The Sony PS3 wand motion-sensing technology shown at E3, the world’s largest videogame industry trade show, should be out in early 2010. Microsoft’s rival “project Natal” Xbox 360 motion-sensing tech should also be out in 2010. One of the two companies has given developers at mega-publisher THQ kits to program with, one hasn’t…
In an interview with G4’s The Feed, THQ CEO Brian Farrell said the company had had Microsoft Xbox 360 Project Natal kits “for some time… four, six weeks, however long they’ve been available.”
Farrell said that THQ had only had “discussions” with Sony over its PS3 wand kits and “don’t have any of the actual, hands-on dev kits yet.”
Kotaku have quoted a Sony industry newsletter that said Sony PS3 want “hardware prototypes and support are in extremely limited supply”, therefore the company is “prioritizing allocation for those partners likely to be able to deliver a title that makes use of the distinctive features of this controller at its consumer launch.”
This means either Sony thinks THQ can’t deliver a “distinctive” PS3 wand title at launch in spring 2010. Or that Sony’s technology is further behind than Microsoft’s. That seems unlikely, given the clarity of stage presentations the two companies managed at E3 – Sony’s was live, Microsoft’s was mostly pre-recorded demonstration.
That’s funny. I recall seeing Natal demonstrated live with Party Paint and the Kickball game. Did you watch the same E3?
or:
c) the media are creating storms in teacups again, in a lame attemp to get site hits and advertising revenue.
@wanderson75 all the Microsoft Natal presentation was either pre-recorded, or faked using a person round the back responding to the womans input. see Kotatu for details.
I truly feel sorry that Microsoft fooled you and made you look an idiot in public.
The Natal project was partly faked and they later admitted some of this fakery – the Milo demo is fake and the “Vision” compilation trailer is fake. However the more basic Break Out and Painting demos done on stage (using the prototype camera that looks nothing like the finished design they keep showing off in the ‘fake’ videos) are real. Eitherway Natal won’t be out until Christmas 2010 at the earliest.
As for this ‘news’ story I think that’s fair enough and a good decision – Sony want a Spring launch and want a good selection of 1st and 3rd party launch titles, so if supply is limited they are going to focus on devs that will delivery content for Spring next year.
Sony: “Are you going to give us a THQ Motion game for Spring 2010?”
THQ: “No can do, but we will support it later in the year”
Sony: “Fair enough, you can wait for a dev kit…”
Wanderson, fair point – with all the Milo stuff, I’d forgotten they’d done basic demos on-stage. Amended now!
@MetalMickey
You will look like a fool mate when ‘Natal’ is launched, that’s a promise. Don’t worry though because you wont be the only one.
@MetalMickey
Oh and by the way, if you are going to post crap about what another website is stating then you really should read (Kotaku) things through properly, instead of misrepresenting the facts. Seriously, you need to think before you write.