Natal Successor Already In The Works

Even though Project Natal is still 8 months away, Microsoft is already working on the next motion sensor. Research Asia department director Hsiao-Wuen Hon spoke to The Sydney Morning Herald (via Spong) that they are already thinking of a new version.
“When we invent something first like Natal, while we have a researcher working with the product group for the first version we already have a researcher thinking about the second version down the road,” said Hon. “We certainly hope we will continue to be holding that technology.”

Now don't get worried. This doesn't mean that Microsoft is planning to "annualized" releases of Project Natal, or that they think the first one sucks so they're making a new one. This is just big companies think way into the future in order to stay competitive with everyone else. Chances are that we might never see Natal 2.0 hit retail stores, although I find that to be pretty unlikely.

This sure does say something about people's belief in motion control however, many developers think that motion control is just some type of fad rolling through the games industry at the moment. When companies like Microsoft keep investing into newer/better motion control, it might be something that's here to stay, even though some don't want it.

 
I'll keep you guys posted on more Natal 2.0 info, but don't expect more anytime soon. We still have to go through Microsoft's Natal heavy E3 keynote, sometime between June 15-17.

More Project Natal Info Soon

Microsoft is planning to release more information about Project Natal, perhaps including its games and even a final name, at E3 this summer, director of product management for Xbox 360 and Xbox LIVE, Aaron Greenberg has confirmed.
“I would say to expect us to share news around E3 time,” he said when asked when the company might reveal the final name of the upcoming motion controller. “But right now, we’re obviously in a codename status.”
“We just unveiled this thing about seven months ago at E3, so it’s an entirely new category of games and entertainment. We are still in codename status, and we haven’t shown any of the actual games. There’s a lot more to share.”

I was getting pretty used to calling it Project Natal, so I'm very curious to see what they're actually going to name this thing. Maybe it will end up like MAG and just keep its codename...