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New Name for Project Natal

Who wants to wait for Microsoft’s E3 2010 press show tomorrow morning when USA Today’s willing to leak Natal’s spiffy new brand name tonight?

Kinect, that’s what USA Today says Microsoft’s peripheral-free motion sensing add-on for the Xbox 360 will be called. You know, like ‘kinetic’ and ‘connect’ had a baby.

According to published reports, USA Today yanked it, and managed to grab a few choice Kinect game details. Like Kinectimals (some sort of virtual big-cat training sim), Kinect Sports (Microsoft’s multi-activity answer to Wii Sports), Joyride (a kart-style racing game), Kinect Adventures (a river-raft sim), and Dance Central (presumably just what it sounds like). LucasArts and Disney are also planning Kinect titles, presumably to be announced during tomorrow press show. What’s in a name? Not much, so don’t waste too many brain cells dissecting Natal’s groovy new appellation.

But the other rumor circulating involves a diet-sized Xbox 360 (slim!) with a 250GB hard drive and integrated WiFi. Now that’s something to get excited about. If it pans out, anyway.