Marketing: Microsoft has done alot to market it, getting in Popular Mechanics and on alot of shows is just the beginning. Microsoft can hype the hell out of stuff, and it works pretty well.

Casual gamers: The biggest market now, they'll look for anything cool like a "wand" or 3D. Natal will make them say "The camera does what you do". They will tell their friends about it, and the cycle will begin.

Price: Instead of buying add ons which make the controller half the price of the system, there's just a camera. The cheap will buy it because just because of the price.

There's alot of reasons Natal could work.

There is no doubt Microsoft is good at publicity. The area hidden from view is just how good Microsoft is at developer relations. Most developers seemed to be happy with Microsoft after planning and producing products for them.

On the other hand, Nintendo has dominated this generation(& already won), but yet can not seem to get developers on board. The potential for profit on the Wii is huge but the number of developers chasing it is pretty low for the installed base. I am not sure why this disparity exists.

I just don't see natal become big :/

Now see this part is something I think will be proven to be wrong within an year of launch for Natal. They will start releasing one add on after the other for Natal for differnt types of games :) Let's see if I'm right or not

What suprises me is that with Microsofts attempted move into the "casual" market they don't seem to be padding their library out much with more causal friendly games. I might be wrong but Sony seem to be padding their casual/childrens game library out with games like ModNation Racers and 3D Dot Game Heroes, adding to more family friendly exclusives like Little Big Planet and the Ratchet and Clank Series. Microsoft seem to keep constantly releasing more mature games and not making themselves an entry point to having a family library.

I know theres plenty of games on XBL and PSN but these aren't on shelves in shops and won't be greatly known to the casual market or parents buying for their kids and such.

Edit: Just to add I'm more interested in natal, and will probably buy it because it's cheap, the Move will need loads of add-ons and stuff. PLus I can make Natal games in XNA!

I think the hype is mainly centered within the United States. I was amazed the media eat it like they did/do, while it was revealed the Milo demo was actually a fake and from the controller perspective not much new is being offered and there are real technical / usability concerns.

The driving demo pretending to hold a steering wheel does not seem much useable at all. It will tire your arms far too quickly and will certainly feel ackward and fake compared to holding a steering wheel.

The painting demo was unreal, the painting looked worse than found in kindergarten...

The hitting balls demo seemed like "seen that before" as well as laggy.

The gesture recognition interface, also "seen that before, but without the hype". I think the novelty in this will wear off soon for most people.

No, I don't think Natal will be "huge" on a worldwide scale. I think after the initial hype within the US, it will fade away slowly into the background there as well.

Theres a big problem with the Wii and it's audience due to she sheer amount of shovelwear that's been thrown at it. The causal market, and most of the 'hardcore' market simply doesn't know what games are good on the wii because 80-90% of the games brought out on the system are pure garbage.

New IP's regularly fail on the Wii regardless of how good they are (look at zack and wiki) and it's got a really bad reputation for only Nintendo or current franchises selling well on the system. Look at the sales tables for the Wii.... nearly all Nintendo franchises or games! That's why the Wii is not getting support from developers.

I can tell you right now more people would play that than GoW3 or Halo 3.

I think a lot of it comes from the belief that Microsoft will bundle NATAL with their hardware, creating a strong userbase for the product. That is bound to help them. Furthermore, Microsoft has stated that NATAL will in essence be a re-launch of the 360 and brand, meaning that major marketing dollars will be spent this holiday.

I think both make for a recipe of success - how long term it is really depends on if it is good enough to make for a great, game-changing product (pun intended).

I did not know everybody thought natal was going to be hugh, everything I see and read says the complete opposite.