Are they discontinueing the camera they have now? Will it join it's brother HD disc player and school yard rival Sixaxes controller?

I would guess that Sony's new motion controller will retail for $60 (same as the Wiimote + motion plus).    So effectively the PS3 with the new Sonymote controller will cost $360.   Two players will need to pay $120 bringing the cost to $420.  Three to four players can play Natal at the same time without the additional cost of several new motion controllers making it a better value from this perspective.

More importantly, Natal is the kind of technology that no one has put on the market before.  In some ways Natal is harder to do than doing a new console.   Want to make a faster next gen system?  throw in faster and more multi-chips.  Make sure it has the latest graphics sub component from ATI, NVDIA or Intel.  And don't forget to increase RAM size by at least four folds.... It is generally a known process that all the hardware manufacturer know how to do well.  

Natal is different.   Much of what make Natal work is not in the hardware but in the algorithms that run underneath.  You can't just throw in a couple state of the art multicore chips and hope that it knows what to do with 3D body movements captured from the camera.   Much much more R&D went on before Natal get to this point .  In making the demo for Milo and Kate, Peter Molyneux has said he was like a kid picking candy from a store, grabbing whatever is cool from many areas of MS tech research.

In short, we should not expect Natal to sell for the price of one or two Sonymotes. 

By the time Natal launches late 2010, there should be close to 45 millions 360 in homes.   If those folks want to have the Natal experience, then it would not be the whole $400, but rather $150 - 250 they need to invest.    For the new buyers, and I am stating the obvious, MS will have two options: 1) the stand alone Natal or 2) a package with both Natal and 360 systems.    I suspect that many new buyers will choose to buy the systems in two stages, 360 first, then Natal. 

Well, i posted this in another thread...but if you really think theword's post doesnt make sense, i have some links and some quotes from Bach concerning the pricing that point to him being 100% accurate in his analysis.

Taken from http://www.vgchartz.com/forum/thread.php?id=88432&page=2

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http://www.joystiq.com/2009/10/07/project-natal-price-to-launch-with-room-to-drop/

Just this quote alone makes me wonder. If hes saying a $50 drop from 250 to 200 for the wii isnt "noticable or substantial" This leads me ot believe Natal will cost much much more than some people are expecting.

He basically says the price model they are going for is a console price model because they havent "officially" dropped the wi fi dongle, which is $100

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/hardware/x/xbox360wirelessnetadapter/

The 120gb harddrive is still officially $150

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/hardware/x/xbox360harddrive120GB/default.htm

So if he is saying they will follow a price curve so drops are NOTICABLE it only leads me to believe the price of natal alone must be higher than $150 at launch, since hes saying the drops and price curve will reflect current products. We havent seen drops on $100 accessories from nintendo, the 120GB is STILL $150, 2.5 years later....so his quotes directly compared to their current price model leads me to believe Natal will be $200 stand alone, or else hes just talking to talk.

Im still standing pat, Natal will not be available as a unit right away to existing owners, bookmark my post, but if MSFT wants to bundle natal there is no way they can bundle it for less than $400 and sell it as a standalone based on the above quotes and proof of their pricing curve.

Sony will likely bundle there weird wand thing with the Slim as well, it seems like common sense that both would release bundles with the respective peripherals... then again, they both seem to do some illogical things. Natal will probably still outsell the Wand though, mainly through mass marketing.

Doesn't MS own 2 companies for this? 1 to make the tech behind Natal and 1 that has the ability to make it for the cheaps? This would surely allow them to keep the price down fairly low.

Maybe I've missed something... But isn't the only additional hardware Natal requires a camera of some sort? After all, it doesn't seem to require any magic wands or anything. To me, it would seem to be a software for the camera - and software is practically free once developed.

You are essentially saying the wii and sonys wands should cost more than natal, no?

I think you should do some research, friend.

So you are saying MS will make it's existing 360 user base purchase a new 360 in order to experience Natal? That is a BOLD claim.

Good, I will get another box

I'm sure M$ has talked strategy with it's closest partners, and roll-out of Natal, and the required support would be a topic of  discussion.  I can fully see M$ launching Natal as a standalone in the $129 price range with some "stock" software for current owners, but I think they are going to launch EVERY 360 with Natal, there's no way in hell they are pricing it at $400...especially when PS3 and Wii will be so much cheaper.  M$ has been very good about pulsing the market this generation, and if they believe that Natal is so wonderful, that they can price it $100 higher than the nearest competitor, they will be sorely mistaken.  The comment in the link you provide prove nothing with regards to launch price, but instead at the strategy for roll out...to me, launching a standalone at $149 even, and rolling it down to $99 eventually is probably mroe along the lines of what he's talking about.