Xbox made entertainment history through a stunning Cirque du Soleil production that brought controller-free gaming and entertainment to life and gave “Project Natal” its real name: Kinect for Xbox 360.
Project Natal as we all knew Kinect before yesterday had been giving all different kind of games, with even the latest rumoured better name “Wave“. The new Gadget was witnessed by Thousands of Hollywood stars, VIPs, and media from around the world on Sunday, June 13, 2010. This exclusive 45-minute experience, which Cirque du Soleil spent four months developing and producing, was presented Sunday night, with an encore performance set for Monday. Along with a 76-person strong cast of dancers, musicians, acrobats, and clowns, show goers were treated to a dazzling setup featuring 25-foot-high projection screens totaling more than a football field in length, a gigantic 9-foot-tall elephant puppet housing projection screens and two artists, and a 40-foot-diameter steel structure that rotates on its axis and weighs as much as 25 VW Beetles.
According to Martin Dignard, the Production Diretor of the Event: Creating and producing this customized experience for Microsoft took four months of preparation work for the creation team and required 76 artists and no less than 200 technicians. The magnitude of the event is greater than any other taken on by Cirque du Soleil Events.
Although not so much has been allowed to be released about this Kinect, we can definitely tell you, it’s here to stay and it’s as awesome as it has been emphasized on, but no concrete price tag as of now.
Some Kinect bound games are already surfacing, titles like:
- Kinectimals features over 20 different virtual pets, including lions, tigers, and cheetahs, to play with or raise.
- Joyride has returned to life as a controller-free racing game, apparently.
- Kinect Sports will offer sport games to play: “boxing, bowling, beach volleyball, track and field, soccer and table tennis.” For each one, you will make motions to play the games.
- Kinect Adventures has a river raft and obstacle course to navigate — this is likely the demo we saw last week.
- Dance Central,by MTV Games, where you can cut a virtual rug.
- And there will be more games announced later featuring both Disney characters and Star Wars characters, in conjunction with Disney and LucasArts, respectively.
We are so much excited about Kinect, just like many of you are. We know many of you don’t like the name, but as we all know, name doesn’t make the product. We will keep you posted as E3 continues…
