The Project Natal finally has an official name – the Microsoft Kinect. Microsoft announced the official name of the Project Natal at the Xbox E3 event. The event was specifically held to give the world a premiere of the Project Natal. No live stream of the event was available, but readers can catch the premiere of ‘Kinect’ on MTV on Tuesday.
Microsoft demonstrated quite a few game demos, which included Star Wars. A video chat application called “Video Chat” (huh!) was also demonstrated. Up to four users can video chat simultaneously, and can share photos. From the demo which MS showed, Kinect sure looks interesting.
Engadget reports that most of the games which Microsoft demonstrated, especially sports games, were made for only a single player. There were a few games like river rafting where two people could play simultaneously. Nevertheless, two players can connect via Xbox Live and play a sports game.
The user interface of the Kinect menu is also very simple. Everything is done by just a motion of your hand. For example –: A user waves his hand to control a glowing cursor and pushes his hand forward to select the element on screen. Twitter, Facebook and Netflix have also been integrated into Kinect.
Sadly, Microsoft did not allow any hands-on at the event. They also did not mention the launch date, and the pricing of the Kinect. Hopefully, the Kinect will be launched by the holiday season and if the rumors are to be believed, the Kinect will cost around $150.