Announced at Microsoft’s Pre-E3 Press Conference earlier this month, Project NATAL has taken the industry by storm. With near-daily reports from media outlets (including from your very own Electronic Theatre), constant updates from Microsoft and a flurry of internet debate, the peripheral developed exclusively for the Xbox 360 system has certainly taken the sheen of Sony’s PLAYSTATION 3 Motion Controller (also unveiled at the Pre-E3 Press Conferences). And with reports now doing the rounds that this new addition to the Xbox 360’s arsenal will in-fact be offered as a new console launch, I thought it may well be time two chime-in with my two cents.
Now, those of you who have been regulars here at Electronic Theatre over the years will no doubt be familiar with my many years of experience firstly in videogames retail, and now thankfully journalism also. Having been a student of the ways of marketing and promotion, supply, delivery and product placement within the videogames industry for many years, I would like to suggest that the comments made by Microsoft may have been taken a little too literally.
When comparing the launch of Project NATAL to that of the 
launch of a new console, the translation of the sickly-sweet PR line would be that as one of marketing and promotion, rather than product placement. Microsoft do not intend on replacing either the current Xbox 360 console or it’s successor with Project NATAL, nor even delay any subsequent console launches, but rather raise the same level of awareness that would be expected at the launch of a new videogames system. Imagining comparable launches, such as that of the Mega-CD (CD-based add-on for the Mega-Drive) from SEGA or the PSOne (remodelled PlayStation console), would not do it justice; though assuming that the peripheral would replace a future home console borders on absurd.
What is offered by Project NATAL currently, at least, appears to be a very welcoming advancement in technology. Delivering a new level of interaction alongside removing many of the barriers for entry that exist between game and player, both Hardcore and Casual Gamers alike will find something worth getting excited about in Project NATAL. However, Wii was just such a promise at launch, and so it may well be acceptable to be a little cynical about what the product will bring to “traditional” gaming upon release. What this does suggest it that there may well be two streams of Xbox 360 campaigning. The Hardcore will continue to be addressed through internet and specialist press advertising, while the more Mainstream Gamer will be alerted to the latest big releases through television and cinema presentations, but in addition Project NATAL (under whatever moniker it finally arrives with) will be offered as an entirely separate, more neutral experience.
Grabbing it’s own headlines, it’s own games and perhaps even it’s own magazine, Project NATAL will be delivered alongside the Xbox 360 in an effort to revitalise the console midway through it’s life cycle, rather than become the standard bearer for Microsoft’s presence in the industry.
While I would in fact agree that the peripheral will most likely receive as large a marketing budget and just as much press coverage as the roll-out of a new console, I’d suggest that this has more to do with the modern videogames industry than any intention of passing-off the console as new hardware. Microsoft is looking to increase their market share with Project NATAL, and so launching the system with comparable awareness as that of a new console is pretty much requisite to deliver the appropriate message.
Obviously, only time will tell. We may well see the “Xbox NATAL” arrive on shop shelves as a rebranded Xbox 360. As ever, you can rely on Electronic Theatre to keep you updated on the latest news, and with the most honest opinions from industry veterans.
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