EA Considered its Own Natal

EA was looking at introducing a motion controller of its own – and was assessing the same technology that powers Microsoft's Project Natal.

"We almost invested to create a platform extension like that for some of the games we're working on," EA's John Riccitiello told Kotaku, "We're very pleased, frankly, that it showed up at Microsoft, because I'd rather them pay for that. They can leverage it better, and we can build software. But I felt the market wanted that technology and I'm glad it's coming."

EA has been one of the biggest champions of motion control and is the earliest adopter of the Wii's Motion Plus peripheral with Grand Slam Tennis, while EA Sports Active also introduced its own accessories that complemented the Wii's existing configurations.

Its own solution for the Xbox 360 would have followed similar lines as the approach unveiled by Microsoft at last week's E3. 'We were looking at a camera system' said Riccitiello, 'In fact we were looking at the camera system they ended up going with. That technology's pretty compelling.'

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