In our last post we compared the PS3 ‘Move’ to Microsoft’s bold ‘Natal’. However, not long after that very post, Microsoft made an official announcement that Project Natal was to be renamed to ‘Kinect’.
Project Natal is no more, you'll now be jumping up and down and shouting at 'Kinect'
The new name makes sense, it’s easy to pronounce (for kids to pester their parents for) but it would mean yet more wait-time still ahead, if Microsoft has flashed the green light, for a bold name change. A product needs marketing and requires brand awareness (especially with the games industries development costs), so the thought of Microsoft renaming such a product so close to a release date, is just suicidal. Although September has been rumoured, we wouldn’t be surprised to hear a November release date (for brand awareness and holiday sales).
One other surprise was the Kinect’s actual size. Early promotional photos, gave the impression that the motion sensing and voice recognition device, would easily size up with a standard HD-TV’s width. However, photos from Gizmodo showed that Kinect was much smaller than first thought…looking to be only a fraction wider than a 360 controller:
Kinect only just overlaps the width of your 360 controller. At least Microsoft have learnt from the original Xbox console, which only just overlapped the width of a football pitch
This must bring a sigh of relief to many pre-ordering customers. At least we don’t have to spend ages stashing those bits-and-bobs, that clutter our TV stand, before setting up our Kinect! We’re also sure Japanese players would be delighted to hear this too, as research by Sony lead to the vertical and up-right design of the PS2. This was due to many Japanese families having very small and compact living rooms.
