The first part in italics is the reader's letter, but the second part is Malstrom's answer and comment. And while he says some sensible things, he ruins all as usual with exaggerations. Now, he could be just always exaggerating and joking, but in this case there is another issue about his attitude: if he's knowingly and jokingly exaggerating (*), when he sees so many people, his most faithful fans, take whatever he writes literally, isn't it very rude and mean that he makes fools of them and doesn't ever warn them? Or is he trying to found a wacky sect like Hubbard?

(*) If he's joking, the "raving mad angry comedian" hasn't long become old and trite?

A few choice extracts from that:

"Sony won’t respond. They are in survival mode, not fighting mode."

Yes, in survival mode despite the fact that the PS3 is selling better than ever before. And when Malstrom posted his "article", it was outselling the 360.

"In the same way, Microsoft kept hyping up Vista on and on and on. Meanwhile, Apple just released a version of OS X after another. Microsoft eventually had to release Vista because they looked ridiculous delaying an OS four plus years while Apple kept spitting out new versions of their OS. And once Vista came out, it was a massive disappointment. But don’t worry! Microsoft says that Windows 7 will ‘revolutionize computers’! It didn’t either."

Yes, pull up an example from an entirely different section of the company, compare Apple to Nintendo, bring up Windows Vista of all things, and pretend this is evidence to back up your silly little fanboy rant.

I'm not really sure why people give Malstrom attention. Like Torillian pointed out, he's no better than a forum troll.

The email asked about Microsoft's business plan for a product, and Malstrom replied "There will be no business plan, because there will be no product!". Either he's genuinely insane, or he couldn't be bothered to think up a real response.

Oh, and as a final point, not once does he explain why this doomsday scenario with (shock and horror) Microsoft and Sony failing and Nintendo prospering for all eternity is going to take place.

He's better than most forum trolls, mostly because he's usually *right,* at least when it comes to sales and market analysis. His tastes as a critic are scattershot at best, but generally he's closer to reality than not, but more acerbic than might be particularly healthy

I doubt Microsoft would go through all this trouble NOT to release a product.

Malstron has gone from being someone who saw the future to someone who thinks they know what the future should be.

In other words, he has gone from descriptive to normative.

That being said, what is being released in Kinect is not the uber-featured Natal that Microsoft talked about. There is no scanning in your personal items to show up. There are limitations to recognition. There were features that had to be shifted from hardware to software to save costs.  

That being said, to go back to the OS discussion, Microsoft usually gets it right the second time around. W3.1 replaced W3 (or you could say 95 replaced W3.1/W3). XP replaced ME.  W7 replaced Vista.  So the next MS console with Kinect-type features built in as an option from the beginning could be really strong. But not this offering.

Mike from Morgantown

well I highly doubt MS won't release Kinect,(possibly could be delayed worst case scenario) it would be a pretty big egg on MS's face after showing/hype for over 2 years.

I think all our questions will be answered at gamescom

After playing it at E3, it never coming out wouldn't surprise me as there was simply just too much that could go wrong for the average user. 

At times movement wasn't recognised, people got to close to the camera and it stopped and told them to stand back. or worse yet the guy supervising the play had to completely cover the camera to recalibrate it.

Though it was a massive deal at E3 and there has been monstrous amounts of development from studios, so I would say it is coming for sure. 

It is not appalling or incoherent, the best phrase I could possibly find in English language to describe the situation is "to put a brave face on a sorry business".

Let me examine all the events in past year concerning Kinect:

- Fake video presentation at E3'09 (though they prefer to call it "concept" video), that supposed to show what Natal features are meant to be. Half of those weren't present at E3'10.

- Through entire next year they went into "hype" mode with constant leaks and  a lot of talks while not showing anything new, so people over the Internet haven't anything to do but to free their imaginations and to dream how Natal might work (for reference look at VGC forum threads). A lot of those dreams were shattered at E3'10.

- Yet another this time live "concept" presentation the day before E3'10.

- The killer-app that didn't make it to E3'10, though claimed to be working and released eventually.

- Radical change in rhetoric from overserving teenagers with whatever games they have at E3 to a lot of damage control (look at Don Mattrick interview with GT after E3'10), questionable remarks ("hardcore knows nothing" remark of some PR guy) and pathetic PR (hey, it isn't aimed at you, it for "teh casualz", though you will buy it regardless ) etc., that result in serious backlash from their own fanbase.

- A great push towards mainstream media and celebrities playing Kinect, which makes me think if they're trying too hard?

//And last but not least Kudo Tsunoda with his infamous shades and talks like "I don't give a sh*t, you're idiots, buy our Kinect" =) Really, not the best person to present the thing.

So bottoline is... they're trying to create an impression that Kinect is next big thing, while, I assume, they don't believe what they're saying. They're trying to explain E3'10 fiasco claiming that "hardcore knows nothing" and Wii was in the same position 4 years before, while it's not. The Wii was a success at E3'06, people liked it and waited for hours to play it at the show (nothing like Kinect), the backlash came later in 2007-2008 when 3rd parties failed to support the thing. They're trying to make a Wii-like social phenomenon out of Kinect with mainstream media talking about it and celebreties playing it before it even gets released (they know that when it gets released they have no chances to do so), though history proves that this kind of attention doesn't guarantee success when a product lacks substance (Power Glove in "The Wizard" movie, Activator at "The Home Show"). While Wii became a social phenomenon years later after it's release (mainstream media presence, celebreties etc.). Literaly it's a "brave face on a sorry business".

OUCH! 

Since when did Malstrom become ridiculous?  I mean he used to make good points, but now he feels like he's a genius or something....

ROFLOL...This is one of the great benefits of sites like these...a historical record of the stupid things that get posted.