By the end of the year, people will be able to buy video games they can control by moving their bodies instead of punching buttons or swinging controllers in the air.
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| Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer gave Thursday's keynote address at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. |
That was among Microsoft's major announcements on Wednesday at it kicked off the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The company demonstrated the video gaming system, called Project Natal, last year, but no release date had been set until Wednesday.
Natal's cameras and software, which sense a person's body movements and replicate them on screen, will work with the company's existing gaming console, the Xbox 360.
Robbie Bach, Microsoft's president of entertainment and devices, said in a speech that Natal will be on sale by the holiday season this year. He did not release details about the price of the system.
Some attendees saw the announcement as a disappointment, given that the idea for Natal had already been revealed.
Tech insiders had anticipated Microsoft would launch a touch-screen tablet-style computer, an emerging category in electronics that is sized between a phone and a laptop.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer demonstrated new tablet computers -- which he called "slates" -- from other companies, including Hewlett-Packard, but did not announce one of its own.
Apple, a chief Microsoft rival, is rumored to be announcing a slate computer later in January.
