Natal patches for old games unlikely

By Tom Bramwell Published 28 September, 2009

Takes too much work, apparently.

Microsoft's Kudo Tsunoda has said that we're unlikely to see existing games patched to work with Project Natal.

The motion control system's energetic front-man told Destructoid that it involved significant alterations that would likely involve a complete re-release for any game that attempted it.

As at previous conventions, Microsoft showed Project Natal during the Tokyo Game Show using real games as well as technical demos, and in this case had mapped controller-free controls to Space Invaders Extreme and Beautiful Katamari.

Eurogamer's Ellie Gibson and Friend-of-Eurogamer Keza MacDonald were on hand to try this and said the Katamari controls were actually really good, although they did tell us this over Skype while dressed as a cucumber and a seashell.

The fact that old games won't work with Natal isn't the worst news in the world - of the demos we sampled and videoed at E3 and gamescom, for example, Burnout Paradise was weaker than the Natal-specific experiments and tools.

However, it does come on the back of Sony announcing a number of reworked games for its PS3 motion controller. Although Resident Evil 5: Director's Cut will be a new release, patches are expected for the likes of LittleBigPlanet, PAIN and Flower.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (14) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • JohnnyWashnGo #1 2 years ago

    Sounds obvious enough to not need stating to be honest, but its nice to know ;)

  • Eraysor #2 2 years ago

    I don't think anyone would have expected old games to work with it anyway.

  • Cpt_McOneball #3 2 years ago

    Old games that were designed to be used with a controller were never going to work with without one.

  • SwedBear #4 2 years ago

    I rather have new games where they have thought through how to use the Natal instead of having it tacked onto old games afterwards. Although it did sound interesting aobut Katamari. I guess we might see "Special editions" of some old games instead :).

  • the_dudefather #5 2 years ago

    I wouldn't have imagine it to be that good for most games, but I was expecting something like this to be added to a few (burnout paradise for instance), it's something that's happening for sony's thing I guess which as I said before might not be that good for the games anyway

    Stomping around like a giant toddler could have made gears of war 2 split screen co-op more interesting :)
    Edited by 1 at 28/09/09 @ 08:42

  • drumbaby #6 2 years ago

    Sounds like the Sony solution is far more organic, and natural. Why else would it work with any game, rather than just motion specific games designed to show off a mere gimmick, Natal/ Wii stylee?

  • jonsaan #7 2 years ago

    'Old games that were designed to be used with a controller were never going to work with without one.'

    The Wii says hello. Oh hang on you're right!!

    /awaits massive negative feedback.
    Edited by 1 at 28/09/09 @ 11:09

  • woodnotes #8 2 years ago

    @ designerheadache:

    and yet all the demos we have seen so far (aside from Milo, but thats a whole different thing) have been with existing games.

    Can we see some demos of new games, or even concept stuff like sony were doing with the wand thingy majig. So we can get some idea of how it actually plays.

    Concept stuff here:
    http://www .youtube.com/watch?v=p2qlHoxPioM
    Edited by 1 at 28/09/09 @ 12:20

  • LOLLERS #9 2 years ago

    If the 360 interface were to use Natal, I wonder how it knows when you're interacting with it? For example, imagine you've just been playing a game and return to the dashboard, you might sit there and look at some achievements or your friends list. You might then have a drink, stand up, tidy up your living room a bit etc, is the dashboard going to completely spaz out and launch all manner of downloads and videos or will it know you're just doing stuff in the real world and not interacting with it any more?

  • kestral #10 2 years ago

    I think you should see it more like that you can move your head left to right in a race game to loo kbeside you? Other than that i think you all developers will probably be under NDA

  • rprince #11 2 years ago

    "Eurogamer's Ellie Gibson and Friend-of-Eurogamer Keza MacDonald were [...] dressed as a cucumber and a seashell."

    Pictures or it didn't happen... ;-)

  • Shikasama #12 2 years ago

    Comparing Natal to the PS3 wand is like comparing Manchester United to Accrington Stanley

    ...and 'drag and drop inventory management' is a gameplay enhancement is it? You'd be quite happy to pay 40 quid for the same game but with drag and drop?

    Like I said, comparing Natal to a motion controller is ridiculous. Natal is a revolution is consumer hard/software. The wand is something that was quite new when the Wii launched.
    Edited by 1 at 28/09/09 @ 14:45

  • NorfolkNClue #13 2 years ago

    I've never understood one aspect of that demo... If the kid has his own skateboard, why is he playing on the xbox, and not outside on it?

  • Keza #14 2 years ago

    I wasn't a seashell, I was a crab.