PS3’s PlayStation Eye vs Xbox 360’s Natal
Filed under: Gaming, Sony Playstation 3, Xbox 360 | By: Peter Chubb
Posted on: June 7, 2009 | 21 Comments
If you were to ask anyone who attended E3 2009 what was the most memorable moment, then most of them would have to say Microsoft and Steven Spielberg announcing Project Natal for the Xbox 360. Sony did also announce their motion sensing gaming which will incorporate the use of the PlayStation Eye for the PS3.
Sony’s director of marketing John Holler has been talking to Gamasutra about its PlayStation Eye, saying that it is “more accurate and more precise” than the technology that will be used in Microsoft’s motion-sensing Project Natal. Although Microsoft’s system has full-body scanning capabilities, Holler states that it is reported to be suffering from “depth issues on the Z-axis.”
This however is hard to confirm, not until a third part gets to test the system, so maybe it is just Sony holding on to the hope that Project Natal will not prove as popular when it comes to adapting the technology on the Xbox 360 console.
There have also been other concerns with both these technologies, and that is that they will use more processor power. If this is true, this could bring a return to RROD, but that is only speculation at this time.
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Those who have tried Natal for themselves seem to think that it blows everything else away,
“I haven’t been quite this blown away by a tech demo in a long time”
http://gizmodo.com/5277954/testing-project-natal-we-touched-the-intangible
“Believe the hype. I’ve just hightailed it from a hands–on play with Project Natal and can report it’s every bit as cool as that slick promo video shows”
http://stuff.tv/blogs/gaming/archive/2009/06/03/e3-2009-first-play-xbox-360-project-natal.aspx
“Sadly after five swift but thrilling minutes our time in the play room was over and the future of gaming had been changed, for the better, permanently”
http://www.t3.com/news/microsoft-xbox-360-natal-first-play?=39035
I have all 3 consoles & they are all great for their own reasons but as far as motion controls goes, Natal is leagues ahead of the competition.
As far as your processor power concern goes, i believe Natal has it’s own onboard processor & software leaving the 360 free to run the game.
My take on E3 2009 :
Microsoft showed us a bunch of stuff that has already been done; The Metal Gear Solid franchise has been out for over a decade. Both XBox & PS3 get Final Fantasy 13 but Final Fantasy 14 is exclusive for PS3. Again, a franchise that has been available for over a decade, but what’s the point of getting a FF13 exclusive if you can play FF14?
Sony showed us the future of PS3 gaming. Microsoft grabbed a few old names and attached them to XBox360. As we can see, the philosophies of these two companies are vastly different. Where Microsoft paid a truck load of money for GTAIV DLC, Sony showed us a new exclusive from Rockstar Games entitled AGENT. AGENT is a stealth based espionage game set in the late 70’s and is exclusive to the PS3.
I’m not sure how much old stuff Microsoft can bring over to XBox before their fans get board with stuff they have already experienced. Or how many times they can release a title from the Halo franchise, that hasn’t been good since the original.
Here are the exclusives that were announced at e3 2009:
The PS3 EXCLUSIVES: Uncharted 2, M.A.G., AGENT, Mod Nation Racers, The Last Guardian, Gran Turismo 5, Final Fantasy 14 and God of War III.
The 360 EXCLUSIVES: Shadow Complex, Joy Ride, Crackdown 2, Splinter Cell: Conviction, Forza 3, Halo 3, Alan Wake & A.P.B.
Round by Round Break Down :
Round 1:
We got to see 360’s Joy Ride. A Kart-type racing game exclusive to 360. Then on Day 2 Sony shows off their fully customizable Kart racing game that was inspired by Little Big Planet. A crushing blow to Microsoft’s Joy Ride.
Round 2:
Microsoft had a few more rabbits in their hat. Next up is the 360 exclusive Splinter Cell: Conviction. Then on Day 2 Sony announces their very own stealth/espionage exclusive called AGENT. AGENT is brought to you by the makers of the Grand Theft Auto franchise, Rock Star Games. Yet another of Microsoft’s rabbits landed in a pot.
Round 3:
The Final Fantasy debacle - On Day 1 Microsoft touted that Final Fantasy was finally coming to the XBox360 in the form of Final Fantasy 13. Then on Day 2 Sony completely crushed that announcement with news of their own; Not only will PS3 be getting FF13 but they will also be getting Final Fantasy 14 as a PS3 exclusive. A visually mind blowing installment from the Final Fantasy franchise that has online multiplayer and is only possible on the PS3.
Round 4:
Microsoft announced that Metal Gear Solid: Rising was going to be a 360 exclusive. Konami has now said it will be released on PS3, PC & 360. Ouch! What was Microsoft thinking when they announced it as an exclusive???
Final thoughts:
The best game Microsoft showed off at E3 2009 was a game called A.P.B. It’s a brand new MMO title headed for the 360. It’s a cross between Team Fortress and Saints Row meaning it plays like Saints Row but has the graphics of Team Fortress.
With original franchise exclusives such as MAG and The Last Guardian coming to PS3, I don’t see how anyone in the gaming industry can deny it’s massive appeal over the competition. If Rockstar’s original PS3 exclusive, AGENT, has anywhere near the impact they had with GTA3, we’re looking at a title that could propel PS3 light years beyond all other consoles. And last but not least, the Demo of God of War III was just mind blowing. The environment surrounding Kratos’ battle was so vast that it appeared as if you could look into the distance for miles and miles at end. Completely amazing.
What was boring:
For me Nintendo showed nothing interesting or appealing to a true gamer. Wii Fit Plus was Nintendo’s diamond crown but truthfully, I don’t see the sparkle at all. Same old nonsense. Same old baby game garbage. Nintendo is showing us that cheap is not better. Wii is the ultimate dust collector for people that want to say that they play video games. Get in on the conversation for $300 bucks. No thanks.
As for Sony & Microsoft’s motion controller presentations; A giant NO THANKS!
I feel, as most gamers do, that as a whole, the whole Motion Controller thing is a galactic waste of R&D time and R&D money. Both Microsoft & Sony wasted over 30 minutes each of stage time on this useless item. Garbage!
And the e3 2009 winner is:
Sony showed big, original, exclusive titles coming to the PS3. Titles that are pushing the limits of our gaming experience that are “only possible on the PS3″. Sony met all of Microsoft’s big announcements with a crushing blow of their own and that’s what E3 is all about. It’s about showing off your best while knocking out the competition and Sony accomplished just that.
The winner is Sony & PS3!
2nd place goes to Microsoft.
3rd goes to Nintendo’s Wii which showed nothing exciting for it’s future. Wii Fit Plus? A different way to jump around. Yuk
why r u posting the same thing over and over u are clearly working for sony or ur the biggest fanboy ive seen in years i.e(sony logo)or ur just a troll which is it? . (1)microsoft(2)sony(3)nintendo.
m$ at 1st? with or w/o the motionsenshit and the boring shovelwares, sony is still 1st on e309. just look at the games sony and m$ showed us
also superdynamite may be a ps3 fanboy, but i as a pc gamer, ps3 does look like it will serve the core gamers MORE and BETTER in the near future (heck i think it started when killzone/resistance 2 launched)
sorry ppl but the truth is, theres a lot more to miss on ps3 than 360/pc (but pc still has sc2 and d3)
final fantasy 14, only possible on PS3 - also going to pc. Oh and im sure that M$ announced FF 13 a year after sony called it as an exclusive.
Problems with ff14 on ps3, how many ps3 owners do you know that list an advantage of owning a ps3 as not having to pay to play games online? Im just wondering how many of those same people will pay a subscription to play 14 online. LOL.
Personaly i preffered the M$ stuff. Dont really care for metal gear anyway so that didnt bother me, but alan wake, gonna be amazing, well thats the hope. Same guys that did max payne so its promising.
Two halo games, i didnt think id actualy be excited but acutaly i am for them. Natal was summit else. The article mentions more processing power but in the specs for the camera it apparently has its own processor so no extra strain on the 360 maybe?
@superdynamite
I agree with everything you said 100% but the fact that motion control being a waste of time. I believe that Sony and Microsoft must walk down this path if the want to target the market that Nintendo has been able to cash in on. Sony truly has the far superior controlled due to the issue you stated and the accuracy was mind blowing 1:1. Both Sony and Nintendo have been in motion controll far to long to have mistakingly chosen the wrong type of motion controller. I see projet Natal for what it is, yet again Microsoft’s half-assed attempt at being innovative just for the sake of coming to the table with something. A controller is a must and Natal will prove to be nothing more than an PSeye/eyetoy ripoff. This E3 was the best yet for Sony and will truly wowed the press as well as the development community. .
lol at the dumbest most biast comment I ever in my life (by superdynamite). How you could possibly write all that down and not mention huge xbox 360 exclusives that were announced such as mass effect 2, crackdown 2, forza motorsport 3 and two exclusive halo games, and also the fact that Sky Digital is coming to xbox live, all of these points seemed to have simply slipped your mind. I’m not trying to state that one console is better than the other (as you clearly have), I’m just simply stating you have some huge gaps in your list of things that are coming exclusively for the xbox, personally I couldn’t give less of a **** about halo, or MGS for that matter, but you cannot deny that many people out there do, and to simply strip that from your research makes the end result a lazy one sided comment, I say again PS3’s conference may have been better, Xbox’s may have been better, but you were missing out some huge highlights.
my bad about crackdown and forza, but you still didn’t mention 2 other huge highlights. And just because your personally opinion that no halo game since the first has beengood (even if I agree with you) doesn’t suddenly make it a worldwide fact to that rest of the world, as the sales of halo 3 will show you.
was I the only person to notice how in the Halo demo your charactrr will be able to “fly” up ladders without even putting your gun away? I thought that gameplay was restricted to previous gens not the biggest title the 360 has to offer, it looked like the ps3’s Haze.
not only that but Microsoft didn’t even develop Natal, they bought it 3 months ago from a company called 3DV. They have no ability to create original content or original ideas. Just look at Microsoft as a whole, nearly everything they have ever released is either stolen, or copied even windows, it was stolen from apple. the X-box, just a PC running a different Microsoft OS. the hell with M$, they just proved yet again how unoriginal and uncreative they are.
If you put forth even a small amount of effort before crap spewed from your keyboard you would know that Microsoft has been working on motion control for a long time, and have stated that the Project Natal that was shown contained none of the 3DV tech.
Wow that was good information man! PS3 all the way baby!!!
ps3 is the biggest piece of unenjoyable shit i have ever played and the lobbys / online has no soul no atmosphere.. whoever likes sony ps3 HAS NEVER PLAYED XBOX LIVE!!! i gave ps3 a chance when it first came out… how boreing is that console.. seriously ps3 aint a patch on xbox.. AND I WAS ALLWAYS A PS1 PS2 GAMER… UNTILL 360 THAT IS… IM NO FANBOY I JUST SAY WHAT I THINK ..APART FROM BLU RAY PLAYER SONYS MACHINE IS WHACK
@superdynamite
You’ve really done an impressive job of showing us all what a sad pathetic fanboy you really are.
The topic of this thread is “PS3’s PlayStation Eye vs Xbox 360’s Natal” but you seem to be having your own E3 press conference & the funny thing is you don’t even want to talk about motion sensing because you think they are both “Garbage”.
You & Sony should get a room, you’re obviously very much in love.
Project Natal seemed clumsy and inaccurate compared to Sony’s ‘wand’. Body mapping may grab a few headlines, but when a pair of wands can be used by the same player, there is little difference. Sony’s system is more suited to standard games where as Natal may have you jumping around the room for a few minutes and seems likely to be nothing more than a novelty.
Watching Sony’s demonstration, especially the sword and shield and bow and arrow segments, I found myself thinking which games would benefit from the wands. Not so with Natal.
On the games front, the only thing I was jealous of was Splinter Cell: Conviction. Sam Fisher going all ‘Jason Bourne’ sounds a blast.
That said, who isn’t excited by Sony’s E3 line up; 256 player MAG, Team Ico’s sequel to Shadow of the Colussus, Rockstar’s brand new franchise launching on the system that built GTA’s success, boundary stretching GOW3 and the almost ‘real’ racing game, GT5.
Xbox 360 is a great entry level console for those on a budget and is doing a great job of introducing people to gaming. PS3 is the perfect upgrade for those looking for the next generation.
All of you seem to forget who holds the records for fastest and most game sales. You can hate Halo all you want but it is one of the reasons gaming is becoming as big as it is. When people see that a game can generate so much revenue, so fast, they want to invest. The more people throwing money at development the better the games will be. You can spout off all day about how great PS3 is but at the end of the day it is in last place in the console wars. I do however have to commit on the upcoming line-up. It is awesome, I finally can see a reason to buy one other than bluray. I would also like to add that FF14 is probably not going to stay a PS3 exclusive, the developers said they are weighing all their options for every platform. To me that means it will be released on all platforms to maximize profits. I just ask that you keep the fanboyism to a minimum because it really make you look ignorant. (Like having a PS3 or 360 makes you who you are) So let’s just play games and enjoy them instead of trying to justify why “YOUR” system is the best.
Sounds like the pre release propaganda has already begun, to say it’s “suffering from “depth issues on the Z-axis.”” and “they will use more processor power. If this is true, this could bring a return to RROD” sounds like corporate sabotage to me. It’s low tactics and won’t work.