A performer at the X-Box Project Natal Experience

When I arrived at the launch for the new X-Box Natal reveal last night, I was handed a white satin poncho with large shoulder pads and told to put it on, as was everyone else. In the auditorium where we congregated, it looked like some sort of cult gathering with Cirque de Soleil cavemen performing. (We made half-serious jokes about being gathered in and slaughtered…) And then the over-the-top, very elaborate show began. A baby-size elephant (fake, but large nonetheless), dramatic dancing, and a symbolic escalation to the new X-Box kicked things off. Then a family played with the new machine, which is called Kinect, to demonstrate some of the games. The coolest part of the technology of this game machine is that you are the “player” on the screen—a camera senses your motions and translates them on-screen, so if you’re playing a track and field game, you actually run in place and leap over hurdles for your character. Or there’s a dance contest, a rafting adventure, Star Wars (and you play a Luke character with light saber in tow) and a driving game. Or you can do yoga with an instructor and the machine senses and modifies your form if need be. So basically the technology is new and very cool and the games are meant to be very interactive. While they showed a family playing, I can definitely see 20 and 30-somethings having friends over for drinks and Kinect.

Celebrities came out in force to see the display: Billy Crystal, Mad Men’s Christina Hendricks, Rosario Dawson, Ryan Phillipe, Michael Cera and Jack Osbourne were a few faces in the crowd. Oh and the purpose of the poncho? The shoulders glowed under a blue-light so that we were all immersed as an element in the performance—we were all Kinected.

Tags: Celebrity

This entry was posted on Monday, June 14th, 2010 at 2:28 pm and is filed under celebrity&lifestyle. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.