Rumor Mill: Project Natal Might Be Launched with a New Xbox Console

Microsoft is one of the biggest companies involved in the gaming industry, gaining a huge amount of profit thanks to its console, the Xbox 360, which holds a firm second place in terms of sales among this generation of devices.

But thanks to the upcoming Project Natal motion sensing technology, the North American company hopes to achieve an even better result in terms of sales. With Microsoft's Shane Kim revealing that the launch of Natal would be as big as the one for the Xbox 360, a lot of people began to wonder just what the company had in store for gamers.

1Up recently ran a rumor in which it said that even though Natal would run on the normal Xbox 360, Microsoft might launch another new console alongside it. But don't go thinking about an Xbox 720 or the likes, as the article says that it might be a revamp or repackaging of the current 360 device.

In a way, it will be similar to what Nintendo did with the GameCube, when it repackaged it in the form of the Wii and packed new technology in it, which was quickly adopted by the general public, despite having almost the same performance in terms of hardware.

It would seem that the new device will have slightly better components, thus achieving a higher degree of stability, and also enable games to run at higher settings than the original Xbox 360. Whether or not this will come true is still anybody's guess.

But the Xbox 360 director of product management, Aaron Greenberg, has given a statement that concerns this thing, and has revealed something that we already known, namely that Natal will run on Xbox 360 consoles. “I think part of the excitement about this announcement is that in many ways we are delivering a next generation experience this generation. With that said, I can confirm that Natal will run on Xbox 360 so no new console investment will be necessary.”

Even though it might seem that the rumor was smashed, he hasn't said anything concrete about Natal being able to work on a newer version of the 360, like a slimmer model. Hopefully we will know more as the launch of the new technology draws near.