Just like Nintendo must have paid Oprah, Ellen and others to showcase the Wii.  Sometimes a product catches peoples eye and face it the Natal in prototype form did just that.  Blowing it off as a gimmick and publicity stunt doesnt change that. Now we still have to see the real product deliver what the demos did.  We will have a better idea shortly at GDC when I believe we will see more polished demos and E3 when Natal will be fully blown out.

NEWS FLASH!

IT AINT! hahahaha.

EVERYONE knows natal is far far better. Check the press coverage! unless ur a MASSIVE console fan u wouldnt know about Sonys wand!

My mum even knows about Natal!

Actually I wouldnt be surprise at all if Nintendo paid Oprah, Ellen and others. Beware, I work in marketing, paying can also mean exchange in service or giving console so they can give them to the audience. Theres different way of paying then cash. Usually theres always a deal like that when you see this kind of stunt on TV. Heres an example (for people that live in Quebec it will be on Canal Vie):

We have someone here that is a designer (Jean Airoldi), he do a TV series where he is renovating is house (sounds fun lol). In each 1 hour episode, he renovate something different. And well my business sells household appliances, and in one of his episode he come and purchase is appliances for the new house. Do you think they do that because were nice people and company? or because we give them 20K of household appliances. If we wouldnt have accepted this deal, they would have simply ask another company. Free publicity is rarely free.

P.S. if you can read my previous post I explain why it is different when its a TV show or magazine not related to the product than when it is related to the product. Ex. video game company will not pay IGN to do an article on them

Doesn't Sony mean "Nintendo's motion controls are better than Natal"?


And It doesn't matter if either one is better it depends on the SOFTWARE!

Sorry, late reply, I went to bed last night before reading your post.

Anyway, I'm not entirely sure about those things. I mean, aside from the motion sensing, the Wiimote re-calculates where the controller is whenever the IR pointer is pointed at the screen. I think that's sufficient. I don't know for sure if it would accurately registerif it was moved 3 meters away or something, but to be brutally honest, why would you ever do that, when playing a game? I mean, sure, there are games that may require you to move a bit, but drastic movements such as the one you mentioned are really a non-issue imo. The games will, as far as I can see (and as far as has been the case until now) focus on motions made by the arms and hands. Using your body for extra effect and follow-through happens, of course, but actually moving several meters throughout the room is not something that games will have you do. 

Also, like I mentioned in a previous post somewhere in this thread, while 1:1 motion sensing may be great, it's something that a lot of developers will (and already have, with Grand Slam Tennis & Wii Sports Resort) probably tone down, so as to make the game more accessible and playable. The developer of GS Tennis for Wii actually literally said they felt WM+ People who play these games are not professional tennis players, or skilled at archery, or whatever. So to make a game truly 1:1 and true to real-life situations, would be so exclude a lot of players. The games would simply be too difficult. 

Anyway, I suppose we'll have to wait and see what Sony's device and some actual games will be like. I'm curious to find out more, so they'd better show some stuff soon.

Good post, I didnt know that they was toning down the sensibility to make it more accesible. Actually its the big problem I have with the Wii, it lacks realism. I hope Sony dont go that way to make it more casual friendly, or at least I hope they do both. I would like a real bowling simulator, not the Wii bowling where I can get 250 out of 300 easily. About what I was talking that it can sense where you are in the room, it could be use in games where your area would become part of the game. Like you can take an object that is siting on the floor and move it somewhere else in the virtual room that represent your room, they showed this kind of tech at E3. I may be wrong but I didnt see that much realism on Wii. Anyway its awesome we can talk together without flaming each other ;), and im also curious to see what they will show. Im not too exited until then tho.

Thanks.

Yeah at first I didn't really understand why they'd do something like that, toning down the precision, but after reading through those interviews and the reasons they gave, I see why they did it. I dunno about future games, I'm guessing there'll be true 1:1 realistic games, but I'm also expecting developers to tone down the motions sensing so as to make their games more accessible. Anyway, like you mentioned, both features would be nice. Like a more accessible mode for beginners and a true 1:1 mode for more experienced players. Yeah I know about that E3 demo, where they are moving around an object in a room, but still, I can't see many uses for stuff like that in real games. Developers usually show a lot of weird stuff in tech demos, haha. Ah well, guess we'll have to wait and see. There are sure to be great games in the future, for both PS3 and Wii. And the 360 for that matter. Bring on E3!

And yeah I agree, I mean we're all civilized people here, we should all be able to talk about the stuff we like and discuss opinions, without resorting to flaming, trolling and endless childish badmouthing. Good to see there are some people who share that opinion.

I have a feeling sony doesn't understand what is going on, AGAIN.

If Sony knew what is going on they'd be pushing this on the casuals rather than the hardcore.  No wonder Phil Harrison left Sony, they still haven't learned anything even after the Wii has pummeled them and taken much of their marketshare.   They can bash Microsoft's PR all they want and instead talk about accuracy and real gamers and whatever but at the end of the day those people are small potatoes and the wider audience cares more about having fun than ridiculous things like if the developer can use the same code base.

Anyone that thinks Sony's motion controller is going to have more success than Microsoft's offering probably also thought that the PS3 would catch up to the Wii once some big games were released because Sony is behaving the exact same way they did back then to a very similar situation.  People can hate on Microsoft all they want but one of the things they're good at is looking at something that works for someone else and learning from it.

I doubt MS paid or anything in that manner.  But it's very, very likely they instigated the coverage.  Very little you see on shows like Gadget review shows, celeb opinions, etc. is driven from the show/celeb end but the company that wants the exposure.

This is simply good PR and marketing and shows MS have people looking at the market, making calls and arranging for good coverage.  I've worked with our PR a few times (I work for a very large tech company) to help with shows, etc. and I was amazed how much networking and calling around drives that side of things.

However, MS is quite right to be contacting all manner of shows, people, etc. and suggesting they cover or look at Natal.  The real question I think is why Sony seem to be so poor at this, particularly considering their position in the industry.  They produce electronic devices - the should have all the contacts and be all over these shows, etc. for coverage.

So either Sony don't feel ready in the tech/software yet to show it, MS are just more willing to show stuff earlier, or Sony have much poorer PR and Marketing around PS3/Arc... or a combination of the lot.