It will fail just like 99% of all of these things fail. To make it work it needed to sell with the console from the beginning. People will not buy one for a couple of games and if they are multiplayer games you will need 4. $240 anyone. Plus the cost of the game. Almost $300 to play a game.

If it is too be a success it needs to be given away with new consoles and the cost for new ones to be alot less than $60. They also needs lots of games that use it well and that are good games.

one thing your wrong about is that the 360 price is not actually that much higher than the wii 280 vs 250 and by now Microsoft could do 2 things get the price down below the wii or make a redesign with a hard drive and make it the same cost as the wii and to make thing easy for the families a low failure percentage. Then people would start talking about how much better the graphics and online and overall tech is compared to the wii even though they are at the same price

Why do people always bring in the argument of the price? It was proven wrong infinite times. Price doesnt determine success, and even if it does the other company (NINTENDO) could drop the price way below and still make a profit, ruining microsoft.
Decisions like this are to be taken with extreme caution, cause a mistake like that could cost microsoft billions.

 Maelstrom commented on the X-mote on his site a few days ago. To sum it up, he basically predicted the most likely result already: the existing 360 userbase at large will not be happy, and Nintendo's superior business model makes the downmarket unapproachable for Microsoft or Sony unless they change to match or exceed Nintendo's model (neither of which is even possible for the 360 or PS3 at this point), meaning that the X-mote will not attract even a significant fraction of the Wii crowd should it even be released.

 I happen to agree with his analysis, and would like to add another matter of user perception: Nintendo equals video games to the mainstream gamer right now.  The only reason mainstream gamers look at Sony these days for video games is because they used to be synonymous with it before the Wii snatched the title back for Nintendo, and Microsoft they have even less incentive to look at for gaming (there was more incentive when they were the only gig in town for current-gen systems).

Because price is an issue when it comes to parents and casuals.

Parents percieve the same utility from all systems. My kid will be busy with whichever one I buy.

Casuals, I can only assume, are price savvy and conscious. On the other hand, to a hardcore gamer, price can often be a secondary consideration.

The fact is, price affects sales. It's simply not the only factor, nor necessarily the most important one. However, you are remiss to say that price means nothing. If it didn't, then Nintendo should just charge 500 dollars a Wii and get while the getting is good.

Now, price certainly won't determine success of the X-mote, however an extremely high price will certainly guarntee failure.

As for the Arcade, I feel that most people who buy 360's, even casuals, are warned away from the Arcade at the store. It's seen as cheaper for a reason. If the Arcade was the only 360 SKU available, then yes, the argument of "their price is pretty close" could sustain itself. However, consumers see the "Worst 360 you can buy" being more expensive than the one and only Wii. Yet another reason I dislike different SKUs for marketing purposes. 

I think Microsoft could actually pull it off but they would have to market the device very differently from the Wii and play up the strengths that the 360 has over the Wii (basically Xbox Live and the console's specs). 

For example they could try to sell the system to adult male casuals that aren't gamers by bringing back the PC golf simulation game Links and using the horsepower of the 360 to make it a true golf simulator (very realistic graphics and physics).  Add in a very strong Xbox Live component (leaderboards, vision camera, voice chat, etc) and it could be enough to bring in people.

They could create a very realistic bowling game and have online leagues and tournaments over Xbox Live.  Since the Wii is still lagging far behind in it's online component it simply wouldn't be able to match that kind of game.  And this would be the best time for Microsoft to take advantage of that.

Basically what I'm trying to say is that if marketed correctly and with the right games it could carve out a place for itself in the casual space which currently the Wii has for itself.

The problem with copying Nintendo like this is that it is a reactionary, defensive move, and I think shows weakness and maybe desparation. The last thing MS wants to do is end up last this gen, that could be a damning blow for them as far as their shareholders are concerned. The problem I have with this approach is that when things were looking down, the copied rather than innovationg.

I have nothing against the 360, I just think this is a lazy, bad move by MS.

They could still innovate with the games rather than the remote.

Ah, I think you hit upon something, or perhaps made me realize:

Casuals would have no, or very little idea that this remote was a Wii-Ripoff, as casuals haven't necessarily been informed about the Wii or the Wii-mote.

We can never underestimate casual knowledge. First rule of marketing. 

nintendo's biggest advantage this gen was how novel wii sports was. this lead to a MASSIVE amount of media coverage that gave the wii MASSIVE amount of exposure to people that wouldn't normally buy video games. MS's problem (or sony too if they try this) is the idea isn't novel the second or third time around and won't get much if any exposure.

couple with peripherals never selling well and being on a system where most of the audience hates the wii and will probably be just as down on an xmote. yeah, i smell failure for any attempts at copying the wii this gen. in my opinion, i think they'll be lucky to sell enough xmotes to motivate developers to make ports of their wii games to the 360.