Natal to be renamed Wave at E3?

Well, it looks like you're no longer going to be flailing your arms about like you've had a seizure with Natal, then. Oh, you'll still be doing the arm flailing bit. Just on a peripheral named after cascading water, rather than something that sounds like a digestive yoghurt drink. That's right,if the rumours from a source close to Microsoft are true, 360's great white motion control unit will be renamed to Wave at next month's E3.

If H₂O-inspired name change does happen, it'll be the latest in a long line of high profile monikers thatchangedduring development. The PlayStation was once called the PSX. The Nintendo 64 was set to be totally radical before its name was changed from Ultra 64.

The Xbox was initially going to be called the DirectX box (because all kids love a good graphics driver). Gamecube used to be down with marine life before its original name of Dolphin was nixed. Xbox 360 had the exceptionally catchy Project Xenon attached to it. While Nintendo's little white box was once called Revolution, before Reggie realised housewives across the land would never be caught dead trying to fight the flab with Revolution Fit.

So what do you think of Natal's potential name change? Love it? Hate it? Want to do unspeakable things to it under your bed sheets? And are Microsoft copying Sony's lead ingiving their motion control device the simplest name possible just to attract the casual masses? Give us a shout in the comments below and let us know.

May 28, 2010

David has worked for Future under many guises, including for GamesRadar+ and the Official Xbox Magazine. He is currently the Google Stories Editor for GamesRadar and PC Gamer, which sees him making daily video Stories content for both websites. David also regularly writes features, guides, and reviews for both brands too.