At Microsoft's Cirque du Soleil pre-E3 gala last night, the company officially revealed that the name of its upcoming motion-sensing device, once Project Natal, is now "Kinect".  Apparently a mixture of "connect" and "kinetic," Microsoft hopes the new name will connect with casual and hardcore gamers alike.

Along that same line of thinking, the company showed off several new games for the platform for both camps.  The premiere game of course seems to be the new Star Wars title, which featured Kinect-powered lightsaber battles.  

The new games we know about so far (in addition to previously announced titles like Lionhead’s Milo) include:

• Dance Central — dance simulator from MTV Games
• Disney Kinect — Tinkerbell flying, no real gameplay footage
• Joyride - originally shown as an XBLA title, now a Kinect racer where you hold an imaginary steering wheel
• Kinect Sports — Microsoft’s Wii Sports competitor
• Kinect Adventures — compilation of several different adventures Indiana Jones-style
• Kinect Yoga & Tai Chi — pretty self-explanatory
• Kinectimals - virtual pet game with lions and tigers
• Star Wars Kinect — lightsaber battle game, possibly on-rails

There will be many more games to come of course, but the initial lineup seems to be more casual-focused than anything.  Hopefully more hardcore titles will surface soon.