Microsoft Kinect revealed: Project Natal finally gets a name

USA Today just leaked the name of Microsoft's Project Natal motion control setup: Kinect. Microsoft was apparently planning on revealing these details tonight at a pre-E3 shindig, but the leaks got the better of them (including an Italian ad that also mentions the Kinect brand). There's still no word on price or release date, but hopefully we'll be hearing about that later this week. The USA Today writeup also mentions a few titles, including Kinectimals, Joyride, Kinect Sports, Kinect Adventures, Dance Central, and properties based on Star Wars and Disney characters.

[tonyprince Posted Jun 14th 2010 2:31AM]

FINALLY, SOME NON APPLE NEWS. THANK GOD STEVE DIDNT GET INTO GAMING INDUSTRY. GOD I HATE APPLE PRODUCTS.

[Wello Posted Jun 14th 2010 6:21AM]

@(Unverified) I hate to break it to you man, but Apple Game Center for iPod, iPhone and iPad.. D:

[bebopblues Posted Jun 14th 2010 3:48AM]

Like Windows Phone 7, they should've called Xbox Controller 7.

[Vakarian Posted Jun 14th 2010 5:48AM]

I am really not liking that new name.

[Hamaki Posted Jun 14th 2010 9:32AM]

@kakarotto

Yeah, I guess it turns out that a state-of-the-art MoCap techonlogy is not cheaper than an outdated (as in 9-year-old) piece of crap released by Nintendo four years ago. Who would guess. Not to mention that you don't even know what the pricetag on the Kinnect will be, since that info hasn't been released yet.

But hey, let's say, for the purpose of this dicussion, that such pricetag is around 150$. Okay, let's see what are the alternative offers:

Sony: Playstation Move will purportedly set you back 100 bucks. And that will only get you one player control. Let's say every additional "wand" costs another 40$. If you want to have,say, a four-player party at home, that'll cost 220$.

Nintendo: Wii+nunchuck+wii motion plus: 60 dollar each. For four players, that's 240 bucks. 160$ if you don't care playing just old games (if you bought a Wii that probably doesn't matter to you anyway)

Then again, Microsoft. Kinnect: 150$ (again i'm just guessing here). 4-player gaming out-of-the-box at no adittional cost.

Guess what: for social gaming (which is pretty much what all this stuff is intended for) it turns out that, even at 150$ (which, again, is just a wild guess), kinnect is actually the cheapest choice. And you get hi-def graphics and voice chat, too. ¿did i say voice chat? my bad, i meant video chat. Sure Nintendo will offer that too, ¿right? (protip: probably not).

But yeah, go on, keep calling it overpriced, even if, let me say it one last time, you don't have a fragging idea what the price will be.

[Ed T Posted Jun 14th 2010 10:17AM]

@Hamaki
It's so great, Robbie Bach got a promotion! Oh wait...

[Unimpressed Posted Jun 14th 2010 10:30AM]

@Paul Miller

"and properties based on Star Wars and Disney characters".

properties?

How about games? Games is a better word for describing games.

[tylersmyler Posted Jun 14th 2010 3:46PM]

too bad they don't own the url

[jacktrombones Posted Jun 15th 2010 1:30PM]

It's interesting that after receiving so much buzz on blogs and social media sites for Project Natal, Microsoft would go and change the name to Kinect. While Kinect is a great name for this, Microsoft will now need to rebrand the product in the minds of gamers who have been talking about this for months.

-Jack
www.domusinc.com/blog