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Microsoft Confirms Project Natal Launch for Holiday 2010

Posted January 6, 2010 by James Brightman

Following the slightly early leak on the Xbox Live Game Room news, Microsoft officially confirmed during CES that it will launch its much talked about hands-free camera control system, Project Natal, during holiday 2010. No additional details such as pricing or bundles were provided, but Microsoft reiterated that the motion-sensing camera will work with every Xbox 360 already in people's homes.

Microsoft also outlined some 2009 stats for Xbox. The company sold a total of 10 million Xbox 360s last year, bringing the grand total to 39 million worldwide now. Xbox Live also continues to grow, and Microsoft said that the online service (which has 20 million members) "enjoyed its biggest week ever at Christmas time, with a new member joining every second." In fact, during this period Xbox Live saw a record peak of more than 2.2 million people using the service at the same time, which represents a 47% jump in usage compared to the same period a year earlier. We have a feeling that Modern Warfare 2 had something to do with it.

Microsoft noted that the recently introduced social features like Facebook, Twitter, Last.fm and 1080p instant on movies have also proven popular, as nearly 10 million members have accessed this entertainment content on Xbox Live, and over 1 million new friend connections have been made since the launch of Facebook on Xbox Live. As for Last.fm, members created more than 1.6 million new accounts and streamed almost 500 million minutes of music. 

Finally, looking ahead to the full calendar 2010, Microsoft boasted that it will be the "biggest ever in Xbox history," with exclusives like Splinter Cell Conviction, Crackdown 2, Mass Effect 2, and Alan Wake in the first half and a holiday line-up of games including Fable 3, followed by Halo Reach. 

James Brightman has been covering the games industry since 2003 and has been an avid gamer ever since the days of Atari and Intellivision. He was previously the EIC of GameDaily Biz.

1 Comments

elizadavid
February 18, 2010

I don't mind mini games. I love games that are quick and easy to play. Not all of us has 20+ hours to dedicate to a game.

I have purchased Street Fighter 2 for pretty much every console I have owned from the Genesis to the Gameboy advanced, PS1 & XBLA. I love Street Fighter because I can pick it up and put it down without a second thought.

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