At this week’s Game Developer’s Conference, there have been some solid announcements and presentations from the motion control front. Sony finally unveiled the PlayStation Move controller, and it’s sub controller to the masses. The company also showed off a few motion control titles. But the most interesting details to come out of GDC might have been the conversations off the stage.
IGN Editor-at-Large Matt Casamassina had an opportunity to chit-chat with a few colleagues and industry professionals to discuss Microsoft’s upcoming motion device, Project Natal. Apparently, it’s got some issues. During a development conference Microsoft held recently, Natal failed to recognize an audience member who was brought up on stage to try out the hardware. The person was wearing a black trench coat, and a black shirt, which somehow rendered Natal useless. The audience member was returned to his seat.
Casamassina proceeded to ask those at GDC what they’ve heard about the upcoming device. From what he gathered, a lot of developers were experiencing technical issues, resulting in a buggy, unreliable experience. In fact, many development studios were going with the motto, release first, patch later.
You can’t fully judge a device before its release date, but it does remind me of Nintendo’s release of the Virtual Boy. A lot of talk and excitement for something that debuted with major flaws. It ended up being a recipe for disaster, proving that innovation alone can not sell hardware. Hopefully, Microsoft will fine tune the hell out of Natal before it reaches store shelves. Luckily, they have a few months to do so.
