No Natal for Halo Reach

Though upcoming triple-A titles such as Fable III have pledged their support for Microsoft’s motion camera Natal, Bungie has ruled out any possible support for the peripheral in its upcoming FPS Halo Reach.

Practically speaking, Natal didn’t exist until Reach was already two years into development,” Bungie’s community director Brian Jarrard told The Seattle Times.

That alone creates issues. Secondly, it’s not the type of control experience that we think lends itself to this type of game. We’re comfortable with it; Microsoft is, too.

Natal has unique experiences to offer that are different than what Reach has to offer. Reach is very much a core, twitch game that really does rely on something that millions of people have spent about ten years getting accustomed to, so we’re not looking to reinvent that right now.”

The studio hopes that the game, which is due to be released in Q4 this year, will better the market performance of the highly successful Halo.

It also hopes upwards of 3m people will sign up to the upcoming beta for the game, access to which was included in last year’s Halo ODST.