Natal launch to rival Xbox 360’s

Microsoft is promising the launch of Project Natal will be on a similar scale to that of the Xbox 360.

In an interview with Kotaku, the company’s head of long-term Xbox 360 strategy Shane Kim hinted that the debut of the motion-sensitive peripheral will be comparable to the launch of a new console.

Conceptually, the launch of Natal will be like the launch of Xbox 360,” he said. It’s going to be that big. We’re not just going to ship it when the hardware and software are ready.

We have to make sure that there are enough content experiences that are really good. That’s similar to how you would think of the launch of a new console. It’s got to have a great launch line-up. That’s the same thing here.”

Kim also reiterated who the target audience is for Natal, denying that the camera was aimed solely at casual gamers and PS2 owners who have yet to pick up a current generation console.

This is about the 60 per cent of households where a video game console doesn’t exist,” he said. The problem is that the controller is a barrier for some people and now with Project Natal we completely eliminate that.”