Back in June of 2009, Jimmy Fallon tested out Project Natal on his Late Night television show. While the demo was definitely promising and fun to watch, it became evident that Natal needed some work before it was ready for prime time. There was a noticeable lag present. Microsoft assured the public that this would be minimized as the device neared release.
Fast forward a year to the present and feast your eyes on the video below. As pointed out by Kotaku, Jimmy Fallon has been blessed with a second, pre-release "run" with Natal, now referred to as Kinect. This time, however, he got to test drive the final product. Last night on his show, Fallon played Kinect Sports. Kinect Adventures was also shown off, though Fallon wasn"t the one playing. In Kinect Adventures, the lag is clearly noticeable when players jump in the raft. With Sports, Fallon is forced to time his running jumps ahead of when he should actually need to.
For those gamers excited about Kinect, lag is going to be an unfortunate byproduct of the motion sensing technology. Perhaps some software based improvements will be made before the actual release, but no official plans have been detailed. Kinect will be available on November 4th for $149.99 and is compatible with first generation Xbox 360s, as well as the latest revision of the popular gaming console. Kinect/Xbox bundles will also be made available at a later date.