Microsoft hopes Natal, which was named one of Time Magazine’s 50 Best Innovations of 2009, breathes a second life into the Xbox 360, bringing in new types of players and extending the console’s life cycle by a few more years. While specific titles that will support it are still rare, here’s what you can expect at launch and the immediate months that follow:

 

 

 

One of the few titles that Microsoft has confirmed will use Natal’s gesture-recognition interface is the third installment of master designer Peter Molyneux’s role-playing game series. While specifics haven’t been announced, one feature of the game is called Touch – allowing you, for instance, to cradle a crying child in your arms or to hold hands with your character’s love interest rather than just pressing the “A” button.

 

Molyneux’s show stopping tech demo from E3 is also being made into a fully-fledged game, letting you talk and share items with a character that responds to your tone, words and actions.

 

Activision hasn’t made any formal announcements yet, but Guitar Hero founder Kai Huang told The Seattle Times last month that “one of the areas we're exploring certainly is camera technology and what you can do — track your movements and maybe have your characters on the screen do certain things you're doing, or personalize it more so it can look more like you on stage rather than just be an avatar.”

 

Epic Games is making sure that its popular game engine supports Natal, but company president Mark Rein told Official Xbox Magazine in October that he would love to incorporate some of the peripheral’s mechanics into its current flagship title: “I want to do a hand signal that tells my friend, ‘Go over there.’ Instead of even saying it on Live, I just want to motion [it]. Or if I want to throw a grenade, I just lift my right hand off the controller, throw the grenade, then put my hand back on the controller.” Sounds dangerous, Mark...and very cool.

 

The lead developer of Konami’s hit soccer title has said his team is looking at integrating Natal (and Sony’s motion controller) into future versions of the game “very aggressively.” Given the kick-ball demo Microsoft showed at E3, that’s not a huge surprise.

 

The French publisher is getting behind Natal in a very big way. CEO Yves Guillemot said in the company’s most recent earnings call that the company was planning to have 10 games available for Natal within the first six months of its release. Don’t be the least bit surprised if one of those is a Raving Rabbids title.

 

The company behind Perfect Dark and Goldeneye has reportedly been tasked to work on multiple Natal games. It’s been a while since the development house has made a big splash, so don’t be surprised if Microsoft launches the system with a major game from them.

 

At the Tokyo Game Show, Microsoft let select attendees play a reworked version of “Beautiful Katamari” using Natal. Namco Bandai hasn’t made any announcements, but we know the tech works with the game -- and works well.

 

To say Natal has the industry’s attention is an understatement. According to Microsoft, publishers working on games for the system include Activision, Capcom, Disney, EA, Konami, MTV, Namco Bandai, Sega, Square Enix, THQ and Ubisoft. They’ve had their own development kits since June.

 

While Natal’s initial focus will be on games, Microsoft sees wider uses for it as well. Xbox Live general manager Marc Whitten recently said he could see the system replacing remote controls for TVs, letting people change channels with the flick of a wrist or start a movie simply by saying “start the film.”