Project Natal doesn’t thrill me

I’ve been reading all these articles about Project Natal, now Kinect, and while I think the technology is pretty cool, I really don’t see this as a big deal for games. The demo Microsoft has of a girl playing with a tiger and getting it to emulate her moves is pretty neat to watch, but it occurs to me that that sort of play would be fun for about 15 minutes and then there’s no point in doing it again. Further, while the response to the actions are cool to see work, I hardly see someone actually sitting there for more than a few minutes pretending they have a steering wheel and pedals in their hands. The fatigue has to be excruciating.

I guess this gets Microsoft into the market to snag a few gamers who don’t want to spend the money to buy a separate console and buy a Wii. The market seems really limited for this and while it looks visually exciting, the practicality of it makes me wonder. The Xbox is known for it’s more hardcore gamers so clearly they have no need for this; really you think you’re going to spend hours wandering around your living room pretending you have a sniper rifle in your hands? That won’t get tiring or look stupid at all. Maybe some of those gamers might buy it for their kids, but there better a lot more entertainment coming than just a couple of mimic style games. While Microsoft may see this as an immersive experience, I’m kind of wondering what the point is. I don’t see Kinect lasting more than a year.