Microsoft demoed the technique at the E3 which means that the technique is already existing and working. Information on the techniques itself are scarce. From what could be gathered a hardware device is needed that will send the body’s motion and sounds to the Xbox gaming system. The system is able to follow the moves of every person in the room. It can easily identify and distinguish people. Natal cannot only identify people but also objects in the room.

This leads to some interesting new applications. Think of a quiz where the moderator addresses the gamers by name and repeats their answers.

Take a look at the videos below to get a good first impression on what Project Natal is about:

The official Youtube channel offers tons of videos showcasing Project Natal.

There are two factors that can influence the success of the new hardware device. First the price of the device. If it is expensive than it might become a niche product instead of the new default way of gaming. The second is game support by game developers. Game developers need to produce games for Natal or make their games compatible with the product.

What are your thoughts on Project Natal?

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What I like is that the Xbox 360 plays those movies from CD or DVD instead of streaming them over the network. I’m not that up to date when it comes to modchips for the Xbox 360 and possibilities to add a bigger hard drive to store files on it, but I’m sure some of you know the answer.

I would replace my old Xbox with the new Xbox 360 if I could use it as a media center again. I’d also like to know if the noise of the Xbox 360 has been finally reduced or if it is still that loud which would be another drawback.

Divx is supported back to version 5.0 which means that most movies should play just fine on the Xbox 360.

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Most users are suddenly experiencing a disconnect from Xbox Live with the inability to reconnect. A test results in the following status codes:

w: 0000 – 0021
x: 0000 – f001
y: 00a8 – 6820
z: 8015 – 1900

It seems that Microsoft is not banning the gamertag but the machine code of the system. Some users report that Xbox 360 users without a modded firmware got banned as well. It remains to be seen if we can get a official statement from Microsoft about the occurrences. A good way to receive all the latest information is the original thread in the Xbox Scene Forum.

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Microsoft decided that it would be a good idea to protect the content that is available via the Xbox Live Marketplace by linking it to the user profile and hardware which means that it would not be possible to go to a friends house, purchase a game there, load it on an memory stick and bring it back to your Xbox to play it there. This also means that you are in for some troubles if your Xbox 360 is replaced with another unit.

Travis got into great detail about the process that follows a replacement. He actually had two broken Xbox 360 systems in the past and this is how everything evolved.

He was sharing the Xbox 360 with his wife who had an account on her own. He quickly realized that he was not able to play the games that his wife purchased and that his wife was not able to play his games anymore both showing up as trial versions instead. It was only possible to play the full games if the user who purchased them would sign in.

After numerous calls with Xbox 360 support he found out that there was actually no way to activate the purchased games again other than creating a “dummy” account which would receive all the points that he ever spend buying stuff on the marketplace.

This is of course very inconvenient if you have purchased a lot of games in the marketplace. There is however more to the story. First, you have to calculate everything by yourself to be sure that you get the points that you spend. The Xbox Live support team has only access to the records of the last year which means that it could mean that there could be a difference between the points that you calculate and the points that they did.

Now if you thought that this was bad have fun with the following: Microsoft wants to transfer the same amount of points that you initially paid for the download. This is pretty bad if the price was raised in the meantime.

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Many sites that report these numbers point out that the amount of sales in dollars comes close to each other but fail to mention that is is not enough to compare game system sales but also consequences for game and accessory sales. With almost 700000 more systems in Japan in this year Nintendo is going to sell more games, more gamepads and other accessories increasing the revenue in that field as well.

It is also an important sign to game creators that the Wii is selling well and that it is currently the gaming system that producers will most likely sell the most games for. At least in Japan. The situation is different in North America and Europe where Microsoft is leading the field with their Xbox 360 thanks to the one year head start.

Which gaming system will be the dominant system in this generation ? Or, will there be a dominant system at all ? What do you think ?

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