Natal isn’t just about gaming. That’s what a Microsoft boss told us last week. Now Microsoft head honcho, Steve Ballmer has claimed that Natal will dominate your living room and, in turn, the rest of your life. Isn’t Natal starting to sound like Skynet?
Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer, told a conglomeration of corporate executives in Columbia that Natal “is very general purpose and we’ll see it come into the rest of our lives pretty soon.” That follows last week’s suggestion from Microsoft Xbox boss, Marc Whitten, that Natal will know if you shout at sports games on your TV.
Ballmer also predicted that Natal could mean the death of the remote: “Natal is a little camera and microphone that sits on top of your TV set…you don’t get some remote control or big fat gaming thing. If you want to look through TV channels, you’ll just gesture. [Natal] recognises your voice, it recognises your gestures.”
While we’ve seen a pretty impressive Natal video demo, it remains to be seen whether Ballmer’s claims that Natal could have a big part in our lives will play out. Our next glimpse of Natal will come at E3 on June 13 when we also might see the much rumoured Xbox 360 Slim Natal bundle.
