I recently contacted Remedy to conduct an interview with them; the first part of the interview will be posted tomorrow. However, one of the answers that I received was so interesting that I had to post it today. While interviewing Oskari Hakkinen, Head of Franchise Development at Remedy Entertainment, I asked him whether or not Project Natal will be implemented, in some form, in Alan Wake. Surprisingly, his response was the following:

“We unfortunately don’t have anything to communicate concerning Natal other than it looks like a very cool piece of technology“.

Given the fact that I asked him a simple question, I was expecting him to give me a direct answer. All he needed to say was No!!!  In fact, I expected him to say No!!! The fact that he chose to avoid giving me a straight answer means that there might actually be a secret that he is intentionally declining to reveal. His response lead me to believe that Alan Wake might actually include gameplay elements that utilize Project Natal’s Technology!

We know that Microsoft has chosen to keep gamers in the dark regarding the launch date for Project Natal simply to keep their competition in the dark as well. Despite that, everyone is assuming that Fall of 2010 would be the perfect time to launch it. In fact, what would be a better title to launch a new technology for Microsoft than a new Halo game? Besides, let’s not forget that Halo is Microsoft’s flagship franchise, and its prized possession. Thus, it would make sense to expect Halo Reach to be the perfect launch title for this groundbreaking technology. On the other hand, wouldn’t it be smart to jumpstart the launch by releasing Natal earlier than expected, which would give Microsoft an advantage over the competition by beating them to the market with their new product….Again?!

After all, they have done it already with the Xbox 360; considering that it is a strategy that has already worked for Microsoft, why not repeat it with Natal in early 2010, and take Sony by surprise?

If you also consider the fact that White Night Chronicles, MAG, Mod Nation Racers, and DC Universe Online have an early 2010 estimated release date, and that God of War 3 is set to be released on March 2010, it would make sense to launch their new project earlier than expected. Despite the fact that Alan Wake is destined to be a phenomenal title, it would be unwise to assume that it could stand up against the PS3 titles that I just mentioned all by itself. However, the only way for Alan Wake to neutralize the PS3 titles, that are set to be released in early 2010, is if Microsoft decided to back it up with something huge, and what would be better than to launch Project Natal alongside it, make Alan Wake its launch title, include Natal gameplay elements in the Remedy game, and release an arsenal of casual titles, that utilize the new technology, to support Alan in his battle against the army lead by the mighty Kratos?

In case anyone was wondering whether or not Microsoft would actually be able to launch this new technology early, you need to understand that their new product is ready; they do not need to tweak it. For those of you that don’t know, according to the Los Angeles Times, Microsoft has already shipped over 1,000 Natal Dev kits to game developers, all over the world. They would not ship an unfinished product; besides, how can developers utilize a half-baked product?

Even though Don Mattrick, Microsoft’s senior vice president of interactive entertainment, said: “This is about building awareness about our technology”, and then further elaborated by saying: “We want to talk about our vision and engage third-party developers”, it would not take a genius to figure out that this is Microsoft’s way of covering up why they have shipped their product so early. In other words, they would not want the competition to be aware of the fact that their product is, in fact, ready to be utilized by developers. Therefore, it would make sense to conclude that Don Mattrick’s words were nothing more than a PR cover up.

More importantly, it has been revealed in several interviews that both Bungie and Epic Games have been playing with the Natal technology for quite some time. Moreover, after seeing Milo, we know that the Lionhead Studios team has been experimenting with it as well. This brings me to a very interesting question: wouldn’t it make sense for Microsoft to give the first and second party developers the Natal technology before everyone else? and if so, then wouldn’t it be fair to expect that Microsoft has already provided this technology for Rare, Turn 10, Ruffian Games, Mistwalker, and REMEDY?

In addition, Bungie, Epic, and Remedy are all second-party developers, which means that they are not owned by the Xbox 360 creator. Hence, why would Microsoft provide both Bungie and Epic with the Natal Dev kits, but avoid providing them for Remedy? The answer is quite simple, they wouldn’t. In fact, it is my belief that not only has Remedy already received their Natal Dev kits, but they have also been playing with it for the last four months!

After all, Peter Molyneux did mention, during the E3 09 Microsoft Press Conference, that they have been experimenting with Project Natal for the last few months, and came up with Milo in the process. Thus, it would be fair to assume that February was the month in which all the first and second party developers received their Natal Dev kits, which would mean that Remedy has around 12 months to experiment with this new technology and implement it, in some form, in Alan Wake. Given the fact that all they need to do is integrate the technology in certain aspects of the game rather than in the entire experience, implementing Natal in Alan Wake before February of 2010 would not be hard to achieve.

Lastly, whenever you ask someone about something, and they respond to you by saying: “I can’t comment on that”, that means that what you are asking about is either a possibility or a certainty. In Remedy’s case, it is either a possibility that they are looking into, or a certainty that will absolutely happen. One thing is certain, we will find out very soon, but until then, I will leave you with this: If Alan Wake will not have gameplay elements that utilize Project Natal, Oskari Hakkinen would have said No! and the fact that he didn’t means that we need to get ready for one hell of a ride when the time comes for Alan to finally Wake up.

God Bless You All

Master Samo