EA to support Natal/PS3 wand next year

By Robert Purchese Published 5 August, 2009

Riccitiello "really positive on both".

EA boss John Riccitiello plans to support both Microsoft's Natal and Sony's PS3 wand, and will reveal exactly how "early-to-mid-2010".

"We're really positive on both," the silver-haired fox told money men during a Q1 financial call. "Our view is that motion-based gaming is something that is both going to drive install base, drive interest and drive growth.

"We're planning to support both," he added. "We haven't yet announced our plans to do so, but we shall do so in the right time-frame for that, which is likely to be early-to-mid-2010."

Riccitiello's comments fall inline with suggestions that Microsoft will launch Natal towards the end of 2010, although no date has yet been announced. Sony, on the other hand, plans to launch the PS3 wand next spring.

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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 (25) Latest comment 3 years ago

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

  • JahB #1 3 years ago

    nice. looking forward to Tiger Woods 11 on PS3, should be great if it's like the current wii version in HD

  • lcmnick #2 3 years ago

    Sony really need to hurrry up and come up with a name oth than Wand ASAP.

  • kestral #3 3 years ago

    news = no news

  • neilka #4 3 years ago

    Natal doesn't work for John Riccitiello due to the constant beautiful shimmering appearance of his hair.
    Edited by 1 at 05/08/09 @ 16:42

  • TopKatt #5 3 years ago

    @Icmnick

    How about "Project Pointatron?"

  • schnide #6 3 years ago

    "We're really positive on both," said Riccitiello. "Our view is that motion-based gaming is something that is going to drive CASHFLOW CASHFLOW CASHFLOW!"

    Edited by 1 at 05/08/09 @ 14:46

  • MORZTAN #7 3 years ago

    The Natal name is equally shit, and will scare mr. and mrs. Casual from ever buying it.

  • ademkermad #8 3 years ago

    When are they going to give Natal a proper name? It's still Project Natal as a code name... Xbox Fluid was rumoured at one stage.
    Edited by 1 at 05/08/09 @ 14:54

  • greekgoddj #9 3 years ago

    At the bottom of the article: "Are you excited about Project Natal on Xbox 360?"

    Where is the PS3 choice? Even more cause it will be out sooner...

  • NotSoSlim #10 3 years ago

    Wii version of Pro Evo (ps3) but in HD :)

  • Skooch #11 3 years ago

    "Natal" is the Project name, not the name of the product. It will be interesting to see what marketing come up with and how cheesy it will be advertised...some of the lines coming out of E3 were cringe worthy; "The only experience you need is life experience" and "we use the best controller ever invented, the human body" - I really hope they come up with something better than that.

  • StooMonster #12 3 years ago

    I overheard some pikey and chavs in my local High Street discussing 'Natal' on 360, so I wouldn't say Mr & Mrs Casual haven't heard of it.

  • LazyDan #13 3 years ago

    I reckon Natal's official name will also rip off Nintendo's philosophy behind them naming their console 'Wii'. What with Microsoft all of a sudden doing a 360 (Hah!) ...and then a further 180 on their stance towards hardcore and casual games now that the Wii's proven so successful. And what Microsoft do best is badly rip off other successful ideas (Microsoft wide that is, not just limited to their games stuff.) So it'll be really short yet vowel heavy and have some kind of tenuous link to full body motion control (just like 'Wii' was meant to represent lots of people playing together.) It'll also initially look ridiculous most likely.

    Let's synergize a group mindshare with some real blue sky thinking as to what those could be. (See? We can be unimaginative marketing wankers too!)

    For Natal, my current best guess would be: 'Muuv'

    As annoying as this is, it'll work. Sony will buck this idea though, because they like doing success the hard way (read: unsuccessful way.) The wand will probably stay named as it is, or be shoehorned into the 'EyeToy' brand somehow. HandToy? Ooerr missus.. Or EyeToy: Wand.
    Edited by 1 at 05/08/09 @ 16:58

  • Alterego-X #14 3 years ago

    I'm 97% positive that both motion controllers will get delayed to the next generation.

  • makeamazing #15 3 years ago

    reckon Natal's official name will also rip off Nintendo's philosophy behind them naming their console 'Wii'.

    Are you suggesting they will call Natal - MS Poo?

  • davisorle #16 3 years ago

    @LazyDan

    Wtf are yo even talking about, do you have any idea? MS ripping off the Wii and Nintendo with the Project Natal? So the Wand isn't the one that's a full Wiimote immitation? lol you are dumb hardcore. Not that i give a f**k to deffend MS but YOU are a big time idiot :) Try to get to the subject of the article next time, instead of making a fool of yourself. And don't tell us you dont love your PS3 too much cause it's writen all over your post dumbass.

  • smelly #17 3 years ago

    Personally I *really* cant see how natal will work properly for anything other than minigames. But I'd love to be proved wrong.

    The sony thing looks ace imho though... if properly adopted, it might make me buy a ps3!

  • Zomoniac #18 3 years ago

    And what Microsoft do best is badly rip off other successful ideas

    Care to elaborate? They did a motion controller a long time before Nintendo did, and that's the Wii's only selling point, and Sony have duplicated their online system to the letter. As it currently stands, MS have innovated FAR more in this generation than anyone else. Sure, the avatars are a completely shameless Wii rip-off, but that's about it as far as I can see.

  • Canyarion #19 3 years ago

    Hm I just realized something... Wand and Natal don't have pointer technology, do they? I guess they could create a similar experience by moving your hands/wand around to point at stuff, but I don't think it's as comfortable as a real pointer. You can use the Wii pointer while holding your hand still (lying on your lap for example). Don't think that works for PS3/360.

  • 3william56 #20 3 years ago

    Xbox Fluid sounds like something upleasant that leaks out of a faulty 360 and makes a right mess of the carpet.

    How about MS Meatbag Targeting Device for the Robot Apocalypse? Or Xbox Paedotron?



  • Zomoniac #21 3 years ago

    Wand doesn't have a pointer in the strictest sense, but surely the FPS/RTS/name-writing demonstrations show that it's still an exceptionally accurate pointer.

  • EvilBob_leeds #22 3 years ago

    @Zominiac

    "They did a motion controller a long time before Nintendo did"

    Did they? What was that then?

    And off the top of my head, aside from the shameless Avatar rip off, MS also ripped off Lips and Singstar. Badly.

    @trebell

    Well put together some of MSs tools may be but there's barely a useful brand new idea between them. And in the case of IIS, the totally bollocks sack of shite which is Vista, Internet explorer, and anything to do with Visual Basic or VB Scripting, they most certainly are not anything approaching well put together.

  • Zomoniac #23 3 years ago

    EvilBob

    The Sidewinder Freestyle Pro, an MS motion controller for PC back in 1998. It was shit, the tech at the time wasn't reliable enough, and nobody bought one, but it still predates Nintendo doing motion controls by 8 years.

    And yes, I'll give you that Lips and Scene It! owe more than a little bit to Singstar and Buzz, and that their camera with In The Movies and Totemball is a shameless rip-off of EyeToy. But the stuff they've done with their UI and Live systems and complete dashboard integration into all games is nothing short of incredible. Sony have been trying to copy it for 3 years and still haven't come close.

  • EvilBob_leeds #24 3 years ago

    Ah... Ninty apparently had something that predated that by some way; although, as with the Sidewinder it was chronically under supported and a bit shit.

    And while MS has clearly led the way with online Multiplayer, I would say that the XMB intergration on the PS3 is definately in the same league (although does suffer from slowdown in some games), and that the dashboard vs XMB asthetics are a matter of taste - personally (and this is just my opinion) I think the dashboard is clunky and kind of fugly.
    Edited by 1 at 06/08/09 @ 14:14

  • triple_a #25 3 years ago

    About pointers: The PS3 Wand thingy is kinda like a reverse Wiimote. With the Wiimote you are holding a camera and the sensor bas is emitting infrared light. The PS3 wand has you holding the emitting part and the camera will pick that up. This is my guess at least. Don't see any reason why you couldn't have just as good a pointer system as the Wii has. I even see a benefit: if the camera lens will be wide enough, you should have more "area" to point the wand. With the Wiimote you can run into an annoying situation where the camera loses sight of the sensor bar's IR lights and you lose control of the pointer.

    With Natal I think it is doable as well. They could package a plastic wand or something which has a colored tip with the camera. The Natal camera would pick this up and it would be your pointer. I'm just guessing though, I do not know for sure if this will be possible or if they plan to implement it.
    Edited by 4 at 07/08/09 @ 17:52