Xbox Natal is to 360 what Wii is to Gamecube?

[jneul]

Squilliam said:

Baalzamon said:

Personally, I don't know of modern systems that do revisions that speed up the system and make it faster, etc. etc.  When a company like sony comes out with their slim versions, the only specs that change are size and power consumption.  I do remember an upgrade that came with Donkey Kong 64 for the N64...but personally can't remember any since then.

  I highly doubt if xbox would release a slim version, it would have newer, better equipment in it.  If it were to have newer and better equipment in it, one could argue it isn't even the same system.  It would in theory be the Xbox 360 v. 2.0.  Not to mention, knowing microsoft, whether or not this would be a cheaper alternative, they would not release a new version of the xbox that is better and faster, and then charge consumers the same price for it.  They charge $100 for a wifi piece for your 360, you honestly think they will charge the same or lower price for upgraded equipment...

Also, I do believe that if Natal comes out in the way that it should, and works properly for games, etc. etc.  Then, yes, Natal is to the 360 what Wii is to the Gamecube.  Unfortunately, I don't think it is physically possible to have simple movement controls without a controller for the 20+ controls that you see in a shooting game.  How about a game like Street Fighter...you really think you are going to do extreme moves that often (in playstation) will involve pushing r1, r1, triangle, circle, a complete spin with the analog stick, three quick taps of triangle...I have no clue if that is an actual move, but the hard ones do look a lot like that.  It just doesn't seem probable that it will be able to handle games that require such precision like this.  If you want to take this precision away, it also takes the fun of the game away...the best moves are supposed to be hard, but how hard can they possibly make it before Natal will not recognize what the heck is going on?

The Wii is an example of a modern system which was a revision of an older system and it too came 5 years after the release of the initial version. Im trying to see if the Xbox 360 can fit into that model completely. My reasoning is trying to reconcile information I have heard with the realities of the console market.

An upgraded Xbox 360 would be more expensive and Microsoft would charge more for it, than if they didn't upgrade the system. The difference is the delta between the price charged and the price they would charge with older hardware. Its quite a good way to maintain your hardware revenue by doing a mid term refresh and its cheaper than designing an entirely new architecture.

Oh and I have reserved judgement for Natal itself I wouldn't know how great or badly it would perform and I probably won't have any idea until E3 rolls around. But if Natal can make the move you gave as an example simpler then I don't see anything wrong with it, the reason why they are so unintuitive is because they use a controller. Fighting games have become less popular as they have fought to cater to the loud hardcore userbase and the only one which has maintained did the opposite and thats SSBB.

I think you may well be right, upgrading the XBOX 360 will be one way of handling a so called console re-release, lots of fans I noticed already want the 720, so it could turn out to be a popular solution, also it should stretch out the X360's life quite a bit more, it will be intersting if MS dares to make such a move.