http://seanmalstrom.wordpress.com/2009/06/01/microsoft-e3-2009-conference-narta-the-new-phantom/
The ‘motion controller’ is announced and, sure enough, it is cameras. Steven Spielberg was brought on the stage and say, almost verbatim, meaning WORD FOR WORD,Reggie’s exact same sentences from E3 2006. “The controller is the barrier.” “Everyone has read a book. Everyone has watched a movie. But not everyone has played a video game.” “Most households do not have a video game console.” Motion control aside, in terms of pure stagecraft, this is absolutely hilarious just repeating exact lines that Nintendo execs said three years ago.
Microsoft is the king of vaporware. Remember Longhorn? Yeah. The reason why Microsoft is the king of vaporware is because Microsoft is primarily a marketing company. Its traditional business model is selling to computer manufacturers, not customers. Microsoft’s response to Vista was, as you can guess, throwing money into marketing.
When Microsoft was being hit after bad news after bad news, when their stock was being hit due to poor decisions, Microsoft stopped the bleeding by unleashing the ‘Microsoft Surface Table’ or whatever it is called. It was a table with a standard computer in it with a camera facing up. The marketing blared that it was “Minority Report come to life.” Many of the press easily bought into it. News stories began to be released saying, “Microsoft on technological edge, making Minority Report type table,” and so on.
Since Microsoft has hit the wall in getting more people to buy its console, it must resort to limiting how many people can buy the Wii. The best way to do that is have marketing, with willing accomplices in the press, that Microsoft is poised to revolutionize all gaming, all motion controls… in a couple of years. This is to prevent people from buying a Wii. When a couple years come by, the device still will not be out. Microsoft will just keep up the marketing trumpet of ‘anyday, it will be released and it will CHANGE everything! Just wait! You’ll see!’.
Note how there is no release date. This is because it will never be released (aside from one or two for marketing purposes at a news channel or Disneyland). Why announce something that isn’t going to be released? This is Microsoft. They do it all the time.
While many companies announce projects that they are unable to deliver (vaporware), Microsoft has developed a technique to use vaporware as a type of illusion when it cannot compete against the current product or have no near product in development that can compete. These ‘illusionary cards’, naturally, are always shown to be way better than anything ever made. It is to buy Microsoft time. In the 1990s, all Microsoft had to do was announce Cairo and keep delaying it. A more recent example would be with Longhorn. And by the time Longhorn got released, it was nothing near what was marketed when it was an illusionary product. Longhorn just mimicked OS X when it was released as ‘Vista’. And I’ve already mentioned the ‘Microsoft Surface’, which is nothing more than a $10,000 table with a camera inside, that has to be practically given away since no one wants to buy it (most likely because it doesn’t exist as a product). To counter this, Microsoft has various organizations use the device to create an illusion that it is about to be released… any time now… really… Announced in 2007, the silly Surface still is in ‘development’. It will not be released in 2010. It will be pushed back furtherand further until it can be pushed back no more. Then, it will suddenly ‘lose features’ and be released as a mediocre product. This is what happened to Cairo and Longhorn/Vista, for example.
Already, some media are framing this ‘Natal’ as a gauntlet thrown down to Wii (which it isn’t). But wait, look at this: Prices and timing weren’t available, but it won’t be available until 2010 at the earliest and will probably cost around $200. It is a marketing stunt folks. We may never see this thing released. It appears to the purpose is to create the idea in people’s minds that a better motion control is right around the corner so they better not bother buying a Wii. This is classic Microsoft at work here.