A University Talk with Robbie Bach

Press conference with Robbie Bach at the University of Sydney

Robbie Bach – President of Entertainment & Devices

“I love computer science. It is the only science that is bounded solely by our imagination… nothing else.” These are the words Robbie Bach (President of Entertainment & Devices) said at the press conference on February 9th in Sydney that made me feel sort of happy inside, he seems like a very inspiring person.

The first thing was he said that he is aiming to make EVERYTHING compatible with each other or in other words make everything multi screen (TV’s, mobiles and laptop’s). Right now though they said they are just showing us three things.

Number one was the Microsoft Surface. Because this is not Xbox 360 related ill be quick and just tell you the main things. It’s like a table and when you put things on it or touch it, it will react straight away. You can look up things, play games or just have it as a table ? It’s also very durable I know this cause the man stood up on it himself.

Alright now the main thing number two was Project Natal. This is mainly all the info I have on the device as it was the first time I have ever heard about it before and have not looked up anything so I’m just telling you EXACTLY what he has told me. Well he didn’t tell us this but the thing kind of looks like a big fancy camera you see at huge stores like Kmart. it’s quite a decent sized camera so it can see practically from your head to your toes. I was very impressed with this especially when I heard it is a 3D camera! That is just amazing it makes the EyeToy and the Nintendo Wii look like a joke to be honest. It’s got Voice Command as well so say you wanted to turn it off you could just say “goodnight” to turn it off apparently (This was demonstrated in a trailer).

There is absolutely no control for this thing you are the control you act it understands, I’m sort of worried about this though. Because it sounds wicked but what happens if say the lens get a bit of dust on it or someone bumps it? It could be very sensitive especially seeing its just a camera so we might have another huge problem like the Red Ring of Death. If your laughing I’m serious this could really happen. But I am sure Robbie is smarter than that, anyway back to the description. It has facial recognition as well. We all also saw an exclusive trailer apparently but I’m sure it’s made it’s way to YouTube somehow. It’s mainly just a family trying out the game, one persons fighting by kicking his legs, another is racing with moving there hands, another smashing buildings by moving there hands you know all that typical stuff. It sort of makes me think maybe they can only do stuff that’s really typical with Natal, but that’s mainly all the games on it they showed. There was also this girl customizing her Avatar with cloths by scanning herself and a boy scanning his skateboard so he can use it in a game. So that’s what is mainly in the trailer and that’s pretty much all he gave us, he didn’t give us an exact release date but he said it will be sometime after Fall.

One more thing about it was that he was saying that they are going to make games specifically for it, games that are compatible with Natal and just the controller and some that just don’t use it all together. So if people thought it was the end of COD or Halo think again. They gave us no price but I will say this. If it is more than $200 AUD there is no way on this earth I am purchasing it. I don’t think Natal should cost that much maybe $150, But $200 is pushing it for me. It’s an accessory you have to remember that it’s not a console I’m not going to pay over $200 just for one accessory besides I’m sure other people will agree with me if you do or don’t tell me please.

He also said some very small things about us being able to play arcade games with our friends all at once but not much after that and yes this is number three. I’m pretty sure they don’t really care if this new arcade thing works out well or not I think there more concerned with project Natal more than anything which of course isn’t a bad thing.

There was some questions answered but I didn’t get a chance and the other questions were of no importance what so ever and I don’t seem to recall them. After the conference we all were treated with beadles and orange juice ? along with some time to play with allot of games on the 360, use some laptops and even try out Microsoft Surface. I myself didn’t get a chance but I took a picture of some people playing with it at one time they seemed to be having allot of fun with it. The 360 games I remember that were there were games we already know like Pacman, Avatar, The Beatles etc. after a while we were all escorted out and of course that was the end of that.

After all this the only thing I’m looking forward to is Project Natal, really want to see if this little experiment from Microsoft will skyrocket or crash and burn. My advice don’t get it the second it’s out, be patient wait to get feedback and reviews first just to be sure I will probably do this too.

Project Natal Xbox.com Page

Author: Mathew Farrugia View all posts by

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