BootStrap

Final name for Xbox 360 motion-sensing system revealed at Cirque du Soleil event; Aaron Greenberg promises further details Monday.

LOS ANGELES -Just over one year after it unveiled Project Natal to the public at last year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo, Microsoft has given it a name. Tonight at a star-studded “world premiere” event featuring the French-Canadian circus troupe Cirque du Soleil, the software giant re-christened its camera-based motion-control Kinect.

Microsoft hopes gamers will get a kick out of the Kinect name.

The name seems to be a tie-in of sorts to the Microsoft Kin, a family of smartphones the company launched in April. Any details on connectivity were absent, however. Aaron Greenberg, director of product management for Xbox 360 and Xbox Live, said that “Sunday is about entertainment, Monday is about information.”

Greenberg’s reference is to Microsoft’s press conference on Monday morning, where harder information on Kinect is anticipated. Already confirmed for an October release by a loose-lipped Saudi Microsoft executive, the system’s price remains unclear. Also unconfirmed are rumors that the add-on will be bundled with a new slimline model of the Xbox 360.

Sunday’s event was all about shock and awe–if one considers Quebecois circus acrobats in skin-tight outfits shocking and awesome. Some 80 performers and 200 support personnel were on-hand, with a stage show that took 25 truckloads of props and equipment to put on.

Though he generally avoiding divulging hard facts, Greenberg promised Kinect will still “see you, hear you, and recognize you,” implying that the facial and voice recognition functionality of the device remains intact.

Greenberg promised that Microsoft’s briefing on Monday morning would have a large emphasis on “core games.” He called out Halo: Reach, Gears of War 3, and Fable III by name, and said all three will be on the show floor at Microsoft’s booth at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Crackdown 2 will also be playable on the show floor.

Also at the Kinect naming event, Microsoft also announced that Disney would be an official partner on the project. It also showed a brief snippet of a Star Wars game that will use the motion-sensing system, but did not offer any concrete details about the project.

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 13th, 2010 at 10:43 pm

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