Five lies Microsoft told us about Project Natal aka Kinect

It seems like only yesterday Project Natal was announced to an audience of enthusiastic fans. The technology looked amazing, and was to change gaming for ever. Object scanning, minority report style dashboard control and AI that is so advanced that it can have entire conversations with you and even tell what kind of mood you're in. One year later, and a large portion of these cutting edge features have mysteriously vanished. Let's take a look at how Project Natal changed from its announcement in 2009 to its showcasing as Kinect at this years E3...

[Hyrius]

Lie 6 : hardcore games.

[T9X69]

Yea because Kinect has no games what so ever. Your avatar describes you perfectly, standing there dumbfounded with a look on your face like you have no idea wtf your talking about.

Before you decided to edit your post it read "Interesting games", they may not interest you (they sure as hell don't interest me) but you don't speak for the rest of the world.

Oh so now your going to edit your post again huh? Where did they say Kinect will have hardcore games at launch? They didn't. They said hardcore games will come.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/t...

Instead of trolling, do something useful with your time like doing some research before you post.

EDIT: @Colonel-Killzone - Na just pointing out hes being an idiot. Personal Attack maybe? lol

[Colonel-Killzone]

@T9X69

Nvm pointless I won't waste time debating with you. I forgot you take these articles to seriously. Although I will agree with you on that he is trolling.

[The_Zeitgeist]

@ T9X69

So I just read your link, after reading it I would say I feel even more confidant saying Kinect is only for casual. This statement says it all.

"I don't want to see Halo band-aided into Kinect, because Halo is a controller game, and I think that would be not what we're trying to achieve. I want to see what a new type of experience would be."

Basically he is saying that there will either be no hard core games, or they are going to have to invent different kinds of hard core games.

[asdf12]

Lol, umad.

[Microsoft Xbox 360]

Hyrius is stating a fact.

T9X69 is speculating with false hope.

Hmmm...., who to believe?

[Biggest]

I like how you posted a more recent interview to dispute previous promises. Try this one on for size.
http://www.eurogamer.net/ar...

It's easy to backtrack on your promises when people see you were lying. No one said anything about launch. You did. That was a feeble attempt to change the fact that there are no visible hardcore games for the Kinect.

[morganfell]

"they said hardcore would come..."

Really? They also said that the 360 Marketplace every gamer would have their own store and they could sell game mods and even tangible items like T shirts.

That was before the 360 launch. Where is that now?

Instead of making crap up and relying on MS who has already put up the biggest smokescreens in the history of E3, you should be in the "I'll believe it when they show me" crowd.

After everything from stage performances where they attempted to mime a prerecorded video to the fact they have already pushed core gamers off the ledge into traffic common sense should have you a little more skeptical concerning their promises. But apparently some people will defend them against anything.

[jack_burt0n]

"Instead of making crap up and relying on MS who has already put up the biggest smokescreens in the history of E3, you should be in the "I'll believe it when they show me" crowd."

shaking the pillars of heaven with ownage, I like it.........

[IHateYouFanboys]

its funny that people - namely PS3 fanboys - still try and play the 'it looks like Kinect is starting to only be aimed at the Casual audience now' card. guess what? Kinect has ALWAYS been 100% aimed at the casual market lol.

MS have never pretended that youre going to be playing the next Halo or Gears of War using Kinect entirely. theyve never said that all games are going to be using Kinect and no controller. Kinect is coming out to get the 'wii crowd', the casual gamers. you know, the ones who spend 1000 times more money every year on games and game consoles than 'hardcore gamers' do?

Move is the same. yes, Move will get SOME 'hardcore' games - although they will be 100% easier and more precise with a regular controller - but the only reason Move is even getting released is so Sony can try and capture the casual audience. for every Socom with move support there will be 50 casual party-style waggle-the-move-wand games.

onto the article....

Lie 1 : Minority Report Dashboard Control

well there is a motion controlled dashboard, this guys just whinging because it doesnt LOOK like what he wants it to. you dont press a button to go to the kinect dashboard, you simply move an arm around and then Kinect recognises youre trying to use motion control, then you gesture to go to the new dashboard and it goes there. did they lie? not at all.

Lie 2 : Object Scanning

Kinect uses a camera, and that camera can take pictures. SOFTWARE is what would then take those pictures and put them in games. Kinect is 100% capable of doing this, just that no developers have shown anything using it yet. the ubisoft fitness game now scans your body and puts your body overlay on the in-game character, so thats the exact same thing as object scanning. you are an object remember. did they lie? nope.

Lie 3: Voice Recognization

Multi-user voice recognition is very much still there. dunno what this guys talking about. lie? nope.

Lie 4 : More than 2 players

again, microsoft have confirmed that it can have 2 ACTIVE players and multiple other players. ie. 2 full body control players, then numerous other people who are only having minor motion control.

and even then, none of the original videos that they showed had more than 2 people ACTIVELY playing a game. sure, there are 4 people sitting on that lounge - Kinect knows that, it can see them - but theres only one person controlling that racing game. lie? no.

Lie 5 : Milo and Kate

how can it be a lie when people played with it at LAST YEARS e3? lie? no way.

[Confused]

Actually, i've seen several videos showing more than 2 active players. Even the video on the site shows 4 players playing a Buzz style quiz game.

[morganfell]

1 - There is a limit to how much leeway one has to provide before saying, "That's no longer Minority Report." Kinect is so limited and you have to move so slowly it is no longer in the same ballpark as Minority Report.

2 - Kinect can only scan in objects already in it's database. Instant Fail. All it is doing is recognizing incredibly bad objects already programmed to function. It isn't creating objects it recognizes but rather launching a program because it recognizes a visual cue.

3 - Multivoice recognition for a handful of words isn't groundbreaking. SOCOM 1 had more commands and much more intricate implementations...on the PS2.

4 - When we see 4 players doing something besides hitting balls or jumping like a bunny then you have a ledge by which your fingernails may hang. Until then, prepare to drop...

5 - No one played Milo at E3 last year. It was a prerecorded video. MS later was forced to admit it wasn't true voice recognition but rather Milo was responding to tone of voice. We still never saw proof of even that. You could have talked sweetly about how his parents were brother and sister and his responses would have been just as genial.

Fact, Microsoft is relying on marketing to sell Kinect. Sony is relying on the proven tech of Move to sell games.

[nveenio]

Maybe that's why they changed the name and design? Project Natal had all those cool things. Kinect does not.

[Jaces]

"If you ain't first, you last!"

-Ricky Bobby LMAO! So I guess that goes for the 360 as well...no?

Get over yourself guy, you cry more than the fanboys.

Anyway, I never had high expectations for Kinect so this is no surprise...especially coming from MS. I can't wait to see how the public reacts to it when it's released. I'll probably head to Best Buy to test it for myself, if not then just see what kind of feedback it's getting online.

[Mini Mario]

Just out of curiousity

In the star wars video where he was fighting darth vadar going forward with his motions forward. What would happen if the fight turned to the side, how would u see the screen while continuing to fight side on ?? lol

Or what happens if you have to do a flip or something. Rule out any olympic based games because i dont think i could imitate a gymnast lol

[punkpop101]

136 disagress because he said someone (who clearly was) a troll?PS3 FANBOTS ARE STUPID AS HELL.

[PLAYstar]

@T9X69
You sound really desperate by posting THAT link. You sure that is enough to prove your point?? All I can say is Congratulation because you just been LIED yet again!!

[Archdemon]

Kinect is nothing more than a PS EYE but upgraded.

And the PS MOVE is nothing more than a Wii mote but upgraded.

That's plain fact.

BUT if you take other things in to consideration. Like. How much of a difference the PS EYE did for the PS2 and the casual market. And how much of a difference did the Wii mote do for the Wii? Then I think you have the winner right there.

I think kinect is a great gadget, but I don't think it will be a game changer like microsoft want's you to believe.

[sikbeta]

The Real Lies come from the ads, the ones with the family showing some "gameplay" and the 2 E3 Shows where everything was pre-recorded, IF people say "hardcore games" Pffft, they were fooling themselves cos it was more than obvious that MS is aiming to the casuals with kinect...

[fuckoffodion]

MorganFell just put on an EPIC pawnage on your @$$. LOL!!!

[PITTBULL83]

They didn't lie about NATAL/KINECT they showed a video about the posibilities and everyone assumed it was what they were doing with it. BE A GAMER NOT A HATER

EDIT.... Wow what is that stink.........Oh yeah it's fanboy bullshit.

[JustTheFactsMr]

If you consider a smaller field of view and being 30fps instead of 120fps an upgraded Eye well then I guess so.

[MNicholas]

PS2 Eyetoy:

Captures motion at 320x240 at 60fps

Kinect:

Captures motion at 320x240 at 30fps

[whateva]

but watch me do what Kinect kinot @ 125 FPS with Just a Playstation Eye hooked to my laptop.

Edit: @yewles1 no the Eyetoy is 60FPS the Playstation Eye is 120FPS and can even go up to 180FPS 320x480 when you mess with the settings on a Computer.

[yewles1]

Edit: whateva beat me to it.

Edit 2: Thanks for the correction, bro.

[Folezicle]

Lie 1: http://au.xbox360.ign.com/d... and http://au.xbox360.ign.com/d...
Lie 2: http://www.youtube.com/watc...
Lie 3: Microsoft hasn't even confirmed there is no voice recognition. Also considering Milo is still in the works I doubt they have scrapped it
Lie 4: The only one that I see a valid point. However whats to say a small games that only requires simple actions can fit more players
Lie 5: http://www.giantbomb.com/ne...

And @Whateva the eyetoy, Playstation Eye are very different to Kinect, since Kinect uses 3D motion capturing, which I haven't seen on the Move.. http://www.youtube.com/watc... So far the PS Eye shows no 3d elements, however that could change in the future only time will tell

Despite all this my opinion, Is I'm not really excited for either till I cam experience both of them for real. As for previews on sites I haven't found a negative one for either so they could be promising.

And please guys with the flame wars, both 360 and Sony fan-boys, you are all sounding like a broken record.

[whateva]

That is not the same scanning! that's just like the Eye of Judgement card scanning that you can do with the Playstation Eye it's not object scanning!

and the Playstation Eye can do 3D tracking

http://i39.tinypic.com/2jae...

and in the video I made you can see that it's tracking my hand movements in 3D

[IHateYouFanboys]

@MNicholas: "Kinect: Captures motion at 320x240 at 30fps"

so which of the 2 cameras specs are you using for this little gem? cause you know, Kinect has 2.

one of them, yes, is 320x240 @ 30fps. that one is the DEPTH camera.

the other camera does 640x480 @ 30fps. thats the image camera.

so youre wrong. just thought id point that out.

[RageAgainstTheMShine]

Face it, the Xbotick geniuses has been played!

Micro & Soft wankers wanted us to believe what they have shown last e3 2009 as an impossed mental imprint to distract attention from the real tech demos Sony was doing. Yes they have succeeded in that. They made a play on people's minds.

what a desperate bunch of micro & soft schlongs.

[gamer7804]

Apparently... more agrees with someone = more likely the opinion is incorrect. Take this one for example. Kinect does NOT capture at 320x240 at 30fps. It captures at 640x480 @ 30fps.

[TheLeprachaun]

1. That's exactly what I was talking about. This new dashboard, the one in the video you link is nothing like what was shown at E3 2009.

2. 'Scanning' specific objects from a partner business that have already been incorporated in game is not the same putting real life objects from your room into the game yourself, i.e. the skateboard in the trailer, and the obects in the E3 2009 Milo demo. The burger king kinectimals 'scanning' is nothing more than elaborate DLC.

3. There is voice control still yes, but they mentioned it won't be able to differentiate between different people.

4. You don't argue with me so :).

5. I mentioned in my article Peter said it was still in the works. I also mentioned other Microsoft employees said it wasn't in the works. I'm not denying it isn't real, but if they can't get object scanning or the dashboard control they showed at E3 2009 how are they supposed to creat Milo and Kate the way it was shown at that years show. I believe it will be much more dumbed down than what we saw last year.

Looks like you didn't get your facts right.

[MNicholas]

Only plain old VIDEO capture is 640x480 x 30fps which, itself, is still extremely crappy.

Again, we're comparing MOTION capture not VIDEO capture.

MOTION capture comparison

PS2 Eyetoy:

Captures MOTION at 320x240 at 60fps

Kinect:

Captures MOTION at 320x240 at 30fps