Project Natal Officially Renamed "Kinect", More Games Revealed

There’s no need for conjecture; Microsoft’s upcoming motion control peripheral, once known as Project Natal, is now to be officially known as “Kinect”.

“For lots of people, that controller is a barrier,” Microsoft creative director Kudo Tsunoda told USA Today. “We set out to make a new control paradigm where anybody can get in and play, without having to read the instructions or learn a complicated set of controls.”

In addition to the rebranding, a number of Kinect titles were also revealed in the USA Today report, including a Star Wars game from Lucasarts, a Disney game, a dance title from MTV (interesting), a pet-training title, a Wii Sports clone called “Kinect Sports” (which we believe Rare is developing), an adventure sports game, and as expected, the return of Joyride as a motion-controlled game.

So goodbye, Project Natal. You were a strange name, but we grew to love you in a way we can’t see ourselves copying with something as stupid as “Kinect”.

UPDATE – Here’s a shot from the floor of the Kinect-focused performance by Cirque du Soleil.

Microsoft Kinect gets into motion [USA Today]