Wall Street Journal says Microsoft is making a motion control camera. Earlier rumors from a supposed leak on Twitter said that a new motion control camera would come out from Microsoft called “Fluid”.

There were other titles listed such as Metal Gear Solid 4 and various sequels. More interestingly, Greenberg responded directly to these rumors.Usually, most companies just ignore such rumors so Greenberg’s direct response doesn’t confirm the rumors but it does make one scratch one’s head of wondering if it is true or not. The Xbox Fluid has the right ring of Microsoft silliness in its name.

Remember, this is the company that made the Zune and made the color of the product match dog poop. Microsoft also has had experience with cameras. The so called ‘surface computer’ Microsoft showed off a while ago which was advertised as ‘Minority Report’ type controls was nothing more than a simple computer and some cameras turned up inside a table. Wall Street Journal article reminds us that Microsoft did buy the start-up 3DV company.

The Wall Street Journal piece is written as if Microsoft is making this motion control camera in response to the Wii. This is highly unlikely. The time to come out with a challenger to Nintendo’s motion controls would be at E3 2008. It is way too late now.

It is very understandable why anyone would think a motion control camera would be aimed at Wii. Wii is outselling the competitors so it is natural to think the competitors want to carve into Wii’s sales. However, this is the old way to look at the game consoles. The game has changed.

If the console companies were Atari, Nintendo, and Sega, then yes, it would be right to desire to be market leader. Atari, Nintendo, and Sega are all game companies at their core. They are also all integrated hardware/software makers. The companies are very similar to one another in terms of mission and priority.

Nintendo is still on that mission. This is why I’ve always found Nintendo easiest to understand because there is so much more game console history behind their belt that illustrates how they operate. Nintendo is following the same exact mission it did with the NES: sell as many systems as possible, make as many gamers as possible. SNES, N64, and Gamecube were different because they were aimed at besting their competitors (e.g. the console was designed to have ‘better graphics’, etc).

Nintendo stopped direct competition because there are no direct competitors left. Atari and Hudson stopped doing game consoles. Sega, the last direct competitor, left last generation. Nintendo likely believes they are the only game console company left. So, to them, it is like the NES era all over again.

Sony is a very different story. Sony is not a game company. Sony is not an integrated hardware/software company. Kutaragi did not make the PlayStation to simply play games. His mission was to create a living room computer which would eventually disrupt Microsoft computers through the backdoor of gaming. Indeed, the most famous ‘disruption’ example of the games industry would be the PlayStation. But the disruption wasn’t aimed toward gaming but to entertainment on computers. Sony was extremely successful especially in bringing game companies off of the PC and onto the console. This meant game developers were working with open APIs. They were not using Microsoft’s platform.

Microsoft detected this threat and began a defense strategy. This defense strategy is the entire Xbox Franchise. To stop the PlayStation threat, the Xbox Franchise would compete with Sony on the battleground of gaming. In other words, the Xbox Franchise is just a bribe to game developers to not use open APIs.

Microsoft does not see Nintendo as a threat. Nintendo has no desire to encroach upon the PC market in any shape, way, or form. In fact, Nintendo does everything it can to differentiate itself from PCs. At Nintendo, to describe something as a ‘PC game’ is a way to insult it (Miyamoto has done this on occasion publicly. “Oh, that seems like a PC game!”).

At E3 2008, Microsoft actually proclaimed it would *definitely* outsell the PlayStation 3. All of the Xbox 360 moves are very much aimed to counter whatever Sony is doing be it that gloriously obsolete HD-DVD attachment to downloadable movies.

One extremely popular feature of the PlayStation franchise was the EyeToy that was quite popular in Europe and elseware. While all we have are vague rumors at this point, I would bet that this motion control ‘camera’ that Microsoft is releasing is aimed to counter the EyeToy.

In other words, Microsoft is doing its darnest not to allow the PlayStation 3 to differentiate itself from the Xbox 360. I even suspect that Microsoft’s ‘avatars’ were more aimed at Sony’s “Home” than the Wii’s ‘Miis’.

Microsoft wants to bury the PlayStation. They don’t care if Wii is absurdly popular. Wii isn’t siphoning off game developers from PCs, at least not how PlayStation did.

Consider Microsoft’s position. They have to respond to constant disruptions all throughout the computer industry. The netbook disruption was caused by putting Linux on very cheap computer hardware that could barely do more than surf the Internet. Microsoft fast responded by offering a very elcheapo Windows XP for these netbooks. On mobile phones, again, Microsoft is practically throwing any version of its OS over just to prevent any other platform to really get a strong hold.

Microsoft will eventually come for Nintendo. But I don’t think this is the time, and Wii isn’t harming Microsoft directly. Consider another integrated hardware/software manufacturer of Apple. Microsoft has been going hard after Apple lately whereas, prior, Microsoft was more concerned about Netscape and Google disrupting their core OS business.

At this E3, let us see how many journalists will write Microsoft’s motion control camera as a response to the Wii while completely forgetting about Sony’s Eyetoy.

http://www.palluxo.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=321:microsoft-is-responding-to-sony-not-nintendo&catid=90:blogs&Itemid=284

Seems to be an unattributed copy of Malstrom's most recent article. Shame on them.

Personally i couldnt care either way. Regular Game pad or Mouse and Keyboard are alot more enjoyable than a wiimote or Six axis or eyetoy type of thing. IMHO

MS could not care less about Wii imo.

MS entered the console business to put SONY out of business.

So far, they are in front... and are doing all they can to make sure 360 keeps its 2nd place.

Next gen, we will probably see a head on attack at Ninty... if they keep this 2nd place.

I'm not so sure. Sony are on their knees, Microsoft doesn't need to do that much to stop them any more.

It could also be that Microsoft views Nintendo differently than Malstrom does. The Wii has more potential to disrupt the PC than the PS or PS2 did, the only thing missing is the corporate will to do so. Microsoft could simply misunderstand Nintendo, or be paranoid enough to worry in case Nintendo experiences a change in philosophy in the future. As Malstrom himself has said, a company open to disruption has to be paranoid.

the ''X files''' open again ,..

Please sort out your sig... its feckin huge.

And... what X Files?

I think Microsoft don't even care if they made or lose money on they console. As long as they stop Sony they happy. That is just stupid to me.

i still dont know why MS wants to beat sony so badly, they arent going to get a huge trophy in the end.