation for “hardcore” gamers.
Sounds rather greedy when you want every game to cater to your tastes. The hardcore gamer has no reason to complain unless you are a Wii owner.
You bring up some good questions but then you ruin it with your rampant speculation and jaded idea of what you think what Natal won’t do. We’ve seen very little about Natal and what we have seen is barely an Alpha version, just wait for more info and demos as the product gets closer to launch to start with the doom and gloom, at least then, you will be speaking with experience instead of speculation.
Posted on January 9th, 2010 at 6:20 am
Okay, Mr. Ahmad,
If you are looking for a Gamer that plays wii fit, and uncharted 2, Forza, etc. Look no further. All game types and genres have a place in the gaming industry. When my male friends come over (alone) there are time when we play Halo, Modern Warfare, Uncharted, or something to that affect. When they come over with their girl friends or wives, we play wii sports, singstar, lips and other casual games. Guess what, we have fun regardless to what we play. This is due in part to not being so damn caught up in this hardcore crap that some of you speak of, and more to do with having a good time. For godsake it’s and damn video games system, a piece of hardware, not a life altering idea that should be tie to your emotional core to the point that you can’t even give it a chance due to fear of liking it because it’s not “HARDCORE”.
Natal will be fun when use for what it was designed for. I’m sick of hearing people whine about whether natal will be able to work with madden or call of duty, etc. Does you driving wheel work when you are playing call of duty? Can you send MSN messages only using your mouse on your PC. Stop being such dicks and use your brains, if you are using a camera based periphal and you decide to dance round the room beyond the camera’s range you’re an idiot. Do you take your 360 or dual shock controller and go over to your neighbor’s house and try to play from there? Didn’t think so.
The real problem I see here is just a bunch of haters that have been hating for so long that they can’t help but hate on something. How about this, if you don’t like Natal, if you don’t like the PS3 motion controller, the don’t buy it, just do me one favor, shut up about it!
Thanks
Posted on January 9th, 2010 at 7:21 am
Despite the wide success of the Wii, this generation has been the best generations for hard core gamers. I’ve never seen such a stack of AAA titles available in any of the previous gaming generations. Just look at the fantastics games of 2009, games like Assassin’s Creed 2, Modern Warfare 2, Killzone 2, Dragon Age, Forza 3, Halo ODST, Brutal Legend, Batman Arkham Asylum, and the list goes on. Then consider that 2009 has been considered one of the weaker years for hard core gaming this generation. This would’ve been a banner year in any other console generation. This generation of gaming has been fantastic. The Wii has reached out to a group of people that would never even consider gaming, and those of us that are hard core gamers have been privy to a fantastic line up. Just because there are choices for the casual gamers doesn’t mean there aren’t choices for us. In fact it seems to be the opposite. So thank you Nintendo. Yes I personally hate the Wii, but I sure am glad Nintendo made a console that appeals to other people.
Posted on January 9th, 2010 at 7:36 am
Do the Wiimotes have built in processors? What about Sony’s motion control and eye toy? I think it’s a good move. Obviously they managed to get the resources reduced down low enough that an internal processor wasn’t required. I didn’t really want to pay hundreds of dollars for Natal.
Posted on January 9th, 2010 at 8:23 am
I don’t see Natal even being mildly successful with casual gamers. you know why? It didn’t start shipping with the 360 to begin with. People will have to go out and buy it separately. Unless it’s $50 bucks or less, then maybe somewhat successful. let’s face it though, just having to buy it separately won’t make it sell as much as the Wii to the casuals. Casuals don’t look into things like the more hardcore gamers are. By the way, quit beating on the Wii. There are plenty of hardcore gamers playing it. We just need some decent games from developers other than Nintendo!
Posted on January 9th, 2010 at 9:26 am
@WellNow
The Natal system is an “advanced” 3D camera and mic system supposedly. It has to be able to track the body positioning in a 3D space while also relying on the bone structure of the person using it. This takes more processing power than the Wii Remote. The Wii remote simply sends a Bluetooth signal with a small packet of data with every movement or button press. This takes hardly any processing power. Not much more than a usual button press. Natal was already laggy and this just means more lag even if they say it won’t. It will because software had to be written in order to make up for the lack of hardware (no CPU). Any likely used body poisition and movement had to be written and put into software which is now on Natal. this means if they don’t think of a movement, that could add to the lag onscreen.
The PS3′s wand and camera system is a little different and more of a hybrid between Natal and Wii Motion Plus. However, there is a CPU on the PSEye (not the Eye Toy mind you). It may not be a super fast CPU, but there is one there doing some of the work. Not to mention the 7 SPUs available for use as well.
Posted on January 9th, 2010 at 9:35 am
This is ridiculous!!! The whole point of Natal is to get more gamers. Yes maybe the “casual” gamer. It is gonna depend on the developers on what kind of games they want to make with it and how creative they can be with it. I think it’s a potential goldmine to the developers that are gonna focuse on making a great innovative game incorporating Natal. At the end this doesn’t mean that your “hardcore” games are not gonna be made! It just means the 360 is gonna have plenty more exclusives and hopefully great ones like I said depending on the developers that want to use Natal. And remember this is the 360 we are talking about so that means better hardware than the wii so don’t expect the same pointless games. And seeing how Microsoft is dedicated on providing the tools the developers need I don’t see them dissapointing with Natal. For god sakes they have Peter Molyneux working on this! Haha
Posted on January 9th, 2010 at 9:41 am
@ yomama Look at you talking about fanboys! Haha I think he is the only fanboy here. Hahaha. Hey yomama how old are you? What a loser!
Posted on January 9th, 2010 at 10:38 am
I prefer the phrase “serious gamer” over “hardcore gamer”… But anyway..
I am 27 and own a PS3, 360, AND Nintendo Wii.
Since Atari, my brother and I have both been “hardcore” gamers. Owning just about every system/handheld to come along (I’m counting between the both of us.)
I laughed out loud at this “I will tell you one thing: When I see the same person who plays Wii Fit also playing games like Uncharted 2, Forza 3, Assassin’s Creed 2 and other hardcore games, I will stop complaining and start enjoying this motion control nonsense.”
Today I enjoyed 30 minutes of Wii Fit on my Wii, then popped in CoD:MW2 on my PS3 and played online for a bit… All before heading out to work.
Posted on January 9th, 2010 at 12:25 pm
Fad as most gamers have their console in the bedroom. Fail as it is nothing more than a 5 year old rip off of the Sony Eye Toy. Irrelevant as gamers on that platform are not going to use it.
Posted on January 9th, 2010 at 3:45 pm
This is a terribly written article! I regret being routed here via N4G. Come on guys!
Posted on January 9th, 2010 at 6:43 pm
Stop Bitching…….omfg I swear ppl keep crying like babies….I have all 3 systems im not gonna lie Nintendo got a crap load of shitty games but fuck it, its Nintendo…They will always hold a spot in my living room…if you don’t like it, don’t buy it there is tons of potential in motion control its just ppl are to lazy to utilize it to the best of its abilities …patience and soon some one will
Posted on January 9th, 2010 at 8:30 pm
I’m not naive as to the nature of business: make more money, etc. Vanquish the competitors and lay their women. I get it. But think about this. How despicable is it of Microsoft, supposedly a company avowed to the “hardcore” audience, to make attempts at catering to the casual gamers of the world? Is this a method of pre-emptive tactics, knocking Nintendo out of whack in preparation for the next generation of console gaming? Stealing the casual audience from Ninty? That doesn’t make any sense.
Well, I find these forums fascinating. All the talk of hardcore vs. casual and how much Nintendo sucks. It’s all ridiculous I love my Wii, and I have fun playing with it. So there.
Posted on January 9th, 2010 at 9:00 pm
Dude, I don’t think you browse much of the games on sale on PS3, or even Xbox, they are LOADED with casual games, Echocrome, elefunk and so on. Stop whining about nintendo ruining the games. They didn’t. They are saving the game industry, as they always did.
They learned with their mistakes and evolved, Gamecube is far superior, Hardware talking, than PS2, but which one had better sales last generation?
Nintendo simply set for uncharted waters, attracting people who didin’t play videogames ussualy, like girls, old folks and etc.
The Nintendo DS started this, and I don’t see many people complaining about it. Wii has a lot of hardcore games, yeah I agree there are a bunch more of casual shity games, but there are respectable hardcore games. But it’s a kids console…far from it, there are mature games also.
PS2 has a bunch load of games that stink, and badly, you don’t see anyone complaining about it.
Every platform has games that are terribly done, thats natural, Gamers must screen the best ones.
When I see my mother playing Mario Kart I think it awesome, Wii fit, even Rock Band.
This close minded feature of “Hardcore” X “Softcore-Casual” gamers is the kind of crap that ruins most of the articles.
As John said, I’m sorry I read this beeing routed by N4G…
Posted on January 9th, 2010 at 9:02 pm
to the author of this article:
dude, dont be so apocaliptic about natal, theres no way this addon change the normal course of things on the 360, there will be mature games as always and we will have the option to play other kind of games that are more suitable with friends or family.
MS have already told that natal being software base dont change nothing at all, and what u are talking about taking power of the CPU and let it us without enough power for high end games its relative. u should know it if u are a programmer or game desinger.
and plz stop blamming MS for they acts, im really happy this generation with my 360 console and a natal look for improve a succesfully console. so Stfu xD
Posted on January 9th, 2010 at 9:29 pm
Also, I thought that, according to both ps3 and 360, wii motion controls are “gimmicky.” If they are so gimmicky why try to rip it off? Stop bitin’ off Nintendo, son!
Posted on January 13th, 2010 at 4:38 am
Well once more I’m disappointed with the “blogo-sphere” this article just confirms my existing aversion to these entries, what a complete waste of my time and what nonsense. The Natal camera comes with its own image processing chips and works extremely well on really OLD ie 5 year old technology , I can n’t imagine that would cause an issue with teh XBox 360.
Posted on April 2nd, 2010 at 7:04 am
for starters project natal is an amazing piece of technology so to pple saying its just an eye toy copy please actualy research the natal. and its not just for casual games, you see natal can be used in conjunction with the 360 controller. with natal you no longer need to play with a headset anymore, imagine playing rainbow six vegas 2 and just being able bring up the map with a simple voice command and to point where you want you partner to go and a waypoint is placed where you pointed to. remember what tom clansy’s endwar did with voice commands??? even more can be done with natal. now as good as sonys move looks it is basicly just copying what nintendo has already done.
Posted on April 10th, 2010 at 10:58 am
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