You know what also was a cumulation of Microsoft's user interface and research skills? Microsoft Bob ...
I'm constantly amazed that people seem to ignore the fact that project Natal seems to have a very large delay (for a gaming input device) between a person's actions and what happens on screen (it seemed to be about 1/4 of a second in their presentation), that there are a lot of questions about how most existing games can be played using this kind of interface, and yet everyone seems so convinced that it will be successful.
There seems to be an assumption (from many people) that the Wii has been so successful because people like to make big dramatic motions to do things in games, and therefore any system that encourages bigger and more dramatic motions has to (necessarily) be a better system. There has been no consideration that the Wii was successful because it reduced the learning curve and barriers to entry by eliminating the need to memorize a lot of button mappings to actions, and the flailing was just a side effect of the motion controlls that made this possible.
Certainly, there will be games that are well suited to this as a control metholodgy, but I find it remarkable that so many people who days ago would say "If Motion controls become a standard I'm quitting gaming" because they "Didn't want to look like a jackass while playing games" are now all hyped about a control system where you have to look like a jackass while playing games ...
