they wont have to. nintendo will do what they always do and focus on games to please people. they are not phased by natal at all. i wouldnt be either, considering there isnt a whole lot you can do with an upgraded eye toy (no offense to anybody). and the press bias is nothing new. nintendo has weatherd that storm countless times. the press were saying in the begining of this generation that the wii would fail and the ps3 would rule over all. look what happened. im not worried about the press. let them and when natal more than likely fails(just my prediction), they will blame nintendo for it by writing crap about the wii like they alwways have. its nothing that can be changed.

Just my opinion ;)

Even if bundled, Nintendo will still have the lead in motion control.

The Xbox 360 probably needs to be rebranded. They might aswell have named it the Fluxcapacitor 9000.

natal looks way too tricky( how the @$!# are you gonna walk in games?) so ninty knows that, their plan:
ltao at MS

Natal will be huge fail.

Nintendo will do nothing else than what they have been doing so far.

Natal's problems are two fold as far as i can see.

1. Software

2. Price

If you are a MS developer what is your motivation for programming Natal support into your new game? As we have seen with the Wii, most of the best games are those that were built from the ground up with the Wii controller in mind. As a third party are you going to start developing a game now that is exclusively designed for Natal or if you have dual controller support are you really going to make the most effective use of Natal? If you decide on exclusive support, who are you going selling your game to because Natal currently has an installed base of 0.

I just feel Microsoft lacks the ability to marry this admittedly exciting technology with must buy software in an affordable package. I just can't see Microsoft producing a piece of software that makes Natal must have, in the way that Wii Fit did for the balance board. And you would need that kind of Natal install base to make it a viable target for games designed specifically around Natal . Regarding price, if Natal was cheap ala WM+ they could just bundle one with every Natal game that initially released providing a rapid boost to the install base but current information suggests it's unlikely to be that cheap.

Given the huge difference in the nature of traditional Xbox360 controls with Nadal i fear we are going to see a mess of games with traditional controller support that shoehorn Natal controls into the game resulting in software reminiscent of but perhaps even worse the some of the Wii's first offerings. In the end i can't see Natal being sold in high enough numbers to make it a viable target for games designed specifically to take advantage of the unique control opportunities it offers.

I saw at IGN that Rare is working on a Natal game. If Microsoft just throws the old controller to the side or makes it secondary in most games and implements natal as the primary control scheme of the 360+ and it is the main control mechanism of Gears 3, for example, then people will just have to go along with it.

And, most of the press seems to be giving Natal a very warm reception. Usually when things like this are announced the press either gives it a lukewarm reception and it doesn't go so far, but with most of the press saying it was awesome and that Microsoft won E3 because of it, it is already generating hype.

turn the frozen donkey wheel...............

I can understand the warm reception i just don't know if this can translate to sales and widespread adoption this late in the generation

They can't possibly make it the primary controller unless they make it very cheap or they risk alienating the 30+ million who bought the system before this controller was announced and who may not be interested in playing GeOW3 with NATAL.  I can see it's potential for certain genres but i am far from convinced that it could replace a traditional controller for all.

Not much. It's too little, too late for Natal and the PiiMote. They are both a minimum of a year away from release, likely longer, and we have no idea if they will deliver as promised, or how long it will take for a killer app to arrive. By the time the competition can get up to speed, if it can at all, Nintendo will be ready with their next console, which will surely take the WiiMote+ to the next level.

Oh noes! Wii is doomed.

At the moment, Natal is a peripheral that can only control a very limited variety of games, is extremely inaccurate and has a total of 0 games for it.

None of those problems are insurmountable. But it will be very hard for MS to convince devs to make games for the peripheral until a lot of consumers buy it, and hard for MS to convince consumers to buy it unless it has a lot of games.

Now assuming MS irons out the bugs with Natal, and produces a game of equal quality and mass market appeal as Wii Sports, Fit (or presumably WSR) which have been used to convince consumers to buy the Wii, Balance board (and WM+)

Nintendo will continue to produce the best games in their companies history, they have the release of WM+ very soon in Japan, as well as new colours coming out and the Monster Hunter bundle. They are also starting to get a lot of good 3rd party support. If MS starts to gain marketshare then Nintendo could drop the price. The Wii was making a profit at its current price 2.5 years ago.

As for the press thing you mentioned. You are very much mistaken
Yahoo praised the natal. This is neither surprising, nor important. Yahoo realised that their sites have a readership of about 3 people a year, and are trying to suck up to MS so that they can get bought out and the CEOs will retire

CNN praised Natal, but CNN always praised MS whatever so that is no change from before and thus not a concern

Most gaming sites I have seen that don't include the words microsoft or xbox in the url are cautiously optimistic about nNatal