Gates: Natal "a little over a year away"

By Robert Purchese Published 16 July, 2009

And will be available on PC.

Bill Gates has revealed that Natal technology will be usable on PC and is "a little over a year" away.

"I'd say a cool example of that, that you'll see... In a little over a year, is this (depth) camera thing, but for media consumption as a whole, and even if they connect it up to Windows PCs for interacting in terms of meetings, and collaboration, and communication," Gates told CNET.

"Both the Xbox guys and the Windows guys latched onto that and now, even since they latched onto it, the idea of how it can be used in the office is getting much more concrete and is pretty exciting,"

"And I think there's incredible value as we use that in the office connected to a Windows PC," he added.

Gates explained there will be cost reduction over the years, which should make people say, "Why shouldn’t that be in most office environments?"

But, mister Gates, isn’t this technology already available on Wii?

"No, that's not it," he answered. "You can't pick up your tennis racket. You can't sit there with your friends and do those natural things.

"That's a 3D positional device. This is video recognition. This is a camera seeing what's going on."

Project Natal has no release date, but we have plenty of impressions of the technology on our gamepage.

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. @Clert on Twitter.

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

You may also like...

Comments (52) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • TheWretched #1 3 years ago

    Then explain to me, what the difference is, between a tennis racket and the Wiimote, gameplay wise. Ok, they have different weight distributions, but what else? Is it more immersive? No. Is Natal at least as precise as WM+? Doubt it...

    So, tell me, what is the advantage of using Natal over WM+?

  • Fidjit #2 3 years ago

    "Natal "a little over a year away" "

    ... please keep it this way :p

  • Kremlik Verified Co-Founder, Crash To Desktop #3 3 years ago

    Well this i could see a mile off - and its more likely to WORK with the pc over the 360, voice control is ready very much used in many pc apps (like lanuage training), 'Natal' could be used not only in bussness but in things like sign language training if Natal is 'as' precise as they claim..

    Gaming it's a bit iffy however in general use combining both voice and motion control this will be VERY good

  • LiveForever #4 3 years ago

    what is this going to add to video conferencing? It works just fine now

  • RexRunti #5 3 years ago

    So Christmas (sorry 'holiday') 2010 then.

  • erp #6 3 years ago

    That first paragraph of quote from Gates made no sense to me at all.

  • Thalanos #7 3 years ago

    @TheWretched - Face and speech recognition for one.

    In truth I'm a little dubious about the accuracy of Natal too, especially for precise pointing which the Wiimote is perfect for. I'm certainly not going to write it off though and I'm glad that MS are taking a gamble something different. Personally I hope it pays off.

  • kamps09 #8 3 years ago

    to TheWretced

    I also dont see big differecne between natal and WM. Milo is here most interesting thing so far, but again - how good will and can be the software. How good will be AI? How they manage Milo updates? Must i pay, if i want to teach him new phrase? Main question here is - how good will be the result compared to advertising?

  • Muneeb #9 3 years ago

    @donnie - I agree.

    But I don't care for Natal, Milo is interesting but thats about it. I want some proper PC games and support from MS!

  • Moonprince #10 3 years ago

    @donnie080208

    lol... sucks to be you buddy.

  • bioreit #11 3 years ago

    @TheWretched

    Yes, if you focus on the one single thing like a tennis racquet, then Natal is very similar to the Wiimote.

    But you're ignoring the integrated mutli-facial and -voice recognition capabilities, the gesture recognition, the ability for Natal to recognise things like finger movements and full-body motion. None of which the Wiimote can do.

    But yes, in the very specific, purposefully-limited example you provide, Natal and the Wiimote are similar. In reality (where the rest of us live), Natal offers much, much more. It only remains to be seen whether Microsoft can deliver on the promises.

    Edit: Just checked out your profile/games collection - all is explained...
    Edited by bioreit at 16/07/09 @ 10:04

  • Linkified #12 3 years ago

    Right Natal is probably as precise but maybe even more so than WM+ for the simple thing is it over full body motion tracking. and the recognition SDK will probably expand that. the main thing though is that unlike EyeToy, Playstation Eye and Live Camera this has an on board processor built in to add to make iyt more fluid.

  • RexRunti #13 3 years ago

    @TheWretched

    Natal can tell how many hands your using to hold the tennis racket which could have a cosmetic application such as updating the on screen character or could effect the strength of the hit. Also Is Natal at least as precise as WM+? Doubt it Maybe. It might be more precise for all we know. Until people can do some side by side comparisons we won't know so it's not really an issue for now, is it?

    @LiveForever

    On video conferencing it means you can have two+ people on the same machine with Natal able to seperate who's saying what and when, which could be useful for automated minute taking or whatever.

    I just hope game designers think a little bit more outside the box than half the people on this forum or it'll be nothing but Wii ports.

  • mingster #14 3 years ago

    Well the fact that it will work on the PC as well is newsworthy hadn't heard that before.

  • Kerome #15 3 years ago

    Well... "hohum". Seriously, Natal in the office? It's a whole new input paradigm, and making that productive in an office-style environment implies a lot more research into computer user interfaces than was shown at E3. It's kinda hard to see how Natal skeletal tracking is going to make navigating your hard drive easier... Much better to let the games guys test out what works first, and then see if you can get productivity enhancements out of it. My magic 8-ball, he say "No".

  • rhubarbandcustard #16 3 years ago

    What's all this crazy talk of 'Will Natal be as accurate as WM'?

    WM may have been innovative, and it may well be fun in small party type games, but never could it be described as accurate.

    Even WM+ is not as accurate as what was Nintendo suggested either.

    Played my bro's Grand Slam Tennis on Monday.

    Fun, yeah.

    1:1 accurate - not by a long shot.

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #17 3 years ago

    People are having very odd reactions to this article.

    As I see it, Biill Gates has said, unprompted, that Natal tech is of increasing interest in areas of Microsoft other than that in which it originated, the games division. This would imply to me that they think they've got something so special on their hands, they don't want to restrict it to be a quickly-forgotton plastic game peripheral. This is all good for the sake of the more people involved in looking at ways of using Natal, the more likely it is that something good for gamers will come out of it.

    Of course, it might be that Johnny Lee is just showing his wiimote virtual whiteboard video to various folks in Microsoft, now he works for them.

  • Brianstorm #18 3 years ago

    Who is going to actually make games for Natal, outside of Microsoft, very few, Natal will be the modern version of the snes superscope...

  • RexRunti #19 3 years ago

    I think there's a little more to natal than showing the bottom of an avtar's shoe.

    Due to extra costs and install base restrictions I'm not expecting 100s of games that require natal. That said there is no reason not make games which are also compatible with natal. I also suspect MS are going to push this as hard as a new console launch, so I doubt we'll have another Live Vision debacle.

  • drewman5150 #20 3 years ago

    Sorry, I'm a bit late to the party, but I had to join in!

    To quote Donnie080208 "the people doubting natals accuracy i am sure MS have been testing this for many years(and spent 100"s mil"s) and would not have revealed NATAL untill they absolutly sure it has a tangable advantage over nintendo" - whilst a big part of me shares your optimism, I also think of their previous attempts at "advantages" over Nintendo - "In the Movies" springs to mind, a half-cocked implementation of a promising idea.

    Microsoft have a long history of using vaporware and / or over egging promised features to intimidate the competition (Novell, Lotus etc spring to mind) and I would hate to think that they are adapting part of the "1998 MS HypeHandbook (updated 2003 to include WFS)" with Project Natal.

    By all means, Microsoft are not the only stall in the hype market (PS3: Twin HDMI? 3 Gigbit Ethernet ports??? 4D Gaming????), but having managed to hoik themselves into such a prominent position this generation only to end up promising the earth and delivering a bag of soil would not do themselves any favours.

    But it's nice that Bill took some time out of saving the world (or whatever it is that he does these days) to spread the word!

  • metallicorphan #21 3 years ago

    if Natal is still a little more than a year away,they should of announced it at next years E3 instead of this years....kinda like MAG being announced at last years E3,and then a little more shown this year,and now its been pushed back to next year...makes them look like dicks

  • altitude2k #22 3 years ago

    I work in engineering design, and our software UI is very good with the limited tools we have in a mouse, keyboard and space navigator. If you could use a Natal-like system to do freeform modeling and then constrain with dimensions using perhaps a more intricate control, such as the mouse, then it would certainly revolutionise the industry.

  • oreillymj #23 3 years ago

    I can't wait for the MSOffice crew to get their hands on Natal. Imagine the possibilities for a "Clippy" with gesture recognition?

    "I can see that you're scratching your balls. would you like to......" ;-)

    http://www.appscout.com/2007/02/to_kill_...

  • kule #24 3 years ago

    Actually I think PC is where this tech will come to life - especially if they can get it added to laptops as standard. Hand gestures for maximising, minimising and moving windows, possibility of automatically fast user switching based on whos sitting at the computer.

    The mouse will probably still be the weapon of choice for first person shooters but for basic desktop interactions this could be fantastic...

  • MiniAmin #25 3 years ago

    I still remember the Time magazine cover with Bill Gates on the front holding a RROD look-a-like Xbox.

    I remember the article and the screenshots. One remarkable screenshot demonstrated how Tiger Woods 06 would feature individual blades of grass. It didn't.

    Fool me once...

    EDIT: Don't get me wrong. I own an Xbox (Gamertag - Miniamin) and Natal looks great. But it's far too early to get excited about Natal. If there are demos at E3 2010 and journalists themselves can play, then i'll get excited. Some people have short memories, I still remember Peter Molyneux's promises about the original Fable...
    Edited by MiniAmin at 16/07/09 @ 13:52

  • Gaol #26 3 years ago

    All these XBox fans fawning over Natal remind me of the Nintendo fans going ape for the Revolution.

    Wait till the 360 release schedule fills up with such gems as 'Jump with Barbie' and 'Fetch: The Interactive Dog Walking Simulator'.

  • WinterSnowblind #27 3 years ago

    The technology is very impressive, I'd love to see us at the point where we're using Minority Report style computers and the demonstration of Natal with the 360's dashboard was pretty close to that, being able to flick through all the blades was awesome, and it's definitely something I'd like to see on the PC as well (though obviously we're a bit off being like Minority Report, but combined with things like Surface and Seadragon, we're getting there).

    The main problem is going to be support in games. I can see this being very much like the sixaxes, were it's only used for little bits in games, perhaps like reloading, or opening doors and climbing ladders, etc, but not seriously utilised.

  • makeamazing #28 3 years ago

    I really dont see this being used in an office environment, there are a raft of products/webcams that already do this cheaper i suspect. I mean it can be used as a webcam, but why not just get a webcam and use some of the free MS software that already allows you to do this... me is confused on what MS is trying to do here... cover as many bases as possible.

  • peterfll #29 3 years ago

    I don't even have video conferencing.... dammit, even instant messaging in my office. We're in the dark ages. I guess by the time I would get to play with Natal in the office the Sun will have melted all the ice caps anyway, so I'll be DEAD*.

    :-(

    * so better still buy it for my 360 then.

  • SEVQA #30 3 years ago

    Natal will be a massive success - especially if Microsoft manage to bundle it with PC's (again).

  • davisorle #31 3 years ago

    Post deleted at 20:44:35 16-04-2012

  • Schiraman #32 3 years ago

    Frankly highly-accurate motion control seems like a white elephant to me - casual games don't require highly accurate input, because they're deliberately aiming to be simple and accessible rather than highly-skilled, and hardcore games will always be better suited to a more direct control method such as a controller or a mouse. So who are these new controllers actually aimed at?

    As for using them with PC... it's hard to imagine Natal being anything other than a complete flop on PC. The very ubiquity of mice and keyboards speaks volumes for what excellent interface methods they are, and it's hard to see how motion controls would improve on them in any way for the vast majority of PC-based tasks. While at the same time, they'd not only require a lot of work from developers and a lot of extra training for users - but they'd be guaranteed to make most users feel like a right tit. FAIL.

  • Xerx3s #33 3 years ago

    "By all means, Microsoft are not the only stall in the hype market (PS3: Twin HDMI? 3 Gigbit Ethernet ports??? 4D Gaming????), but having managed to hoik themselves into such a prominent position this generation only to end up promising the earth and delivering a bag of soil would not do themselves any favours. "


    Erm... First, all your examples date from a decade or 2 ago. But that's another /. fanboy story. You claim that MS have promised mountains and delivered very little this gen. Quite an odd comment to make when the competition have done nothing else to keep up with some of the things MS have actually done.
    Sure, ms have promised things that they couldn't realise (if you know how companies work, good idea's get axed regularly because of cost, etc.) but sony has been king this generation by a long shot in dirty tactics and hype/underdelivering. And then there are the things nintendo promised before launch (which everybody magically forgot).

    All in all, I can think of one feature that didn't materialise one year after they first talked about it, which is a far cry from what the others have done.

  • hiddenranbir #34 3 years ago

    The fact they're thinking of putting this in their biggest money maker: business, says something.

  • MiniAmin #35 3 years ago

    @davisorle.

    You recommended that I "check better". So I did :)

    Where have I stated something which isn't fact? Let me help you out with some parenthesis.

    The original Fable was great, I agree (opinion), however that's a quite random thing to say given that I didn't criticise the original Fable (fact). It is a well known fact that Molyneux said Fable would have many features which it didn't contain (fact). I didn't say that Journalists didn't test Natal at E3 (fact). I said i'll be excited if there are demos which Journalists can play with at E3 2010 (fact). I said that because I gather that Natal will be more advanced by then (opinion) and subsequently i'll be excited.

    I hope that helps :)

  • dingo75 #36 3 years ago

    Motion-control in the office haha :)

    -> Show the middle finger -> Outlook Out of Office activates / Windows shuts down.

    Comedy gold. :)

  • metallicorphan #37 3 years ago

    @Miniamin

    here is that TIME magazine cover with Bill gates and ..suspected RRoD 360(green and red),LOL

    http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,...


    and here's Bill on the front of a 1984 issue of TIME..Austin Powers...groovy baby,LOL

    http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,...
    Edited by metallicorphan at 16/07/09 @ 16:52

  • drewman5150 #38 3 years ago

    @Xerx3s what may not have been clear in my post is that I'm cautiously optimistic that Microsoft will deliver - I hope they do, but to say that my examples are from a decade or two ago is incorrect - WFS was one of the core three elements that Vista was supposed to elevate it to the next great OS, and it was removed - this was as recent as 2004, but like you say, that's for another "fanboy" thread I'm sure...

    I didn't claim that Microsoft had promised mountains and delivered nothing this generation - if I had it my way, I'd have a 360 in every room of the house (the wife, on the other hand, is not so keen) - so I'm stuck at two, and both get used for games and movies (streaming from Win7 is excellent) - the PS3 (bless) sits quietly at the other end of the room (much like Bagpuss), switched on occasionally to see whether there are any updates...and then back to sleep...

    Since I do "know how companies work", and I certainly do know about axing features (senior developer by trade), yes I agree these things do happen, but generally when you are touting a product you also manage expectation, and part of managing that expectation is ensuring that you've rustled up enough interest to separate you from the crowd, and also ensure that you can actually deliver something that lives up to it.

    Which you probably knew anyway, but it's nice to share with the group.

    I tried not to mention Sony by name, mainly because this being a 360 thread (with the added twist of Bill Gates) and the kids are home from school by now, but I totally agree with your points about them, and that Nintendo lot too.

  • FogHeart #39 3 years ago

    I can't see business using Natal much from an ergonomic point of view. A lot of the time at work you need to use the keyboard, something Natal can't replace. Lifting hands from keyboard to the area in front of the screen to perform other actions will quickly grate. I understand there's voice recognition but in an office environment everyone dictating to their computers will be disruptive.

    Moving hand from keyboard to mouse or touchpad is the most ergonomic. The pointing device is separate, on the same level and not far away.

    However I still welcome Natal for PC because my pc is hooked up to my TV, where Natal makes more sense. I'd be able to operate Media Centre or Player with gestures, browse folders and play games (which is why I don't have a 360 - the PC does it all for me!) Just don't make the gesture for shutdown too easy to do by accident, OK?

  • MeBrains #40 3 years ago

    donnie: i am not saying Bill Gates is not a morally good person with the following, because he is. I do want to say that his initial Microsoft did NOT have all that much vision, but honed feeling for competing with concurrents. Bill Gates may have been quite a good programmer, but not the best. He might have been good at interface design, but not the best. What Bill did well was combine his collection of averages in a formidable corporate force, but I would not call that visionary.

    Xerxes: Sony king in underdelivering? Sounds strange to me. They delivered a whole lot. I'd say MS underdelivered. They promised us a new console and all we got was a brick, no?!

    anyhows, what amazes me most reading through the comments is that nobody up to now has mentioned that this MS exec is full of crap. Nobody said: just dissappear, you propaganda spewing piece of sh*t?! (that's what usually happens when any which Sony exec speaks to the press) - "And I think there's incredible value as we use"-crap... :D

  • WinterSnowblind #41 3 years ago

    @metallicorphan
    What you seem to be failing to realise (other than that image being an obvious photoshop) is that the Red Rings are a warning system, they DON'T mean the system is dead, just that there's a malufunction, which is often as simple as the power cable being loose, or the HDD not connected correctly. They don't mean the system is dead, it's just a warning that there's an error, exactly like the blue screen of death on Windows.

    Green AND red lights don't happen.

  • BritishBlue1 #42 3 years ago

    A little over a year away till the resident kiddie fiddlers can get to grips with Milo. I bet they can't wait...

  • drewman5150 #43 3 years ago

    @donnie080208 no disrespect, but to call Bill Gates a visionary and to say that the 360 is the greatest console ever made (so far, or just ever?) is misguided at best, and deluded at worst.
    To save me typing reams, wiki "Bill Gates" or google "history of Microsoft" and it's more a case of lucky breaks and "if you can't beat 'em, buy 'em" that has built the company up over the years, but here's a few snippets...
    NT4 - a fantastic OS was built out of the foundations they created with IBM with OS/2.
    Windows was a product built because of the competition that the, then new, Mac was delivering in earnest.
    It was Bill himself who said that 640k is all anybody would need.
    SQL Server has it's origins in Sybase.

    History, unlike speculation, is proven
    Edited by drewman5150 at 16/07/09 @ 21:56

  • smelly #44 3 years ago

    My most major concern about natal is that all the videos i've seen - there's at LEAST half a second lag between you doing something and it appearing on the screen. Look at the blockbreaker demo, its always shown with someone leaping about really quickly to disguise it. But if you watch it in slowmo, the action on screen is always well behind what the person demo-ing it is doing.

    I also have concerns about accuracy. The "painting" demo shown at E3 seemed to be even less accurate than an eyetoy, recognising only big sweeping motions. And unable to do the "fine detail" stuff the ps3 demo could (writing his name for example).

    Not being down on microsoft here.. just being cynical - i'll believe it when i see it. I remember when a lot of the things touted for natal were touted for eyetoy.. and look how popular that ended up not being.

  • smelly #45 3 years ago

    >MS have given us the best console ever made

    must .. resist.. urge.. to.. say.. about.. my.. 9 .. replace..ments..

  • MiniAmin #46 3 years ago

    @metallicorphan. lol thanks for sending that link. It's funny because I had subscribed to Time magazine about a month before that cover. I read that article about 50 times as I was so excited about Xbox 360.

  • EmiliasHorse #47 3 years ago

    Do not hold back Smelly, let it all out.

    I am one of the people who sees Natal as something exciting and new, I watched in awe at Milo & Kate. I want it to be awesome and fingers crossed it will be. I very rarely get excited about a game or product these days....I am making an exception for Natal.

  • MeBrains #48 3 years ago

    drewman: and you forget to mention - which is more on topic for this site - that 360's CPU has been largely engineered with the knowledge STI already had invested in CELL! *aheum* the bastards...

    I could go on about a few more applications which MS blatantly copied from competitors. IE for one? Moviemaker another etc... MS innovating? yes, but do not push that idea.

  • metallicorphan #49 3 years ago

    @wintersnowblind

    i know it was photoshopped(or something similar) i was replying to MiniAmin when he was thinking back about the RRoD lookalike Times mag cover ..and i know about the warning,many a time i have shat myself only see that its all 4 that are red,which meant the AV cable wasn't in properly

    my phrase of 'suspected' RROD was prolly the wrong one to use..i shoulda just said the same thing as MiniAmin..but i was LOL'ing at the fact that it was Green and Red

  • smelly #50 3 years ago

    >Do not hold back Smelly, let it all out.

    I have done in other threads - i dont see how it applies to this discussion, so no point taking it off topic.

    >I watched in awe at Milo & Kate.

    I didnt so much. Apart from the voice recognition, there wasnt much going on which the eyetoy couldnt have done (albeit with more powerful cpu to run the software).

    Plus this is molyneux we're talking about - so i took that entire presentation with a large pinch of salt.

    But also, i could kinda understand if milo was there everytime you turned on your 360. But if you need a game disc, and you have to physically boot it up each time to talk to him - why would anyone realistically bother? If you get me?

    Now i'm going to be careful how i say this - please bear in mind that the ps3 is the ONLY system i DONT own. But I was more impressed by their motion system than either natal or the wiimote. And could see a LOT more gaming opportunities.

  • SeesThroughAll #51 3 years ago

    @kule:
    Actually I think PC is where this tech will come to life - especially if they can get it added to laptops as standard. Hand gestures for maximising, minimising and moving windows, possibility of automatically fast user switching based on whos sitting at the computer.

    The mouse will probably still be the weapon of choice for first person shooters but for basic desktop interactions this could be fantastic...

    And all this could already be done on laptops, through webcams. Many, in fact, even have the webcam embedded. The software should have been done already.

  • busboy33 #52 3 years ago

    @All the "why not just use a webcam" posters:

    The thing that makes new hardware necessary is the camera. Web cams are simple cameras. Natal is using two IR cameras in concert.
    So what? First, the IR means that lighting is irrevelant. Bright room, dark room . . . theoretically, it should work in pitch darkness since it uses its own invisible lightsource. That makes getting it to work far easier than software that can mimic the same effect with a regular camera.
    Second, the stereo aspect means that the device (again, theoretically) has depth perception. A web camera can't detect depth because the image os a flat image. Natal is designed to scan in 3D, so it should be far, far more capable of detecting motions (like reaching forward, or making a fist with your hand in front of your chest) than a webcam could be.
    Certainly there are issues to work out (I agree there currently seems to be a bit of a lag still), but the underlying technology is certainly more than a webcam and some software.

    Personally, I think the push of the tech into PCs changes Natal from a "Gamble" to a "solid investment". A perihiperal that may or not play some games that may or not suck? Might not be worth the cash. A device that works with my 360 and I can use it with my PC? I'm far more likely to buy it (I do alot of PowerPoint slides, and being able to move assets around on the slide with my hands seems pretty great). If I'm far more likely to buy it, then I'm far more likely to use it with my 360 too. More people buy it, more developers are more likely to make software that utilizes it.
    Attaching it to PCs gets them into homes, and that's the critical issue for getting good games based on it.