Project Natal makes cameo appearance on Smallville

by JC Fletcher on Feb 15th 2010 11:25AM

Did you know that Smallville is shot on location in the future? We weren't aware of this fact until several readers pointed out that Project Natal made an appearance in Friday's episode, "Warrior."

Want to see Natal gaming in action (as in, pantomimed by an actor)? Start watching this episode at about the 23-minute mark. The awkward product placement makes an already-awkward date scene super-awkward! "Maybe you need to look ridiculous!" the player says, trying to entice Chloe into a game of Ricochet. Could that be the tagline for the ad campaign?

If you want to watch a thrilling yarn about a cursed comic book, that's the rest of the episode.

Source

Tags: cw, Microsoft, project-natal, ricochet, smallville, tv, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (45)

Does anyone else think it's strange that they would market this without an official name? I mean, it's been on several talk shows marketed as "Natal".

Maybe since that name is getting so popular they'll just stick with it.

I think Natal is a good name for it. Don't see a reason to change it. Sure beats iPad.

You mean like with Nintendo Revolution and then we got that rude awakening that it was going to be called the Wii and now we're totally cool with it?

its not that we are "cool" with the name Wii...its just that we can't change it.....not to mention Nintendo wants stuff to be basic and simple for the casual crowd....and "Revolution" takes up more space on packaging and in adds.....which is why Sony changed the PlayStation 3 logos to the newer PS3 ones

they said in another article of theres that the name might be annouced at e3

it better be @ or right before E3....hell Nintendo dropped the name prototype name right before E3 '06 and the Wii came out that fall....

so if Natal isn't going to be the REAL name(and I pray not) then E3 is the best time to say the real name and get the prenatal shit out of our heads

@ nerdydesi - I'd have figured you'd use Windows 7. Everyone was complaining how they weren't even trying to come up with a name, and even more that it wasn't really the seventh Windows OR the seventh NT OS... Yet it's definitely stuck, and doesn't get nearly as much grief as Wii still gets three years later on name alone. It's telling that you don't really hear people complaining that they are actually calling their next desktop OS in the Windows family by the codename "Windows 8"

Win 7 isn't that bad of a name....I mean after the Vista lawsuit then it was a no brainer to simply go back to numbers....

Never said it was bad. Would like to add that they steamrolled through most of Windows 7's public development under that name and released it by it as well, probably on grounds that it DID catch on.

"Natal" is certainly catching on, for better or worse. It seems like they might just stick with it. Wii wasn't really the hit it was until after its name change, you didn't hear non-gamers talking about it, it wasn't offered as a premature prize on the Ellen DeGeneres show until well after the name change... Natal, as a name, has already been somewhat widely adopted through the gaming community, including the crucial casual market that they are targeting with it. Changing it now could confuse things.

They might as well change it's name to Project Mars. That's about as successful as it will be.

Officially calling it Natal would be... the dumbest thing ever, from a marketing standpoint. Natal is childbirth and medical field stuff. Us nerds might think it's an OK name after all this time, but the remaining 90% of consumers are going to hear a name like that and think, "what the hell..?"

Windows 7 is much more fitting than it's previous Blackcomb and Vienna code names. But the reason it's 7 is because Windows Vista internally was Windows 6, XP was Windows 5, and NT 4.0 was Windows 4, down to Windows 3. So it's more of an internal version than the face of what we see.

Smallville is still on?

yea and this season is the best in recent memory.....too bad its most likely going to be cancelled after this year....with it being moved to Fridays and all...

This season is apparently doing really good, ratings-wise. I THINK it's matching and occasionally beating last season.

I wish they'd cancel it, though. Or at least rename it to Metropolis or something and friggin' make Clark become Superman already.

I remember hearing somewhere that the producers made an agreement before pursuing Smallville that there would be no tights/flights so clark can never be superman... ever.

that was a rumor....just like him doing the show then becoming Superman only to do movies....

but I remember reading somewhere a while back that he had no interest in being "Superman" due to the "Superman curse"....but like I said I think its all rumors

Yeah, the whole thing when making the show was "Clark will NEVER put on tights and be Superman."

So instead they just introduce the rest of the JLA/JSA and put THEM in constumes.

Yeah, Clark soooo doesn't look out of place in that group now!

I think the show is really good this season. The JSA movie was fantastic and set up a lot of great story lines for later, like more JSA, the Suicide Squad, Checkmate and Apokolips. Plus it gave J'onn his powers back. And the rest of the episodes have been pretty good too. I'm glad it's still on.

I wonder why they chose to put that in Smallville considering the drop in ratings its gotten with it being in that Friday slot...

So this is like Heroes showing off Heavenly Sword before the PS3 was even out...

I wish if they'd do product placement they'd at least have the courtesy to show *existing* products in these things...

Video on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5ARL7o86iU

cool

best part of the episode was that we learned Lois Lane is in to comic con & a gamer, who also happens to own a 360 for gaming .now if i could find me women like that life would be grand. one more thing has anyone noticed how hot Lois has gotten.

well Women do tend to get better with age....and she is damn near 40...

I think you mean women tend to get better when you find out they go to comicon and play video games

Between that and showing a giant closeup of the Windows 7 logo for almost 5 seconds in the JSA episode two weeks ago (the camera seriously just stared at it on the screen), I can only imagine how much Microsoft paid them.

This whole thing smells of fail.

Even television magic couldn't make Natal 1:1

i think its the same video they played at E3.

They can't make him Superman because of the legal rights...

But do they simulcast in the future?

This seems like a smart move, MS is trying to get the word out to the other demographic who still has probably never heard of Natal. We the gamer community know all about the latest developments in gaming technology but the other demographic (ie: mostly women) haven't but they do watch crap like this. Seeing their favorite characters playing Ricochet (their type of "game") on Xbox will make them interested and come Christmas they will see the ads and flash back to this episode and bam instant blockbuster.

I'm pretty sure no one is going to remember some random episode of Smallville 11 months from now.

I'm also pretty sure Smallville's highest demographic is males.

If those D-bag actors and producers of one of the worst shows Ive ever known are getting to play with a prototype natal in between takes Im going to strap a bomb to my chest and go pay Kristen Kruek a visit!

Im hoping its not really there and its one of those things that they just edit in digitally after.

It couldn't have been more awkward than the Guitar Hero "3" product placement in the Heroes season premiere, could it?

That had to be the worst product placement ever. Using Guitar Hero 5 controllers, playing World Tour (with a GH5 song playing), and calling it Guitar Hero 3. Besides being a complete screw up from a product placement angle, it was so awkward, it was a reason I wound up not watching the rest of the season.

That was probably the worst product placement I've ever seen.

she's 40 ,cause she don't look it .wow

She only 32 years old,where you get almost 40 from Chris D.

Considering the incredibly non-subtle Windows 7 placement during that recent 2-parter, this comes as less surprise. Sigh.

Im not downloading some damn plugin. garbage...

http://www.viddler.com/explore/engadget/videos/1085/

Just another thing that Microsoft has bought. Well, Microsoft you can't buy me...........
unless the price is right.

I don't mind the name Natal... but I also wouldn't care if it was called "Turd Visor". What I'm more worried about is whether it will be worth the extra $99-$120 or if it will be another poorly implemented motion-based gimmick.

I hope I won't look that stupid playing Dodgeball Natal.

LOL
The name of this project is "Natal", because one of the developers is from Brazil - Natal/ Rio grande do norte!

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Project Natal makes cameo appearance on Smallville

Reader Comments (45)

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