Back during E3 when Microsoft introduced Project Natal, one of their tech demos was a version ofBurnout Paradisefit to work with the motion detecting hardware. For Tokyo Game Show, Microsoft brought along two other demos for the Japanese market — theXbox LIVEArcade titleSpace Invaders Extremeand Namco Bandai’sBeautiful Katamari.
When I asked Microsoft Games’ Kudo Tsunoda if it would be possible to “patch” existing games to work with Natal, his answer was clear — it’s not likely. While Microsoft was able engineer other publisher’s titles to work with the hardware, a significant amount of code had to be altered. With that in mind, a simple update wouldn’t be enough — a publisher would likely have to re-release the game in its entirety.
Disappointing news, considering how much easier than using a controller it was to playBeautiful Katamari. We’ll have video of that in action, along with more Project Natal impressions and thoughts soon.
