Microsoft’s “Project Natal”

Microsoft dropped a lot of information and celebrities at their E3 Press Conference yesterday.  They had frikkin’ Paul and Ringo, as well as Stephen Spielberg, show up on stage.  And for the third time in three or four years, they pried an IP out of Sony’s ever shrinking hands of exclusivity.  Sony used to be the one-stop shop for all your GTA, Final Fantasy, and Metal Gear Solid needs.  Sony used to have exclusive rights to all of these franchises, or at the very least their players got the games long before Microsoft’s did.  A lot of Sony’s marketing strategy last year depended on Metal Gear Solid 4.  Now, if Kojima is opening up the publishing rights to the game to go multiplatform, it becomes one more feather falling from Sony’s wilting hat.

Sony will have to bring some real firepower today.  Microsoft further proved their understanding of online interconnectivity and service by announcing a partnership with Facebook.  I cannot figure out why Sony hasn’t fostered a better set of touchpoints and service with their online services.  To be sure, the redesign of the Sony Online Store helps tremendously.  But, they touted Home as the next big thing over the last couple of years, and then kind of rolled it out with a whimper.  Users are willing to pay a modest fee for XBox Live if they feel like it is a superior service.  The answer here seems obvious for Sony:  ape the hell of XBL and offer it up for free.  But, I suspect Sony is hamstrung at this point by a business model that has the gaming division losing money like they’re an auto maker.

But, moving onto some real thoughts on Microsoft’s presser…

The real interesting announcement for me yesterday was “Project Natal.” Check out the video Microsoft showed off:

Something like this from Microsoft has been rumored for quite a while, and Bill Gates has touted the next step in interface design at many of the keynotes he’s given over the last few years.  The notion of an actively embodied interface system isn’t anything new.  Arcade games have used versions of it for a while, and the “ideal Virtual Reality” system has been after such an experience for a very long time, too (see Marie-Laure Ryan’s Narrative as Virtual Reality, 2001).  But the technology has always been either inadequate, or poorly designed (like the Nintendo Power Glove).

Yet, if Microsft has made this thing work, a few things strike me as important to note.  First, it would seem Sony should have been here first since they designed the EyeToy a while ago.  What Microsft showed off looked like an EyeToy on steroids.  Ouch, Sony!  Second, if Microsoft can make this technology work, and if they can make it work in very sophiticated gamespaces, then they could be well on their way to overtaking Nintendo and dominating this current console cycle — and Sony will have some real problems on their hands.  Third, between Natal and the Wii-mote, it struck me hard yesterday that this kind of interface evolution has been driven by what many gamers would consider an unlikely source:  “casual games.”

That last point is important, I think, because it speaks to some important realizations about gaming.  Casual games have worked to draw in new players/consumers because the haptics and interface systems seem far more intuitive.  A controller is a relatively intimidating piece of hardware for new gamers.  Mastering button configurations and combinations can be extremely difficult, making games like God of War extremely intimidating.  But, everyone knows how to kick a ball.  If you throw at me and let me simply kick my leg forward, I can figure that out pretty easily.  The Wii-mote and Natal point toward the increasing dissolution of the interfacial boundary that exists between people and their digital systems.  In essence, these kinds of devices expand the game space to include the very real space in which the player finds herself.  Your living room becomes the interface through which you interact with on-screen activity.

But, that realization calls some big issues into questions.  “Hardcore” games built on persistent gameplay models, like the FPS or platformer, are called into question here.  Current games that we consider technologically sophisticated (like MGS, FF, or GTA) rely on design principles that have evolved alongside controllers.  In other words, both on-screen play and the controller are essentially designed for each other.  When I said earlier “if Microsoft can make Natal work in relatively sophisticated gamespaces,” I think it’s important to note that those sophisticated gamespaces are not necessarily Gears of War or HALO.  Those games are designed to take advantage of a control device that is designed almost from the ground up to work seamlessly with the play experiences they’re trying to create.

Natal fosters a different set of questions:  How do we design “hardcore” games that take advantage of this system? What does a “hardcore” game look like in this system?  How does the player cybernetically incorporate herself into the game using Natal?  I don’t think shoehorning a Natal-style embodied system into Gears of War would be very successful because the game simply isn’t designed with that thought in mind.

Thus, it makes all the sense in the world that Natal-like interface systems should inspire new interaction designs — not something a billion-dollar gaming industry is going to be super comfortable with.  Million-dollar budgets allow for a lot of ingenuity, but they also demand a hell of a profit.  Profit can overtake creativity, or push it in directions that confine and constrain what creativity can accomplish.  Hardcore gamers are accustomed to their controllers.  Something like Natal asks them to learn a whole new interface system, one that oft-derided “casual gamers” perhaps understand more.  That combination doesn’t scream major profit.

If Microsoft is smart here, they will make Natal development kits available to indie and homebrew designers for a reasonable price, and then provide the support that lets imaginations run wild.  Though constrained by a lack of money, independent and homebrew designers don’t worry about a profit margin in the same sense that major development studios do.  Experimentation is a key ethos in such a community. And that experimentation could lead to unbelievably creative gaming experiences.

I love Little Big Planet, but its execution is flawed because Sony and Media Molecule didn’t reinvent the interface system through which players interact and create within the environment.  Using the SIXAXIS or DualShock 3 to build an environemnt is time consuming and wonky.  If Microsft can make Natal viable, they could lead the way in opening a whole new set of experiences for players that could really make something like Little Big Planet a truly major accomplishment in interaction design and media experiences.