welcome to the future - november 2008: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Clancy%27s_EndWar

actually, i'm pretty sure there was another game much older than this that used voice commands, i just can't think of it.

uh, the obvious problem with the Sony tech is the light tracking itself, it's basically a wiimote with special lights for the camera to track, so what happens when your motion is a little further back or you are wearing clothes that are more loose? poof light's out of the way of the camera! another problem is you can't have mirror like thing where you use it because well, for obvious reasons as well, those are the problems that the WM+ doesn't have. If we want real motion control, lol check this out SSJ, 4 Natals, front, back, left, and right, with 2 Wiimotes with WM+ AND the light on the top of the motes, wanna know how much that'd cost? I don't.

well you can try to sell me on anything, but i saw the vids and i saw the delay and slow deliberate motion required for recognition. Count me out. Explaining the inner workings and concepts in a 24 paragraph rant means nothing when i see lag on a dmeonstration of said product live.

Aside form the fact i find one of the most annoying things this gen is "only possible on" the explanations on why natal COULD be sweet or WILL be sweet will fall on deaf ears. theres lag in the recognition = instant fail plus girl seizuring off screen and slow non exact movements on screen didnt exactly calm the skeptics.

To the OP, i would tend to agree....i wish sony would have just stuck with the eye toy and made more ellaborate original and less focal additions like Eye of Judgement or some games on PSN and used the budget for this and simply made a price cut.

Wouldnt it be easier and cheaper to just have one in front and one above?

Hmmmmm... considering that Sony's controller does not allow a character to move whatsoever, and can only be used if you have or buy a PS Eye as well, and it only maps one single point of movement, it is in last place.

Natal can at least track your entire body, or multiple bodies, and interpret your voice or face for simple commands.

The WMP is definitely the current leader. I think Natal is targeting a different audience, though. If you paid attention to the conference, Natal is all about targeting the 60% of households that still do not have a games console. It is about making the games so incredibly fun and intuitive that even people who won't go near the Wii will give it a try. The Wii relies on a controller and buttons. Some people still find using the controller a difficult/confusing/intimidating task and are turned off by it. Trust me, I've seen people even suck at Wii type games and if you think these kinds of people don't exist, you are ignorant.

So, in reality for the current market WMP is the leader. For the new market, there will be 2 leaders. The Wii taking the ones who can and will use a controller, Natal taking those that still haven't gotten into gaming because of the roadblock that is the controller to them. Sony's attempt will be last because it can't even match the Wii since there is nothing on it that enables you to move your character, it requires the use of the dated tech that is the PS Eye, and only tracks one point (Wii tracks 2 points, Natal tracks whole body).

actually the light on the end of the controller isn't really a good thing to question. Its like mo-cap stages' lovely suits. All those lovely purple balls are what the cameras use to track motion. The light just acts as a point of reference. There doesn't even need to be a light as long as lighting is good in the area and the ball or whatever they end up shaping the controller and it has some form of inteligent software to track specific points on an object like mo-cap stages.

if i remember right the PS Eye handles darkness quite well too as I have done some late night video chats with little issue with darkness.

Still yes that would be an amazing and perfect setup. But why not just install a mo-cap stage into the room?

Hey You, Pikachu?

no, you have to do 4 sides, top is a waste and won't track enough since you are also missing the back, it might be possible to have 3 with the way you are describing it, front, top, back with the tech that's in the natal, but i'd hate to have that shit fall on my head when I'm trying to play a game.

this sort of sums it up very very bluntly. Theres a reason the Ipod is still number one. But i think if we look at tech, it is important to get teh door open, Nintendo was used verbally like ipod is now in regards to videogames and the latter as mp3 players...then it took Sony a couple gens of getting things right and nintendo faltered and that Nintendo correlation to all videogames disappeared.....

I think its dangerous territory for Sony more than MSFT, instead of just letting the wii go, i mean the people making the wii outsell the 360 and PS3 overwhelmingly would not be interested in buying a PS3, and coming out with a similar product after these same people already relate it to simply the wii isnt going to pry them away unless Nintendo screws up and Sony is flawless.... MSFT on the other hand is very different, their problem is that the demo looked lame and laggy....the menu control is cool, but i dont want to have to talk to access things, it frustrates me on the phone with robots, i just want to hit a key, let me hit a button to play and browse my menues, thank you.

but then again you are describing software, it'd be more advanced software, the Wiimote/WM+ is still more advanced tech by itself, Sony is just adding in the camera tracking, the Sony wand as far as I can see only has basic wiimote functions.

edit: mo-cap stage costs even more duh =P