Project Natal will include controller support @ Gaming Target

Written by John Scalzo on March 23, 2010

News: Also, your living room isn't big enough for Natal.

Craig Mundie, Microsoft's Chief Research and Strategy Officer, held court yesterday to talk about all things technology related that are happening at the software giant. As often happens, the discussion turned to the Xbox 360 (in this case, Project Natal), and Mundie revealed a few tidbits about the motion controller, as reported by Seattle tech blog, TechFlash.

In short, you're going to need a lot of room to properly make use of Natal-based games:

To be precise, you'll want to clear an area extending at least 4 meters (a little more than 13 feet) away from the television. That's the back edge of the space to be taken into account by the Natal sensors. In terms of width and height, the field of vision naturally expands as it moves from the Natal device to that back edge, ending up a little more than 4 meters wide and 2.7 meters high (about 8 feet, 10 inches).

While 13 feet seems like a tall order, Microsoft also revealed to TechFlash that Natal won't be as "controllerless" as they've stated in the past. Mundie revealed that players will be able to use a controller in combination with the arm flailing previously shown to control Natal games. Whether this is a standard Xbox 360 gamepad or a new "Natal Remote" was not revealed.

Finally, TechFlash spoke to Don Mattrick, the head of Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices Division, who once again reiterated that Natal will not be as expensive as people think it'll be. All without naming even a ballpark price. I guess some news has to wait until E3.

Project Natal will be released this Fall.