Maybe it was the Cirque du Soleil acrobats dancing to taiko drums, the 9-foot tall elephant puppet or the ponchos with illuminating shoulder pads for audience members, but Microsoft’s much-anticipated Project Natal preview was a cross between a gospel revival and a Las Vegas show. 
 
 Microsoft 
 
 While the event was short on news, Microsoft did unveil a new name — Kinect — for Project Natal, the motion technology that lets users play videogames and interact with the Xbox 360 console with gestures and spoken commands. 
 
 The Sunday night event, which kicked off the E3 Expo videogame industry tradeshow, was meant to be a way for audience members to get a sneak peek at Kinect. The details about pricing and availability are expected to be unveiled at its Monday press conference. 
 
 Kinect is seen as Microsoft’s answer to Nintendo Co.’s Wii, which popularized game play. However, unlike the Wii, Kinect doesn’t require a controller at all and, according to Microsoft, it can recognize a wider range of motion and even differentiate voices. 
 
 Audience members were handed white silk ponchos with shoulder pads upon entering the University of Southern California basketball arena. In order to reach the event, certain audience members were told to walk into one of many fake living rooms where a family greeted them and pointed the way to the main stage. 
 
 Once there, hundreds of audience members, all wearing the white silky robes, milled about the floor of the arena until the show started. In one corner, a family sat on a sofa suspended about 50 feet in the air. 
 
 Declaring that “history is about to be rewritten,” the show started off with Cirque acrobats, dressed prehistorically, forming a procession with Japanese taiko drums beating in the background. Then a boy rode in on what appeared to be a mechanical elephant with a screen on the side. 
 
 Once he reached the stage, the boy demonstrated the evolution from playing games with a controller to playing games with motion as the audience oohed and aahed. The final step revealed the boy standing on a giant black ball with a neon-green “X,” the Xbox logo. 
 
 The rest of the show was a parade of games, which the boy and “his family” demonstrated in a model living room, which occasionally rotated 360 degrees. There were also moments where the family would be playing with Kinect while what appeared to be a young girl walked upside down on the ceiling above them. 
 
 Among the games previewed by Microsoft was whitewater rafting and a racing game, as well as virtual Tai Chi and a preview of a Star Wars game that lets players fight Darth Vader with a light saber. There was also a collection of sports games that lets players jump hurdles, run sprints, play volleyball, kick a soccer ball and bowl. Another let you train and play with a virtual tiger cub. 
 
 The show ended with a grand finale demo of many different families playing dancing games where they learn various steps and moves with the help of a virtual instructor. 
 
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 An official product shot of Kinect, formally known as Project Natal, the new motion-control system from Microsoft. The company showed it off Sunday night in a special performance in Los Angeles. 
 
 LOS ANGELES--After more than a year of speculation, we finally know what Microsoft's new motion-control system is called. For those that have referred to it for a year as Project Natal, meet Kinect for Xbox 360. 
 
 On Sunday night, at the University of Southern California's Galen Center here, and during a special performance by Cirque du Soleil, Microsoft finally and formally pulled back the wraps on its much-anticipated system, now known as Kinect, but originally the work of the Israeli company 3DV. 
 
 After sitting through (actually standing, as the press was placed on the floor of the arena for a couple of hours with no seats) the performance, in which the Cirque's performers acted out and demonstrated a number of ways that Kinect can be used, my first impression is that Microsoft has hit on something with some serious potential. But at least as demonstrated Sunday, that potential hasn't been fully realized. 
 
 It was tempting to think that Microsoft was taking Kinect a little too seriously during the performance, given the scale and scope of the event (more on that in a bit), but it's clear that the company has a system on its hands that it plans to incorporate widely across its video gaming and digital living room environments. 
 
 And while it's too soon to tell exactly how Kinect will be used, and what software is being developed for it--Microsoft will say a lot more Monday morning at its formal E3 press conference--one thing became clear Sunday night: with Kinect, and a sports game, and an exercise game for it, Microsoft is, among other things, putting Nintendo and its Wii, its Balance Board, its Wii Fit and Wii Sports squarely in its sights. 
 
 Clever entrance 
 
 After waiting in line for more than an hour, the thousands of people on hand for the Sunday night event were ushered inside the Galen Center. While we didn't know what was in store, we were first taken through mock living rooms, where "normal" American families greeted us. We didn't get to sit down, however, but were clearly being led to see how Kinect, nee Project Natal, is an integral part of the living room experience. 
 
 Everyone was then given a white poncho, with large shoulder pads, and awhile into the Cirque's performance, I looked around the arena and had a definite sense of being part of some sort of religious revival, what with thousands of people sitting and standing together, all wearing identical shimmering white ponchos. No individuality here. 
 
 When the performance finally began, a loud, all-encompassing voice boomed out of speakers and began spelling out homilies, among them that history was about to be rewritten and that for the first time, human beings would be in control and that the machines are going to have to adapt to us. 
 
 "After 5 million years of evolution," the voice boomed, "might the next step be the absence of an object?" 
 
 High on the walls of the arena were large digital screens, and these became the place where we were able to really see what Kinect is all about. 
 
 Far up one wall, a "real" living room was placed, and there, a "family" of mom and dad, brother and sister took turns playing all kinds of games and other experiences for Kinect. While not naming any of these games, it was clear that Microsoft was previewing what it would be showing off tomorrow. 
 
 At one point, a giant, glowing Xbox symbol rose out of the stage where the Cirque du Soleil performers were doing their thing. And on top of this stood one of the kids, who raised his arms and began to show how Kinect would mirror his movements. 
 
 The kid yelled out, "What's your name?" And the disembodied system responded, with letters jumbled on a screen and then placed in order, "Kinect." 
 
 (Credit: Microsoft) 
 
 A few minutes later, we saw how by walking in front of a Kinect system, your body movement is matched by that of an avatar on the screen. Then we saw how you can wave your arms to flip the pages of a large "book, "which in this case was used to embed photos Kinect was taking of the family. 
 
 Game time 
 
 And now it was time to play some games. 
 
 Standing in front of the Kinect system, the young boy began miming out the movements for a river rafting game, and high on the walls, on digital representations of giant TVs, we saw his avatar riding a raft, dipping and weaving his way down a river of rapids. 
 
 Soon, the raft morphed into a platform of sorts riding on rails and here, we saw one of the directions Microsoft and its developer partners are clearly going with Kinect: to score points, the kid had to wave his arms around in order to get his avatar to do the same and accurately hit a series of targets coming at him on different parts of the screen. If a target was high and to his left, that's where he had to put his arms. Low and right? He had to put his arms there. And so on. This looked pretty cool, and was definitely one of the things that showed the device's potential. It made me feel a little bit like it was Disneyland's Jungle Cruise on crack. 
 
 Next up was a driving game, and not surprisingly, controlling the vehicle by miming a steering wheel with your hands. 
 
 The game itself looked kind of cool, and at one point, as the car vaulted high into the air on the screen, it slowed down and took on freedom of movement in 360 degrees, and was able to totally change direction and aim at a different set of targets. And then it became a flying car, with wings, which was being controlled by both the "brother" and the "sister," each standing on one of the "wings." 
 
 And then it was time for a "Star Wars" scene, and the avatar belonging to "dad" suddenly had a light saber in his hands, and "dad" was able to control it with nothing but his hands. First he was fending off Stormtroopers, and then, of course, it was time to battle Darth Vader. 
 
 That was all well and good for the kids and for men, but what about women? Well, then it was time for a yoga scene, and sure enough, Microsoft showed how Kinect can be used for a stylish yoga regimen, with the user's avatar almost exactly mirroring her body motions. How exactly that will work in consumer software is not entirely clear to me, but I'm sure we'll see on Monday. 
 
 By now I was seeing some of the strategy, and understanding how Microsoft seemed to be showing glimpses of its versions of the games and hardware that helped Nintendo's Wii become such a hit. 
 
 The yoga demonstration and the flying car, for example, seemed to be aimed at Nintendo's Balance Board. And then we saw a big multi-sports competition game, in which the family faced off in sports like Hurdles (jumping), javelin (throwing), bowling, beach volleyball, soccer and the 100-meter sprint. This was Wii Sports writ for Kinect. 
 
 There was also a dancing game, in which the performers showed how it was necessary to mimic an on-screen avatar's moves precisely in order to get points--turning most of what we'd seen so far on its head, of course, in that the humans were now following the avatar, rather than the reverse. 
 
 And then, it was over. 
 
 Obviously, Sunday night's event wasn't meant to unveil specifics about the kinds of games that will be available when Kinect ships, likely this fall. That will come Monday, with Microsoft's press conference. Nor did Microsoft talk pricing Sunday night. 
 
 But what it did was issue a clear challenge, both to Nintendo and its hugely popular Wii system, and to Sony, which is also working on its own motion control system, known until now as Move. Sony will likely be showing a lot more about Move--including perhaps another brand name--with its own press conference on Tuesday. And Nintendo, too, will be showing off its goods on Tuesday. So one has to wonder how it and Sony will answer Microsoft's challenge. 
 
 My takeaway from Sunday night, as I alluded to above, is that Microsoft definitely thinks it has a game-changer with Kinect. And I surely see the potential. I hope that it will be showing a lot more on Monday, because with what we saw Sunday night, I'm impressed, but not all that much so. It was the sign of a nice addition to the motion controller wars, but not yet anything that completely upends things. And mainly that's because nothing Microsoft showed Sunday night was all that much of a surprise. We've known about Project Natal for more than a year. This all seemed like obvious directions. 
 
 That might change on Monday, but unless it does, I'd have to say that Microsoft is going to have to work very hard in the coming months to live up to how seriously it is taking itself with Kinect. 
 
 On June 24, CNET News reporter Daniel Terdiman and his Geek Gestalt blog will kick off Road Trip 2010. After driving more than 18,000 miles in the Rocky Mountains, the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest and the Southeast over the last four years, I'll be looking for the best in technology, science, military, nature, aviation and more throughout the American northeast. If you have a suggestion for someplace to visit, drop me a line. In the meantime, you can follow my preparations for the project on Twitter @GreeterDan and @RoadTrip. ||||| LOS ANGELES — With Microsoft and Sony looking to leap ahead of Nintendo’s Wii motion-control video game technology, Nintendo took off in another direction on Tuesday with a 3-D portable game device. 
 
 The Nintendo 3DS hand-held device gives the perception of depth in its 3.53-inch screen. But the real selling point is that the device provides three-dimensional images without the need for special viewing glasses or on a specially equipped 3-D television. 
 
 The device, which was demonstrated here at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3, also blurs the lines dividing portable game devices, smartphones and digital cameras. Gamers will be able to shoot 3-D photos and insert them into games. 
 
 The 3DS will also include a motion sensor and a gyro sensor, similar to technologies included in the Apple iPhone 4 announced last week. 
 
 Nintendo, which is relying on developers to create games that use those new technologies, did not announce a price or release date for the 3DS. 
 
 The company also said the 3DS would be capable of playing 3-D movies. It demonstrated several feature films from Disney, DreamWorks and Warner Brothers. 
 
 To create the 3-D effect, a slightly different image is sent to each eye. The effect works as long as the device is placed directly in front of the eyes, but disappears as soon as the viewer moves to either side. 
 
 Sony also featured 3-D games at its news conference on Tuesday, but not on its portable PSP device. 
 
 Rather, the company hopes to exploit its 3-D television business by introducing a wide range of video games developed specifically for 3-D. The games will play on the PlayStation 3 console. 
 
 “This will be the year of 3-D,” said Jack Tretton, president of Sony Computer Entertainment America, who said 20 3-D game titles would be available for the PS3 by March, including Killzone 3, The Sly Collection, Gran Turismo 5 and MotorStorm: Apocalypse. 
 
 Sony’s new motion-sensing technology for its game consoles, the PlayStation Move controller, uses a camera, a motion controller and a navigation controller to allow a game player to manipulate both characters and objects without a traditional joystick, similar to the method employed by the Wii. 
 
 As shown in several demonstrations, players need to make realistic movements — sword swipes or golf swings, for example — to move game play forward. 
 
 PlayStation Move is to be available Sept. 19. A $100 bundle will include a controller, camera, video game and demonstration disc. The stand-alone controller will be available for $50. 
 
 Sony expects to have more than 50 games for the PlayStation Move available by Christmas, including EyePet, Sports Champions and LittleBigPlanet 2. 
 
 On Monday, Microsoft introduced its own motion-control technology at E3, called Kinect. It is to be available Nov. 4. Microsoft has not announced the price.
– Microsoft unveiled its much-hyped Project Natal motion control system—now renamed “Kinect”—at E3 last night, in a performance long on grandiosity and short on actual revelations. After walking through a set of fake living rooms, the white-poncho-wearing audience was treated to a performance by Cirque du Soleil acrobats dressed as cavemen, as a narrator declared that “history is about to rewritten” and a boy, raising his arms, used his movements usher in the new motion-based way to play games, according to the Wall Street Journal. And what was this grand historical event all about? Well, mostly mimicking the Wii, according to CNET. Microsoft’s camera-based motion controller may have potential, but the games demoed last night mostly looked like analogues for successful Wii efforts, including a yoga game, a racing game, and a Wii Sports-esque game titled—wait for it—Kinect Sports. IGN has a full list of launch titles. Microsoft is expected to reveal more details, including pricing, at its press conference today.