Rumours that Halo: Reach might be Natal-enabled were close to flatlining of late, but the subject never got a flat-out “no.” Well, now it has. The studio says emphatically that it is not a Natal title.
That’s the newsy news out of a fun-filled “mythbusters” post Bungie put up about Halo: Reach’s development. Natal rumours had been fuelled by two things. One, studio head Harold Ryan’s comments over the summer that he “absolutely” thought Reach could be Natal-enabled. Two, a screenshot showing an off-centre crosshair (above, annotation by Bungie), which some took to mean as evidence of motion-controlled shooting.
Well, Bungie says the screen shot was a mistake and even provides the bug report to go along with it. (“Impact: This makes the Internet freak out.”) And then the studio says: “Halo: Reach is NOT a Natal title and is being developed expressly with the traditional Xbox 360 controller in mind.” So there.
They also clear up issues regarding the HUD colour (and HUD colour customisation) and other topics, so check it out at the link.
Bungie Weekly Update 01.29.10 [Bungie]
GaaaaaH
January 31, 2010 at 2:27 PM
How could an off center crosshair mean motion control?
Report PermalinkDavid Wildgoose
January 31, 2010 at 2:42 PM
It’s the internet! It could mean anything.
Report PermalinkStephen Whatman
January 31, 2010 at 4:48 PM
Because the crosshair is placed where you point?
Almost all the Wii FPSs have this feature.
Report Permalinkaltodarknight
January 31, 2010 at 5:15 PM
The idea being that the cross-hair is independent to the camera (or semi-independent in the case of the Wii) is what fuels this. Check out some vids of Wii FPSs if you don’t get what I mean.
Report PermalinkShane
January 31, 2010 at 4:16 PM
“Impact: This makes the Internet freak out.”
Love it. :)
Report PermalinkJustin Robson
January 31, 2010 at 8:04 PM
Eh, I didn’t think anything of it… I know Bungie would never mess with the Halo formula. However I was one of those people who flipped out when Halo 2 came out, and it had the crosshair lower than the center of the screen. I thought there was something wrong with my TV…
Report PermalinkJay
January 31, 2010 at 11:53 PM
Good to know that its not a PRIMARY Natal game.
Doesn’t mean it won’t have Natal features or COULD be “compatible”.
“…in mind” doesn’t mean a 101% no to Natal. I don’t care if it don’t have it. But MS really want Natal to be successful right? They don’t want it to sell reallllllly bad, right?! Halo is MS/Xbox’s biggest franchise right? So its somewhat logical to promote Halo and Natal – whether it be a full Natal game or Natal features.
Heck, MS will probably state it has Natal features but all it will really do is scan your face and physique so you can become a Spartan.
As for the screenshot being a mistake. Thats a pretty big and embarrassing mistake for someone, especially Bungie to make. They would have seen the screenshots before uploading them – so it has to be part of the game somehow. It’s the first thing i noticed – and Natal only popped into my mind about the screenshot until i read this article.
Report Permalinkmatt
February 1, 2010 at 2:01 PM
it’s not really a “big and embarrassing mistake”, they saw it when they took the screenshot, but they needed a first person screenshot and this was the one was the least bugs visible.
Report Permalinkread their article.