Leaked Microsoft CES Interview Reveals Xbox Game Room and 2010 Project Natal Launch
Microsoft’s Channel 9 community site has accidentally posted a video interview with Robbie Bach, President of the Entertainment & Devices Division, before Microsoft’s annual CES press conference set for 6:30pm PST tonight.
According to Joystiq, the pulled video (which can be found here) confirms a 2010 Project Natal launch, which shouldn’t be that much of a surprise, and also discusses the “Xbox Game Room”.
Here’s what the Joystiq source had to say:
“Go to the 11:53 mark in the video to hear them start discussing Game Room. They aren’t totally concrete on the details, but they talk about how this is supposed to bring back that retro fun to gaming. In the video they confirm Natal is on for this year.”
And here’s what was said about the game room, according to the video and transcription from Joystiq:
Well, Game Room in some ways is sort of a retro approach. And it’s interesting, there’s a generation of people — sort of my advanced, mature age [laughs] — who grew up with a set of games like Centipede. They look almost like casual, fun games today — at the time they were high-end, edgy games — and so Game Room is the idea of bringing that back to the market. And bringing that to a very broad audience. And I think what we’re gonna find is that when people can get 30 or more of these games, they’re gonna love it for the experience. And it’s not just you and I who are gonna love it, even the people who would call themselves “hardcore gamers” are gonna say “Oh wow this is fun!” In a retro way. It’s sort of like my daughter going to watch Journey. I’m like, this is a band that was playing when I was growing up. And she thinks it’s a cool band and I like the music. And I think you’re gonna have the same phenomenon with Game Room. We’re gonna enjoy the games and they’re gonna think it’s cool. I think that’s very powerful.
While all of this is speculation for now, it’s bound to be confirmed once Microsoft’s press conference at CES in Las Vegas is underway. I’m hoping the “Xbox Game Room” is legit because that would just be dope, in a retro way of course.
