Project Natal is no more. Earlier today on an Italian gaming site and ad for an Xbox 360 Slim turned up and said "compatable with Kinect" writen next to it. Turns out these were to things Microsoft was going to announce at E3, but word was spread fast. A new source has confirmed that Microsoft
Natal will now be known Kinect, and we've got a list of the first games that will be released when the new device launches.USA Today has the news (which gives you a good idea of the audience Micro
soft is hoping to reach with their new device). As previously rumored, what was unveiled last year at
E3 as Project Natal will be launched later this year as Microsoft Kinect.
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| The Italian ad as seen on the website |
The USA Today article also reveals some of the early games we can expect for Kinect:
•Dance Central - This dance game is being created by MTV Games and is apparently based around the So You Think You Can Dance license. I'm guessing that this is the Harmonix dance game we'd heard rumors of a couple weeks ago.
•Joyride - This was unveiled at last year's E3 as an Xbox Live Arcade game that allowed you to race with your 360 Avatar. This is the first we've heard of the game since then and the first we've heard of it being a motion-controlled release.
•Kinectimals - An animal training simulation of some sort with "20 different virtual cats." Why only cats? Hoping to save other animal types for subsequent releases?
•Kinect Adventures - This game lets you control a raft floating down a river in both a time trial and obstacle course mode. It sounds kind of light right now, so unless it's a pack-in, expect more information.
•Kinect Sports - This one's a bit on the nose, but I guess they had to do it. In case it wasn't totally obvious that Microsoft is going after some of the Wii market, they'll release this collection of sports-based mini-games. This includes boxing, bowling ,beach volleyball, track and field, soccer, and table tennis.
In addition to these titles, the USA Today piece mentions that Microsoft is developing new games using Star Wars and Disney characters "in conjunction with LucasArts and Disney."
