4 posts and columns on Natal

Microsoft Comms Head Smacks Back by the Numbers (Plus a "Rocky"-Inspired Internal Email!)

in News on June 25, 2010 at 1:33 pm PT

After what he considered weeks of unfair press coverage and running down of Microsoft, the software giant’s Corporate VP of Corporate Communications, Frank Shaw, posted a pugnacious corporate blog today that trotted out some impressive numbers about Microsoft’s business. Of course, he also took the opportunity to put up some not-so-much figures about competitors such as Apple, Netflix, Salesforce.com and, of course, Google. And this comes after a fists-swinging email to staff!

CES: Steve Ballmer Keynote

in News on January 6, 2010 at 6:00 pm PT

Steve Ballmer is delivering his annual state-of-Microsoft address at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas tonight–the second he’s given since taking over the duties of former CEO Bill Gates. If anything like last year’s, Ballmer’s address will offer a broad overview of Microsoft’s consumer strategy for the year, touching on everything from the company’s hardware-software ecosystem to its home entertainment offerings. Likely to figure prominently in tonight’s address: Windows 7 and the new touch-enabled PC form factors it has evidently inspired; Bing; and Natal, Microsoft’s controller-less game control system, which will launch in time for the 2010 holidays.
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Price Cut to Give Xbox Sales an Early Christmas Goose

in News on August 27, 2009 at 5:10 am PT

Who will win the gaming console price war of 2009? Consumers. Two weeks after Sony lowered the price of the PlayStation 3 to $299 from $399, Microsoft did the same for the Xbox 360 Elite, slashing $100 off the price of the console. In addition, the company cut the price of its now discontinued Xbox 360 Pro console by $50 to $249.99, while supplies last.
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Sucks to Be Nintendo…

in News on June 1, 2009 at 2:46 pm PT

I’d hate to be Nintendo right now. What can it possible demonstrate at E3 tomorrow that will surpass or even match the gesture control gaming technology Microsoft showed off on Monday? Project Natal, as Redmond has codenamed it, is a controllerless game control system. It uses a 3-D camera and an array of motion sensors to capture player movements and translate them into in-game actions and, judging from this morning’s demo, it works quite well.
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