Natal is great and all, but it does lack that feedback and instant gratification that controllers bring.

Plus, this is a really big leap from controllers, and I highly doubt people will accept such an abrupt shift.

Rather I think that MS WILL release a controller like the one Sony showed which works with Natal.

They may not have shown it, but I am willing to bet that they do have a motion compatible remote in the works.

Personally I think a remote or some derivative will be the controller of the next Xbox, and Natal will be built into the console itself.

Of course all this is pure speculation, but face it: Natal isn't going to be compatible for traditional gaming as we know it, and the company itself iswell known for producing products that resemble their competitors, if not copying them outright. It's known as business.

No. Burnout Paradise showed us existent games can be compatible with Natal with an update.

Yes, but that was just for gameplay. And for gameplay, Natal could work well, but in some parts I feel that applying Natal would be tricky.

For example, how would you pause the game? Throw up the horns?

When playing an FPS how would you reload? Take cover?

how would you acess a menu? Not scrolling through it, bringing it up, cancelling it.

Motion controllers are really good when you are scrolling through things, or need smooth continous motions, but I doubt gamers are going to give up buttons just yet.

And frankly, having a seperate controller, like the current one that Natal doesnt recognise doesnt really make sense as the motion sensing stuff is mainly concentrated on hand movements.

Of couse they won't implement this now; it would be too late and too expensive, but I can see them doing this for next gen.

The answer to your questions is voice recognition. Saying "menu" can pull up the menu. Saying "pause" can pause the game. There are many limitations that Natal has, but pausing the game and pulling up menus shouldn't be one of them.

How much is all that going to cost then?

$100 for the Natal Camera, then what .... $40 for 1 wand, another $40 for a second wand .... that's starting to get really expensive, and I'm being pretty generous with those price points, it could very easily be more than that judging by how MS typically charges for accessories.

If Natal came with a wand for tracking, that wouldn't be such a devastating shift, would it?

Considering MS are all like "YOU are the controler"

It would be pretty dumb... releasing a controler.

Didn't Sony's president say Motion Controls were a waste of time last year? 

All these companies, but especailly Microsoft and Sony, have put their foot in their mouth an awful lot this gen. 

True, but you have to think of this:

Can Natal, or the software behind it distinguish accents and account for different inflections regardless of state? If I hava a sore throat can it still recognise my words?

Yes, Endwar has done this but this was designed for specifcally one game. Can this apply to all genres, across a wide range of games?

Can developers optimise this software to create commands that can replicate specific actions that are difficult to perform simply by using a body gesture alone? Ex: Duke Nukem's 3d rewind feature, bringing up specific menus for spells, etc.

And probably a huge barrier to voice commands: different languages. Now in addition to translating text and audio. you have to account for different language commands- in different languages. Costs also go up as a result This also creates more difficulties in importing as well, although this might not be as big of an issue- if you're that desperate to import you'll probably make the effort to learn the language as well.

yes unless it good enough to track a finger so i can pull the trigger when playing games