Earlier this month, the BitchBuzz team took a break from running around Fashion Week to pop into a lovely Xbox event, where they showed us their latest addition to the Xbox Family – the Xbox Natal.
While this may sound like some sort of tool used by an obstetrician or a new sort of Pre-Natal vitamin, it’s not, and has absolutely nothing to do with babies. (So far, anyway.)
Natal is Xbox’s answer to the Nintendo Wii, minus the nunchucks, Mario Kart steering wheel, and handy-dandy controller. But how do you still play, you ask yourself. Simple: You are the controller.
You don’t need a fancy Virtual Reality headset, nor do you need to wear sensors all over your body – you simply in front of your Xbox 360 and play. As Xbox say,
“See a ball? Kick it, hit it, trap it or catch it. If you know how to move your hands, shake your hips or speak you and your friends can jump into the fun -- the only experience needed is life experience.”
Seeing the Xbox Natal in action was quite cool – especially as I consider myself a Wii fan. The idea of being free from a controller while gaming is mind boggling yet brilliant. (No more remotes being thrown at television sets!)
And while at the Xbox Natal event allowed us to watch celebrities kicking balls around, I’m ready to see what else the Natal can do, aside from letting you kick and smack a ball, controller-free.
I’m incredibly curious to see how this will transform the sort of games that automatically pop to mind when thinking of the Xbox, such as Halo, Splinter Cell, Tomb Raider, or even Red Alert. Can you play Call of Duty controller-free? Or will we be limited to the same sort of games you can play in the Wii?
In my eyes, Xbox is traditionally a very male gaming console. The women I know all own Nintendo Wiis or a DSi, and very few (if any) prefer the Xbox. (On the contrary, I know about zero who own a PS3). In the past, Nintendo have been much smarter when it comes to marketing to women, and making their consoles and games seem not only family friendly, but gender neutral.
Hopefully, Xbox will seize this opportunity to introduce fitness games, which have proven to be very popular with women who hate the gym, or introduce a larger variety of games that are more gender neutral, and less "Hey, let's blow some shit up."
From the looks of the trailer below, Xbox are definitely trying to widen their audience, and become much more female and family friendly.
If they continue on the track they seem to be on, I can't see where Xbox and the Xbox Natal can go wrong.
Xbox Natal will be released in the UK later this year. “Holiday Time” to be exact. Wonder what every little boy and girl will be asking Santa for this year?