Scot Bayless, a former studio manager at Microsoft, thinks Project Natal will 'fail'

Bayless was a Senior Producer at Sega of America when the 32X peripheral launched for the Mega Drive/Genesis, and thinks a similar fate could befall Microsoft's upcoming add-on. "When I met with Microsoft in 2008 to look at Natal I asked: 'When will you integrate this into the 360?'" Bayless said in the latest issue of Retro Gamer. "Their response was: 'We're probably going to wait and see on that.' To which I said: Then you're going to fail.'"

The games industry veteran, who has also held executive roles at EA, Midway and Capcom, believes the peripheral will split consumers, putting off developers. "Plays like this always fragment and the disincentive to developers is powerful; when I'm spending tens of millions on a game, the last thing I want to do is lose 90 per cent of my market."

Taken From http://xbox-360.nowgamer.com/news/3276/ex-microsoft-studio-boss-natal-will-fail

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Hopefully this guy is just butthurt for not working for MS anymore. :/

EDIT

Ex-Microsoft Studio Boss Clarifies Natal Comments

Scot Bayless has responded to NowGamer's story, calling Project Natal potentially 'transformative'

We published a piece yesterday featuring quotes from the veteran games industry exec, which compared Project Natal to Sega's doomed console add-on, the 32X. Bayless contacted us to clarify his views on Natal.

He told us he departed Microsoft - on good terms - eight years ago. "I left MS in 2002 to join EA." he told NowGamer, "six years before that meeting in 2008. I did so under friendly circumstances, with good wishes from colleagues and my boss at the time, Ed Fries."

Bayless also told us that his comments back in 2008 were only meant to aid the company. "When I met with Microsoft in 2008 to get an early look at Natal, my comment was actually offered as constructive feedback."

"I was VERY impressed by the potential of Natal, but my experience at Sega taught me that splintering your target market with peripherals is an extremely risky proposition at best. Most console peripherals don't succeeed. A path to either bundling or integration for Natal technology, however, could be transformative."

We revealed yesterday that Project Natal's official name - set to be unveiled at E3 - could be 'Wave'...

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Like how some of you adapted something from my earlier comment. :D

I wonder if he feels similarly about Move.

i think it will be pretty popular imo. it should do well

my only reservations is that standard core games simply wont work as you will need a controller and buttons.

He's just butthurt that he's one letter away from being named after a shoe store.

This guy hasn't worked at Microsoft since 2003. He is probably pissed that smarter people got promoted in Microsoft Game Studios while he had to go to Capcom and work on Dead Rising: Chop till you drop and Dark Void.

Still too early to tell if this person will be right or not, have seen next to nothing on Natal in the recent weeks...just about hitting the red ball lol..so E3 will decide

Well, he actually has a point. The strength of the Move is that it works pretty much like the Wiimote. So when they develop something for the Wii, they can port it easily to the PS3.

Why would they spend more money porting it with some difficulties to Natal or create a game only for Natal? I could work but Natal would need a big install base.

I would say move has the same problem but to a lesser degree. Some move games will be able to be played with a normal controller too so it shouldn't be to bad for developers. Just add Move controls to your normal game.
We can always look at the Move as an attempt to make the Pseye worth buying. I just don't see Sony trying to make it as important to them as Natal is to MS.

Natal and Move are like taking a Ferrari and throwing in a 1.2 liter, 3 Cylinder Nissan Micra engine with 50 hp to make the car more accessible and appeal to customers who wouldn't normally want it. Its silly, in other words. (In my opinion of course).

Why would studios create games for Natal only?