But... Third parties hate the Wii. Surely they would do everything in their power to make someone other than Nintendo successful? I mean thats what they've been doing so far...

LOL. Developers were given fully working dev kits for it at E3. So they can now make games for it. And the press here in UK and M$ exec on TV said Autumn release. Although this could slip, I doubt it. It's basically all finished. Especially since Milo worked without any hitches according to reports.

That article was rather subjective, and his arguments really don't support his conclusion all that well.

@takkxyz

Care to elaborate on that?

Right now I think it would be amazingly risky for any third party publisher to devote any real support to the NATAL because the XBox 360's userbase has demonstrated no interest in similar concepts (after all, days ago they would often say "If motion controls become standard on next generation consoles I'm quitting gaming!"), it's a (potentially expensive) add on device that will be released late in a console's life, its not likely that there will be a lot of support from the manufacturer being that the majority of their games (and almost all of their major games) will be designed around their existing control system, and customers will continue to expect similar quality in graphics from games released on the XBox 360 which will push development costs much higher.

This is the point though.

People on here are looking at it from Hardcore gamers perspective. M$ had plenty of hardcore games on show at E3. They havent forgotten about those.

But the casuals out there ( I dont mean Hardcore Wii fans which account for about 10% of Wii owners most probably ) I refer to the 90% who are mums, young kids, families who get up to play bowling every week. These people are REALLY where M$ are targeting this. My wife has wanted a Wii for about 6 months. She saw this and said get this forget the Wii. People I work with saw it on TV and absolutely love it. They own only Wii's. They dont own Galaxy or Twilight Princess. They have games like Wii sports, Wii play. The casuals out there who want mess around games to waggle to. IGN state Natal worked on their playthrough off a normal everyday 360. Not a Devkit 360. Meaning this tech is real and basically finished. IGN loved it. Burnout was running on it. So EA must already be working with it. IGN further state that plenty of games have been in development for awhile and we will see them very soon. Nintendo and Sony should not underestimate M$ pushing this. They will market this with probably double the money Halo 3 had. Watch this space.

You gotta give the critics the benefit of the doubt. This is the first major push for MS in the motion control world and in add ons (HD's or wifi and those things aren't add ons like this). Also is being released very late in xbox 360 life and all that entails and may be expensive. So even though that new Wii sensor thing sounds weird, Nintendo proven they can sell millions of add ons very well, so that selling is not being questioned much.

So in a game sense, this can be good, not sure how good it can be but who knows. But in a business sense, this is new territory in the xbox world. I think it is more sensible to bet against this then to think it will be a success.

Source: http://seanmalstrom.wordpress.com/2009/06/01/microsoft-e3-2009-conference-narta-the-new-phantom/

First, I need to apologize that I did not notice I was reading Maelstrom's Narta article instead of the E-mail: Project Nartal - Where's the business plan article posted by the Op. I meant subjective for this article, what with all the accusation of moneyhatting, parody and rather condescending tone toward the whole conference. As for his arguments, I meant for things like playing FPS with a camera, which if you program it well enough it can be done. (But not necessarily better than Mouse+Keyboard or Wiimote+Nunchuk, of course), I have more but I am planning to post something else right now. If you want further elaboration, I'd be happy to PM you.

Just keep in mind, I only have and plan to own only a Wii and a DS (+ my PC, played primarily) for this generation, so I can't really comment on other platforms too much beyond the realm of possibility achievable with technology presented. Just because I don't believe Malstrom's article is unbiased and/or all arguments are particular good, doesn't mean I believe Natal will really deliver or worth all the hype without seeing something more concrete.

P.S: I do agree that Vista was crap when it was crap... or massive disappointment when it come out though. I also think there's a business plan for Natal, I just don't believe it is any good... or will work...

... and at the current rate Nintendo will have a 100,000,000+ install base built off of several games which were highly successful with these gamers, and will have every third party in the world releasing several mature products which target these gamers all before a single NATAL is released to the public.

Basically, I can't see NATAL being successful beyond appealing to people who already have an XBox 360 in their house because (by the time it releases) the Wii will have 10+ games that are developed by people with more experience appealing to these gamers that is released for every NATAL game that is released.

I thought that third parties can only make shovelware for the Wii since they cannot make proper motion-controlled games.  And yet these same people expect these same third parties to make quality motion-controlled games for MS that will drive console sales?

"But NATAL will initally aim for the casual audience..."  So people are now advocating the entry of mini-game whole-body wagglefest shovelware that these casuals supposedly devour to join their system libraries?

"My wife has wanted a Wii for about 6 months. She saw this and said get this forget the Wii. People I work with saw it on TV and absolutely love it. They own only Wii's..."  This is where Microsoft's marketing excels.  They are trying to create FUD around the Wii.  "Don't buy a Wii; we have something better coming out soon.  Wait for it."  Will casuals be able to wait for NATAL while WM+ games are already being played?

Until I see MS touting Halo playable only on NATAL, I don't think they are really serious about this.  By announcing it however, they are now able to spread FUD around.