Living rooms may never be the same again. In future, people will play video games not with their joypads but by standing in front of their screen, karate-chopping the air, rocking out on a virtual guitar and kicking an imaginary ball into the net.
That is the view of Microsoft, which announced yesterday that its new game control device enabling ?more simple, more intuitive, more natural? game playing would be ready for release by the end of the year.
The system, known as Project Natal, allows people to play video games without the use of hand-held controller. Instead they control the on-screen action with their voices and body movements. Microsoft hopes that it will draw in an older generation of gamers, which the market has yet to entice.
Speaking at the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada, Robbie Bach, Microsoft?s president of entertainment and devices, said: ?With Project Natal we are removing the last barrier to gaming, the controller, freeing you to have the experience you want with technology that is natural for you.?
The Project Natal system will be available on Microsoft?s Xbox 360 video console and will go on sale in the US in November. The system uses a 3-D camera connected to an Xbox 360 console to interpret the position of the player and replicate his or her actions on screen.
It is still not clear how much the system will cost and when it will be on sale in the rest of the world, information that has been much sought after since the words Project Natal were uttered at the E3 video games conference in June. The new controller is undoubtedly designed to appeal to new players who have been introduced to video games by Nintendo?s Wii console, which has sold more than 50 million units worldwide, about 20 million more than the Xbox 360.
The Wii uses motion-sensitive controllers, with users swishing, waving and pointing their Wii sticks in front of the screen to control the game. In this way the controllers double up as everything from a tennis racket to a steering wheel. Natal would do away with the need of any kind of hand-held device altogether.
Despite its popularity, the Wii has been criticised by some commentators because its games tend to be short and uninvolving after several sessions. Microsoft is hoping that the graphics and processing power of the Xbox 360 will pull them in with a promise of a more immersive gaming experience. A number of big games studios are already making games for the Natal system, including Activision, which makes the Guitar Hero series, and Electronic Arts, makers of the popular Fifa football titles. More than 70 per cent of game developers are working on Natal versions of games, Mr Bach said, meaning that there should be a good range available by the end of the year.
Project Natal stole the limelight from Microsoft?s other big announcement at CES, the annual technology trade show. Steve Ballmer, the company?s chief executive, used his keynote speech to demonstrate a number of new touchscreen ?tablet? PCs that run its Windows 7 software. Tablet PCs are flat, slate-shaped computers that are operated either by a touch-screen or by using a stylus.
Observers suggested that this was an attempt to upstage Microsoft?s rival, Apple, which is said to be preparing a tablet PC known as the ?iSlate? for launch later this month. The HP model that Mr Ballmer selected bears a close resemblance to several images of the Apple device that have surfaced on the internet in recent weeks.
