Lionhead Studios’ Peter Molyneux is no stranger to introducing radical new gaming concepts on an E3 stage. His latest unveiled today in Los Angeles may be the most bizarre yet.
Meet Milo. He’s a young boy who hangs out on the other side of your TV screen. He is also a “game” as confirmed by Molyneux via his Twitter feed. How exactly he’s a game, well, we don’t know yet.
The game is designed to work with Microsoft’s new Project Natal motion control system so you interact with Milo via your body rather than a traditional controller.
What Milo is capable of combined with Natal stretches the possibilities into infinity. In the short demo, a Lionshead employee drew a picture of a fish and held it up for Natal to scan. Once done, the paper showed up in Milo’s hands where he responded to it.
Molyneux describes this type of interaction as “emotional AI-based” gaming, the cornerstone of playing Milo. He will react to inflections in your voice and imagery you share with him that somehow dovetails into a story to play through.
As gamers know, how and when Molyneux delivers on his promises is another matter. Milo could be in development for the next 5 years and then be released with half the features Molyneux promoted. At least today, Milo is a gaming concept seemingly ahead of its time and one I plan to keep a close eye on.
