Isn't CES about new and cutting edge technology?

I'm not saying anything about the quality of the wands, but the tech they're using isn't anything special from what I can see.

Don't get me wrong, I'm sure the wands will do great things for the PS3, but there's no reason to show them off at a tech show when there's really not much impressive about them themselves.

I gotta agree with you, the sony wand looks like it will have the most function for actual gaming while natal looks more like a distraction for causal gaming and minigames. 

Though no form of motion control has managed to top the classic button/ mouse/ joystick input

I haven't seen much of the Wand while we've seen some early footage of Natal and the bashing it got on sites such as this one. Maybe that is why Sony isn't showing it yet, without a good game build for it to show what it can do then people are going to find faults in it. If they can show the Wand with a game build for it at the E3 then the hype is going to compleetly overshadow Natal. Not to say that Natal is doomed to fail or not as good as the Wand (nobody can judge that at this point).

The wand or GEM is that call it now is tech thats been done, though i guess on an HD system there may be... avantages somehow. but still.

I dont think that Natal or the sony wand will do a lot of good. The only reason why natal has a chance is that MS is betting a lot on its success. I'm a bit less optimistic about Sony's wand.

First off; the Sony Wiimote?
Second; maybe they realize its not going to be the second coming of christ. If they want it to be popular with the crowd outside of Vgchartz users and those like us, CES hyping won't be much use to them seeing as CES isn't exactly the epitome of casual coverage and insight.

I'm not at all hype for either. I'll wait n see. Most likely get the second version of both by than all the good games will be out by than.

Microsoft is pushing Natal so heavily because they have to ...

It is highly likely that Natal will be released in a price range where it is similar in cost to the consumer as a new console would be and (between manufacturing and marketing costs) Microsoft may still end up taking a loss on every one sold; and if Microsoft is being honest about their expectations, they will have millions manufactured prior to launch with the capacity to produce hundreds of thousands of units each month. This (of course) produces a massive risk for Microsoft because if Natal is not massively successful they will have stockpiles of units, and they may take massive losses from contracts signed with manufacturers.

Now, Microsoft can’t afford to have Natal fail and are using every method to hype the device possible; which (in itself) adds further risk to Natal because as its profile grows the profile of its success or failure grows. We are approaching a point that whether Natal is a failure or a success it will be a game-changer.

Sony’s wand has a dramatically lower risk and reward associated with it, because it will neither be an expensive enough endeavour to really hurt the company and it isn’t “Special” enough (for lack of a better word) to do much when it comes to the long-term prospects of the PS3. Even if Sony’s wand fails they are in a fairly decent position to spin the failure as “We knew developers and real-gamers were not particularly interested in motion controls.”

I suspect its because Sony aren't as whole heartedly behind their new addition as Microsoft are. Based off their E3 conference last year I would suspect that any real 1st party support coming will be from 2011 onwards so E3 gives them time to get their concepts right for show. I saw the first showing as rushed and they are not as ready for full software support as Microsoft are.