Forza dev investigating Natal

By Robert Purchese Published 20 January, 2010

Next instalment to be sans controller?

Forza Motorsport developer Turn 10 appears to be gearing up for a Natal-powered project.

Buried in a job posting for a business development manager was a challenge to "set strategy and drive high-quality game content for our next generation games including the Natal platform".

And that's that; no further mention of Natal was made.

It's unsurprising that a Microsoft internal studio should be pushing hard to support a brand-new Microsoft technology.

But it's exciting to think that a fully Natal-powered racing game may be only as far as Forza Motorsport 4 away.

Project Natal - still a codename, remember - will launch this autumn, when it will go head-to-head with Sony's delayed PS3 wand, which may be called Arc.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (22) Latest comment 2 years ago

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  • rob76 #1 2 years ago

    if there's one gaming genre that needs a controller that's car racing. Why simulate having a steering wheel and pedals when you can get them for real?!?!

  • funkateer #2 2 years ago

    "if there's one gaming genre that needs a controller that's car racing. Why simulate having a steering wheel and pedals when you can get them for real?!?!"
    Perhaps they're going to do the same thing GT5 will do with head tracking.

    "Project Natal - still a codename, remember - will launch this autumn, when it will go head-to-head with Sony's delayed PS3 wand, which may be called Arc. "
    Who knows, maybe Forza 4 will go head to head with the delayed GT5 too at this rate, hehe.

  • Sniper_007 #3 2 years ago

    I agree - force feedback and the "feel" of the road is an instrinsic part of driving, all all that would be lost with the Natal!!

    However head tracking would certainly be useful, if implemented well :)

  • altitude2k #4 2 years ago

    It's a bit of a blinkered view to just assume that a quality dev like Turn 10 are simply going to try and get you to steer and pedal with fresh air.

    There's plenty of opportunity to use Natal in conjunction with the controller, like a head-tracking system for a psuedo-3D display, or more likely the use of Natal for customising your paint job and vinyls or installing new components manually as a side-game.

  • SpaceMidget75 Verified Senior Software Developer, Minerva Computer Services #5 2 years ago

    I don't believe we'll be getting another Forza game on the 360. They've gone pretty much as far as they can go with it this gen.
    I expect that this will be for either PGR5 or maybe (hopefully) DLC for Forza 3 that adds head tracking. Most likey the former though.

  • Negotiator #6 2 years ago

    And the revolution begins.

  • Mkwone #7 2 years ago

    Finger painting car customisation with Natal?

  • jag10 #8 2 years ago

    a driving game with natal would be like having sex with no penis.

  • asphaltcowboy #9 2 years ago

    Head-tracking would be awesome! Please do this! (Although arguably, you don't actually need Natal for this)

  • bratmandu #10 2 years ago

    Yea seriously, we're years away from a viable alternative to hard plastic controllers. Holodeck or GTFO.

  • Murton #11 2 years ago

    Jag10: if the porn industry has proven anything it is that sex with no penis is extremely popular :p

    Like the people above I suspect that Natal will be used to give head tracking features similar to GT5 and probably be used as another option for menu navigation, I reckon every first party title will use Natal for menu navigation once it comes out. Will be interesting to see what they come up with though.

  • secombe #12 2 years ago

    Worse than 'air-steering' would be the throttle and braking, I can't imagine for one second that we would see a fully Natal driving game.

  • Toothball #13 2 years ago

    Yeah, some kind of no controller steering would be terrible. I invested in a steering wheel and the feedback you get with that really adds to the game. Removing it would be a huge step backwards. I wouldn't however mind if I could look left and right to check my mirrors, as the steering wheel lacks the right thumbstick that lets you do that.

  • aphexstwin #14 2 years ago

    toothball, thats a fair point and a good criticism of any game that gives you presets for controller configuration. gt4 and onwards let you button map any controller that is authorised in the game, and gt5p/TT puts the directional keys as 'look around' as standard on wheels. albeit as 3 directions only. it would be nice to map the dpad on the ms wheel as something else than the offputting telemetry or drift score and have them set to look around.

  • JoeSayerUK #15 2 years ago

    @Redstanza Existing head tracking products on the PC platform have solved this problem by allowing the user to have the game camera amplify their actual head movements.

    So, for example, you could set it so a turn of only 30 degrees would reflect in the camera as 90 degrees, this would allow you to even look backwards whilst still being able to see the screen.

  • smelly #16 2 years ago

    GIMMICK!

  • dfish #17 2 years ago

    @redstanza
    This is true if you had a multi display setup, three screens, then it would make sense. with a single screen however turning your head means turning your eyes at the same time just to maintain eye contact. It sounds pretty tiring. Eye(pupil) tracking makes far more sense. I really doubt i'd play GT5 with headtracking enabled unless it worked well in stereoscopic 3d.

  • Fab4 #18 2 years ago

    "a driving game with natal would be like having sex with no penis."

    What? You mean 'turn us all female'?

  • sharky_ob #19 2 years ago

    @ dfish

    What? If you move your eyeballs away from the screen you definately won't be able to see it!

  • Britesparc Verified Creative, ITV #20 2 years ago

    I think being able to rotate the controller to steer the car might work for an arcade racing game (twisting it left and right in the air, as if a wheel) - you've still got throttle control and braking buttons, etc, and holding onto something fixed in your hands is easier than miming a steering wheel. But for a precise game like Forza, I doubt it'd go down too well.

    So for Forza, I reckon the ideas about paint jobs and head-tracking are probably closer to the mark. But for an arcade game, like PGR? Steering might work. I've said it since Natal was first announced: I reckon T10 are doing PGR5, exclusively for Natal, and it'll be out this Christmas.

  • Ryze #21 2 years ago

    I expect we'll have a load of interesting extras with pseudo 3D, or possibly a 'casual' spin-off of the series.

  • tnt_2008smum #22 2 years ago

    silly, silly smelly