Time Magazine recently released its list of this year’s top inventions. Among them is a device that we feel has significant promise – Microsoft’s Project Natal. According to Time,
This year Microsoft demonstrated a technology, code-named Project Natal, that enables players to control games using only body movements and voice commands, no controller required — the gamer’s body becomes the controller. Project Natal uses several cameras, plus a highly specialized microphone and a lot of fancy software, to track the gamer’s body and interpret his or her voice. You move your hand, and the Master Chief (or whoever) moves his hand. It’s that simple. And that cool.
Of course, being selected by Time Magazine does not guarantee success. For example, Time declared the 3DO Multiplayer “Best Product of 1993.”
If you think you’ve seen graphics, wait till you check out the jaw-dropping visuals offered by this interactive system. With its CD-quality sound and 32-bit processor, the Multiplayer is the most powerful video-game system yet. Designed by Silicon Valley start-up 3DO and made by Panasonic, the $700 device is being backed by AT&T, Time Warner and MCA.
It was also one of the first consoles to offer online connectivity.
Unfortunately for 3DO, the Multiplayer was ahead of its time. In 1993, the Internet was still in its infancy and the console’s $700 price tag made it prohibitively expensive compared to other gaming consoles.Within a couple of years, 3DO abandoned its Multiplayer amid mounting losses.
The 3DO Multiplayer offered features that have
become standard in all modern consoles
Yet, Microsoft can take heart that one of the other top products of 1993 was the IBM PowerPC processor, an invention that not only went on to power Apple computers and Nintendo game consoles (including the Wii), but also became the inspiration for processors found in the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
“Intel rolled out its new Pentium chip, but Motorola stole the spotlight with its PowerPC microprocessor,” observed the editors of Time. “Produced in partnership with IBM and Apple, the PowerPC could pose the first serious challenge to Intel’s dominance of the $67.7 billion desktop market.” Although Intel still dominates the PC market, IBM and its partners enjoy a near monopoly in home console market, a market that is vastly larger and more important than it was in 1993.
For consumers it doesn’t matter if Natal becomes another 3DO or PowerPC. Its features will one day be standard fare, not only for game consoles, but for personal computers, automobiles, and many other devices, just as the features that set the 3DO Multiplayer apart from other consoles in 1993 are standard in today’s gaming consoles, DVRs, and Smartphones.
Innovation and Marketing in the Video Game Industry: Avoiding the Performance Trap examines the reasons why many good ideas fail to achieve widespread market acceptance.
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