Peter Molyneux: Natal Bigger Than The Mouse

[tobi the good boy]

peter stop, just stop

 

[KAPTAINmORGANnWo4life]

We need to sew this dude's mouth shut.

 

[Dioxide20]

Molynuex ego is about to explode its gotten so big, I'm really starting to get annoyed hearing from this guy.

And the mouse is definitely not the biggest revolution in computing, the microprocessor is.

 

[Mutie]

Hahahaha! I am the only one who thinks Molyneux is an absolute legend!? I don't care what people say, he is responsible for Fable and therefore a complete dude. I'm sure Natal'll be a bit crap and just like the eye-toy, but I'm not bothered; I'll buy it just for Fable 3 if need be.

 

[JourneyThroughHell]

Anyone else's bullshit meter went off the charts?
I don't want to think broadly enough, all I want is my new version of FPS.

 

[Benjeezy]

I'm starting to grow weary of this guy. At first his bullshit was funny, but now it's beginning too wear thin on my nerves.

I can spout lies and flimflam too, but I don't get paid for it.

 

[Chicago Ted]

Fuck sake, can someone just bound and gag him already so we can clean up some of this spew!

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

Come on now, everybody, he's got a point. It's true that the mouse changed the way we use computers. You spoiled bastards have never been forced to work in a command line environment exclusively so you don't know what a pain in the ass computers used to be, let alone how limited the games were. The Natal does have lots of potential, although there's an equal chance of it succeeding as there is of it failing. And whether or not the Natal will eventually offer us anything of worth will ultimately be up to the creative minds of developers.

Peter Molyneux, on the other hand, should focus his efforts on his true passion and develop the Molyneux Everlasting Hyperbole Machine: based on a design by Willy Wonka, this green machine runs on the dreams of fanboys and outputs a constant stream of heightened expectations followed by harrowing disappointment.

exactly, this happens all over the world in any area of anything, people dont like change, and thats where these stubborn old ignorant people end up falling behind, this idea could be a flop, but with how much damn money microsoft is putting into it i dont know, it could be big, like he said it will take a while for the potential to really fill out and good ideas to really rise, personally i love the controller and love how comfortable it is, but im also open minded and ready for something new to come along, so hopefully natal is as big of a success as they are making it out to be

 

[Sir Kemper]

And, of course, Peter Molyneux is always spot-on with his hype.

THIS.THIS.THIIIIS!!!

 

[Kilo24]

What interests me more than anything else is the potential for Natal to do more than just assist us in gaming. I recall during the E3 demo of Natal; seeing people use it to browse through their Netflix queue, etc. That is where I see Natal being the precursor to additional motion/voice control capabilities.

What if you could come home, sit in front of your TV, say "on" and your entire media center powers up? Make a simple motion and change the channel. Say off and it turns off. Walk in to/out of a room and the lights turn on/off? In the mood for a romantic light setting, use simple motion and voice commands to adjust it to your liking. The point is that this technology not only helps innovate the world of gaming, but ushers in a new era in device convergence.

I, for one, am convinced that many of Natal's detractors will be looking awfully silly once they see the things that this device will allow us to do!

The point is not that the technology exists - voice and motion capture's essentially been around for a long while. The primary point is how well does it work. Voice controlled systems are notoriously imprecise (for a computer, it's a real pain to turn sound waves into words, then words into sensible sentences, then extract meaning from those sentences which is heavily dependent on context.) Motion control can get pretty nasty as well - this will all hinge on how accurately it's able to translate motion into instructions.

That information is not something you will not get from a tech demo. I'm not enthused about it until they can show me a physical product that reliably functions, not just a spliced-together video of what one could be (that had all the bad takes edited out.)

The second major hurdle is what software will support it. This is a big Microsoft-sponsored project IIRC, so I'd guess they're strongly encouraging developers to use it. Which is a good thing, because if there's not enough application to make its purchase worthwhile, it'll sputter and die no matter how good the technology is. The tech demo is slightly more useful in this regard, but they won't show you the times that you'll need to pull out a real controller because the sensors/firmware's not precise enough. If it's well done, there won't be any times like that, but we won't know from only the promotional material that's been released.

I agree with you to a certain extent, and yes, it is hard to make concrete assertions when only provided with short, preprogrammed tech demos. Natal's potential success' will definitely hinge on it's accuracy and adaptability.

I also agree with you, to a certain extent, about the software side of Natal and it's applications. Where I differ from you is that I can see this peripheral being utilized not just by the XBOX 360, but by a PC install base of MILLIONS. Put yourself in the shoes of a Microsoft Executive and it's very easy to see that this project could be utilized by many different platforms, not just the 360, and that's why I feel, provided it's solid tech, Natal will surpass all expectations. You don't invest this kind of cash to limit a tech to one platform...that's what Apple does

Sure, the potential for Natal to change the face of gaming as we know it is relatively small, but the potential for Natal to change how we interact with our media devices on a daily basis is limited only by the hardware. Does that make any sense?

It does make sense, but I disagree with it. It's possible Project Natal will going extremely well and it will snowball into a motion-sensing wave that spreads to all platforms, but I doubt it. Even if it does, it will take quite a while.

The hardware is only a very small part of that limitation, if you're extending it to a more open format like PCs. Good hardware's required, but it's persuading enough developers to make software that supports it to make it worthwhile will be the chief problem. Persuading developers like that is much easier on a proprietary console than it is on more open platforms like PCs, something Microsoft is well aware of.

There's a snowball effect when you're dealing with supporting additional types of hardware. A similar one occurs with porting to different operating systems. To make supporting that new hardware/OS worth the effort, it already needs to be widespread enough among the consumer base to be cost effective. To be widespread enough among the consumer base, the product needs to have enough supporting software to be a good platform. It's sort of a catch-22. Breaking into that with an entirely new peripheral is very difficult, even if the company has the funds to tough it out for a while.

In other words, not having enough software that supports Project Natal will dissuade people from buying it, and people not buying it will mean that it's not attractive for developers to develop for it. Getting past that involves a long-term investment on Microsoft's part (like the XBox division was in the first place.)

It is possible that Project Natal will beat the odds, but I've already seen quite a few innovative peripherals fail because they couldn't break into the market (sometimes through no fault of their design.) Being backed my Microsoft helps, but it's still too chancy to rely on it. Releasing it for the X-Box 360 - where they have far more leverage over the developers - is still the best place for Project Natal in the foreseeable future.

 

[Eggsnham]

He's just being his old hype-tastic self. But, who knows. He may be onto something.

 

[Callate]

It's just not for those closely associated with "the next mouse" to declare it "the next mouse". Only time and contact with the consumer market can genuinely determine what the impact of Natal as an interface will be.

It looks interesting. It could be promising, if the innovation-shunning sectors of an economically hurting games market don't all decide to take a "wait and see" approach, thus ensuring its doom. It simply doesn't matter how innovative it is if no one makes software compatable with it and/or no one develops an interest in using said software.

 

[Shycte]

I don't get the bullshit with bitching about Peter 'hyping'. He's putting time and money in this, ofcourse he's going to make it sound awesome. You don't hear McDonald's saying "The New Big Mac Wrap: It's edible!"

Peter is taking a large hands-on approach to hyping his shit, which means he obviously cares about what he does. You can all ***** about it falling short from what he might've presented it as being, but if you aim for the moon....right? It's his baby and he's obviously excited about it. Take every goddamn marketing statement with a grain of salt, but I dig this guy for being so excited about what he's doing. It shows he cares.

And his games make money, plenty have played and enjoyed them. I'm certain many will mess with Natal and have a fun time. So what if he tells us it gives virtual hummers as long as the ending product results in fun?

Was is this? A intelligent person, on The Escapist?.

I agree with you, Peter is doing his job and that damn good.

He's way overhated.

 

[WJeff]

peter always promises to revolutionize gaming in some way or another. the equivalent of the mouse to computers in consoles has already been introduced. it's called the analog stick.

the wii remote was supposed to revolutionize gaming, but it was just a gimmick

as excited as peter is about his virtual child, it's going to be nothing more than a gimmick

the majority of gamers prefer their controls old school. even with this new novint falcon and razer's plans to make motion controls for the PC, i have no intention of abandoning the mouse and keyboard. and for console gaming, i went to 360 because i wanted a classic no-bull control pad. also because it was given to me for free.

fact is, the best game controls, the mouse and keyboard and the control pad, have already been developed. everything that follows is just going to be some gimmick. you're not going to see any pro PC gamers using a novint falcon, and you're not going to see any pro console gamers using natal.

 

[2up]

I really don't understand all this hate for Peter. What's wrong with a guy who dreams big and cares passionately for the things he's involved in? Its true that Peter doesn't always deliver everything that's promised, but he does eventually deliver something in the end.

The problem with Natal and Sony's motion controllers are that the current crop of game designers are too stuck on conventional game design. This is a prime opportunity for an aspiring and unknown game designer to make a name for himself. Become the next great game designer. He/she is out there. They just have to dream big...and deliver.

 

[Icehearted]

Peter Molyneux is a windbag, and I just don't get why anyone gives anything he says any credence at all. How much longer will we tolerate his bs before people wise up and ignore his rantings...

 

[GeekFury]

He should resurrect Bullfrog and start making good games again.

I want Dungeon keeper 3 damn it!

 

[Pendragon9]

HAHAHAH!

I don't think so. I use my mouse every single day when on my PC. I don't think Natal will reach that level of usefulness.

 

[Cody211282]

Has no one told Peter Molyneux that lying is wrong?

Problem is I honesty think He belives what he is saying