The issue is not technology. Microsoft and Sony will deliver competent and possibly compelling products and Nintendo has developed an improvement for its system.

The issue is market. There are already 50M Wiis with motion sensing. There are 0M (as in ZERO) Xbox 360s or PS3s with their respective new technologies. That means existing customers will have to pay for the new add-on and new customers will have to do the same (or pay more up front).

This leads to a vicious circle. Software drives hardware sales. But without a hardware install base, there is limited (or no) software development. Sony and Microsoft might make games/tech demos (as some derisively have called the Wii Sports line), but how much will others invest in these new technologies?

The Wii Motion Plus is getting support because it is building on an existing base -- and because the software is literally moving hardware. Three (in the US or four in Europe) of the five games games coming out for the WM+ include hardware bundles. Thus third parities get to sell the hardware (even before Nintendo). That will put in people's hands and increase adoption. But it is an add-on with a small price tag ($10 more in a game bundle to $20 more MSRP to $25 more for Gamestop mark-up).

Conversely, there is no base for Microsoft and Sony currently. And no one knows yet how much people will have to pay or how many will pay or what there will be to play for the new devices.

Nevertheless, the failure is not in the technology itself. The failure is in being three years behind the market leader in being released. These products will be good but they will be niche. They will also probably be standard in the next console releases by their respective companies.

Mike from Morgantown

Remember, the best tech does not always sell the best -- or even sell enough to survive.

@mike - Its good to know not everyone on this site has lost their minds. You are 100% correct.

Questions to Microsoft about Natal

- Where's the rumble feedback if there's no controller?
- If there's no rumble, how can I feel how strong a hit was? just watching like three generations ago?
- If there will be a peripheral that will give me rumble, isn't this agaisnt the no controller philosophy Natal aims for?
- And if there's a perpheral, why two input devices when I just want one?


Questions to Sony about their controller?

-If that ball is used to detect the position of the controller on screen, if I block it there will be no indication?
-If the controller also detects position without the camera.... why need the camera?
-If you can add a weapon to the players hand with the eye toy, I saw you can give things to players without the need for a controller, so why the controller?
- if you add an extension to that controller, won't that be way to similar to Wii controllers?

But the Power Glove came before both!

(>'.')>

MS questions:

- There will be a controller.  Even if they have thus far claimed there wont be, eventually there will. Otherwise it will be failboat to Failington.
- See above.
- Its a dumb philosophy, so who cares?
- Eh. So you have something in your hand, but it still requires something on top of the TV. Sounds exactly like how the Wii works.

SONY questions:

- Yeah that'd be pretty much true, if it can't see the controller, it won't be able to show it.
- Its all additional information. The controller has much the same stuff as the wiimote+ minus the camera, which SONY moved to on top of the TV so the camera can usefully be used to collect additional information besides where the remote is.
Simple. The camera alone is not good enough to get telemetry like the angle of your hand if its in a certain position. The camera + the remote make it possible to get more info.
- Sorta. The SONY solution, and even the MS solution are slightly to a large step above the NINTENDO solution in terms of information that can be gathered by the games.

With MS questions, you gave the idea how much promise it has and how will underdeliver to the consumers

they are a large step above but many steps back as well compared to their standard controllers (no feedback, more than one input device, no integraded hardware)

Hahahahahaha... Sony and Microsoft fanboys really make me laugh.

Do you people actually believe that Sony was the first for motion control? Seriously, stop saying they did this back in the ps2 day because they did nothing with motion control during the ps2 era. Do you guys think Nintendo decided to add motion control in 2006 one month before the wii release date? Jesus christ... They already knew they had to do this after the launch of the failcube(ok gamecube)
The hard cold truth is, sony wouldn't dare to release motion control first. They copied from Nintendo, just accept it.

Fanboys called motion waggle and gimmick, then so is this. 

For the people who think this will be succesfull, it won't. It will fail and they know it. It's just to prepare them for the next gen.

If done correctly both the MS and SONY solutions can be better than the NINTENDO motion controls.  If done wrong you're right.  That's just the way it always is in this business.  If MS adds a force feedback controller, hell it could just be something you strap around your wrist for all that matters, then it would be moot.  I still don't get why you care about more than one input device.  Nintendo uses two things for input needs, SONY's and MS's solutions will too.  There's no integrated anything with NINTENDO either.  I just dont understand what you're going for.

Funny I read a lot of that before the Wii was released too.  Time for the arrogance of Nintendo fanboys to take a hit I think.  Also Microsoft had a gyroscopic controller back in the early 90's long before the wiimote was even a concept, motion control has been around a awful long time, the difference is Nintendo were the first to successfully implement it.  The hard work for Sony and Microsoft has been done, Nintendo has proved to the public that motion control can be fun in games, now the other 2 players can ride the gravy train too.

If you honestly don't understand why many people criticized the "waggle" in Wii games then you're a fool.  I loved Trauma centre for it's inventive use of the wiimote but unfortunately for every game like that there is a several more where no effot has been put into implementing anything but the most basic gesture control.

I agree with this.