You know whats so funny, this camera comes out sometime next year, hasn't been priced, and ALREADY the press is glossing it as the "Wii KILLAAAA!!!1111!!!!!!!!"

...All the while Ubisoft debuts a motion sensing/capturing camera for the Wii that comes out THIS YEAR, for the type of application that Natal will be used for and its like, "Whateveas...."

Balance...is it so hard to ask for from a game columnist?

But that happened to Nintendo as well, they had to add the Motion Plus to the standard Wiimote. This is a testbed for Natal 2.0 that'll debut with the 720.

I think the real difference here is how they are doing it: Nintendo hybridized the traditional control with the casual appeal of motions while Microsoft is building a wall between both worlds. Looking forward we'll see Nintendo building bridges between the casuals and traditional gaming while Microsoft will keep everyone on different rooms.

The video of the woman demoing with Your Shape doesn't count?

Its apparently going to be $200 which is resonable if there is enough games to support it. If there isnt then its not going to be popular at all.

You'd seriously pay $200 (half the price of the console at launch and almost the price of the console today) for a controller, just because it has a camera interface?  That's... kind of messed up.

Where did you get this info?  I don't recall Microsoft release any MSRP on the camera or you are just making shit up?

Count me impressed. My first reaction to this video motion control was skepticism. I don't like motion control just for the sake of it or most of the types of games where using a wand motion controller is _good enough_, its the main reason I don't like most wii games. For the most part using a traditional controller is better because of precision, which means wand motion control only really benefits games that don't require precision or complexity (heck the point of a motion controller is to simplify control for those who can't handle a traditional controller). The Wii has to have an add on that now, motion plus, that gives better precision. We will have to wait and see where that takes us.

Now we have project Natal from microsoft. A couple things crossed my mind as i've learned the details. First, oh great another gimmick to add motion control for games ill probably never want to play. Second, I hope they don't mess up the games I DO like to play. Third, after learning some real details as outlined in the time article, voice and face recognition actually sounds like a good idea. Put aside the motion control stuff, issuing voice commands _could_ be quite cool. Finally, project Natal has a long way to go. They probably need two cameras for it to be as precise as I would like it to be, probably making it too expensive.

My verdict is already in for the Wii's wand motion control, it's neither good enough (and probably still after motion plus) nor are the games any good. It's too early to tell how well microsoft will implement it's video motion control or what the developers do with it. In reality they could make the most precise motion control in the world but if the games that use it are the same fare as whats on the Wii, then its useless.

Exactly. Natal is interesting, and it certainly will find its uses, but it will never be able to play 'traditional' games - not without some kind of controller interface. Nintendo realized that with the Wii, but Microsoft apparently did not.

How will Natal enable you play a first person shooter, or action game, or just about any game where you move in a 3D space? It simply won't. By itself it will only be truly useful for simulations and quirky little minigames, like the ones they showed at the conference. Granted, I assume it will be able to function in tandem with the Xbox controller, and then things might get interesting, but doesn't that defeat the point of the so-called 'interface-revolution'?

Nintendo's biggest fear is, in other words, a loss of PR, rather than the Natal itself. This particular article is so poorly written and obviously biased that I will not comment on it, but if this sentiment prevails among the press (and, ultimately, the public) it might mean something, though frankly I don't anything can change the outcome of the 'console war' at this stage.