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Tonight at a Microsoft event the company announced that the official name of their new motion-sensing controller for Xbox 360 is "Kinect." As we reported earlier a number of games were unveiled in a USA Today story that went up shortly before Microsoft could officially break the news.
From that event we've see a group of games that will accompany this new hardware that allows gamers to use their body as a controller. These games include:
A Yoga/Tai Chi Game (official name to be announced)
A Soccer Game (official name to be announced)
Joyride
A racing game where players can steer using their hands.
Kinect Sports
Boxing, bowling, beach volleyball, track and field, soccer and table tennis.
Kinectimals
Play with 20 different kitties like a lion, cheetah and tiger.
Kinect Adventures
River rafting with multiple players that move their bodies in the raft.
Dance Central
A dance-em-up game made by MTV Games.
Along with Kinect games using Disney and Star Wars characters, there were also dashboard apps showing motion controls used to interact with Netflix. The dot on the screen follow where you point.
Users can also use motion controls to scroll through photos, start live video chats with friends, and share photos. This is done through a kinect app on the dashboard.
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Though Kinect is the talk of the town right now, Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg, Director of Product Management for Xbox, claims nothing will change for the current owner that just wants to play traditional games.
Greenberg told IGN, "The nice thing for us is that we have diversity. We're not in any way saying that we're not going to continue to do the best or focus on the blockbuster games that make Xbox great for gamers. That continues."
Further, Greenberg points to differences between the Wii and Xbox platforms as reasons why core gamers will continue to flock to Xbox 360, in particularly the fact that Kinect is not a forced experience. "We're going to continue to invest in Live and the online community there. This is additive, on top of what we already have. There's a key difference in the technology and the experience between Natal and the Wii, but we're not taking our entire platform and making everything controller-free."
Even so, Greenberg believes that many current Xbox 360 owners will find Kinect intriguing enough to pick it up. "I think that will drive a lot of interest for current owners as a thing you get on top of what you already have. And for a broader, more casual user, it's a way they can now experience and play without having to learn to use a controller. It sees you. It hears you. It recognizes your body. It allows you to play naturally without ever having played a game before."
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Microsoft is not concerned about any potential confusion that may arise from marketing Kinect as Project Natal for a year before changing its name. Director of Product Management for Xbox Aaron Greenberg explained to IGN that this is largely a case of most of the market not even being aware that it exists just yet.
"What's interesting is that despite everything we've done for Natal -- and people are very excited about it -- the actual awareness around the name is not as high as you would think," said Greenberg.
"I think the right time is now. One, we love the name, so that helps. Two, people will realize it makes sense…It fits. Then three, a lot of people that are going to be watching and learning about this for the first time ever, they're going to learn about the new name."
Earlier tonight Microsoft announced the new name for Project Natal as Kinect at a Cirque-du-Soleil circus event. Microsoft is hoping that the event will help to get the word out to a broader audience than E3 press conferences generally reach, as it hopes to sell [insert name] to new people.
"That's our belief," said Greenberg, "that [Kinect] has this universal appeal and it's not just this thing for current owners. It delivers all new experiences for us, but it also enables non-gamers, it enables people that never thought of gaming as a way to interest them."
And if all else fails, Microsoft will make sure everybody knows about the name change through advertising. "We're obviously going to have a massive marketing and advertising campaign to make sure the name and everything gets out there. Frankly, the world premiere Cirque-du-Soleil event is a big part of that."
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there it is folks, Natal is officially Kinect.
