Project Natal is Kinect
At the Cirque du Soleil powered "Natal Experience" in Los Angeles at Galen Center on Sunday night (local time), Microsoft revealed to the world that the proper name of Project Natal is Kinect. They also managed to set some sort of world record in self-boasting proclaiming Kinect to be "the future of mankind". However, what was shown in terms of software looked a lot like the kind of experiences we have seen on Eye Toy, Wii and Playstation Move already, so we guess Microsoft meant what to look at our past in order to see the future or something.
The event was not a traditional press conference and although half a dozen titles were demoed by an overenthusiastic family, the audience did not even get to see what the games would be called. Microsoft showed off their own answer to Nitnendo's Nintendogs and Sony's EyePet - Kinectimals, and Star Wars title that featured light sabre duels, the re-awakened Joy Ride and Microsoft's answer to Wii Sports - Kinect Sports.
But hopefully Microsoft have saved a couple of Kinetic killer apps for their press conference on Monday (10.00 am local time), because from what we saw this evening there is no reason to think that Natal will be the hit Microsoft are hoping for.
Glowing ponchos, acrobatics, and a mechanical elephant couldn't help us from feeling sorely disappointed as we left Galen Center.