Joystiq is reporting that USA Today has confirmed the official name for Microsoft’s Project Natal. The new name? Kinect. Oooooh I get it. It’s like “connect” and “kinetic” all in one word. Clever, Microsoft. In addition to dropping the new name, they’ve also given us a list of launch titles for Kinect.
Kinectimals features over 20 different virtual pets, including lions, tigers, and cheetahs, to play with or raise. Joyride has returned to life as a controller-free racing game, apparently. Kinect Sports will offer sport games to play: “boxing, bowling, beach volleyball, track and field, soccer and table tennis.” For each one, you will make motions to play the games. Kinect Adventures has a river raft and obstacle course to navigate — this is likely the demo we saw last week. MTV Games will release Dance Central, where you can cut a virtual rug. And there will be more games announced later featuring both Disney characters and Star Wars characters, in conjunction with Disney and LucasArts, respectively.
Ok, so let’s see what we have here. Racing, the obligatory sports game, dancing, rafting and virtual pets. I’m not seeing the killer app that shows us why we all need to buy Kinect, but maybe we’ll still get some surprises at the conference. Fingers crossed.