Halo: Reach Forum
This topic has moved here: Subject: Seattle Times Interview with Bungie President Harold Ryan 06/29/09
  • Subject: Seattle Times Interview with Bungie President Harold Ryan 06/29/09
Subject: Seattle Times Interview with Bungie President Harold Ryan 06/29/09

Obviously not all of you people are fortunate enough to get the seattle times since you don't live near Bungie Land, so I thought I'd be kind and link you to an interview they just had with Harold Ryan.

I guess we (or maybe just me) were wrong about Natal, it could be implemented with Reach.

Q: I hear Bungie had an early look at Project Natal, the motion-sensing controller for the Xbox coming next year. Will we have to get up off the couch to play Halo one of these days?

A: I think the Natal stuff is awesome. I'll put one in my house just so when I walk in the living room it will sign me in. I might put one in the garage so I sign in and get my favorite music when I walk in the door. It's definitely cool. It's hard to imagine you're going to replicate pulling a trigger.

I could see my engineering team when I look at it and go 'this is (bleeping) awesome, we should navigate all the UI with it!' They're like, 'I don't even know how it works yet, stop adding it to my schedule.'

It remains to be seen what we can get done with it in the timeframe we have for the games under development. It is relatively new. As they said in the (E3) briefing, it's just now coming out, it's not coming to market yet. We don't know when it's going to be in the market yet. If it's not going to be in the market we probably won't spend a lot of time devving for it. If it looks like it's coming out, we'll definitely add support where it makes sense in the game. But I don't think it's going to be the primary gaming mode for a Halo game - because I think all of my developers and testers would drop dead from attempting to run, duck, crouch, circle strafe...

Q: If Natal came out at the same time as Halo Reach next fall, it could help make the new hardware platform, similar to the way Halo established the first Xbox.

A:: Absolutely.

Q: Could Halo Reach be Natal-enabled?

A: I absolutely think Reach could be enabled with it. Historically we've looked at lots of different control methods for the Halo games. Certainly other stuff from Microsoft - new controller layouts, we always work on them and everything else. One of the problems with the Halo games is we've got whatever it is, 8 or 10 million or 12 million people who have played and liked the game ... a lot of the ones who are playing it all the time are very attached to their control scheme and they're the most vocal group. We couldn't do anything that would hurt the state of what people love as we implement new controls.

Q: It seems to me you don't have to give up the controller with Natal - you could have precision with the controller and still have to jump over logs or whatever in the game.

A: Yep, and make a whole era of fit gamers, which I think would be great.

Theres more in the article, I'm still reading it.

  • 06.29.2009 7:37 PM PDT

Laggen' ain't easy

Sorry dude,, you were beat to this more than a couple of times.
It is a good find though.

I really hope Natal stays out of Reach personally.

  • 06.29.2009 7:51 PM PDT

NATAL will ruin Halo: Reach for me, and probably lots of others. If I have to jump IRL everytime I want to jump in Halo, I will be so tired by the end of two games, I won't want to play anymore. They should really think about it, especially since jumping is the best form of aerobic exercise in terms of it wears you out the fastest. I've never counted, but I probably jump atleast 100 times in a game of halo that lasts about 8 minutes. NATAL? No thanks

  • 06.29.2009 8:08 PM PDT

Golf Wang. Brony.

I have a few questions. Project Natal is something extra, right? Does it connect to your 360 or is it its own "console"?

Sorry, since my 360 broke I haven't followed up anything but Halo since E3.

  • 06.29.2009 8:12 PM PDT

Lol thats what Bungie is concerned about, they would probably get worn out themselves.
Posted by: Sexy_Penguin
NATAL will ruin Halo: Reach for me, and probably lots of others. If I have to jump IRL everytime I want to jump in Halo, I will be so tired by the end of two games, I won't want to play anymore. They should really think about it, especially since jumping is the best form of aerobic exercise in terms of it wears you out the fastest. I've never counted, but I probably jump atleast 100 times in a game of halo that lasts about 8 minutes. NATAL? No thanks


I didn't know the Times got an interview with Harold, I should really read the paper more.

Personaly I would love it, Halo as been with everything new, and Natal looked so cool to begin with, I think that Halo: Reach (if Natal enabled) would make Natal top more charts then predicted.

  • 06.29.2009 8:17 PM PDT