Hmmm, yeah. Plus it has a clown nose for the little kids.

I change my vote, the wand will surpass the Wii after all.

What we learned from history is that we don't learn from history.

I still believe that Natal and Gem are elaborate hoaxes set to trap would be customers into a false sense of security. That or they are so full of BS and hype that the mere mention of them surpassing the Wiimote in success is a sign that they are failures before launch.

IF Natal really works and it gets compelling software to make use of it, it will indeed have a chance at attracting new audiences - those that do not want any controller at all.

For example the fitness crowd - EA Sports Active for example would be an even better exergame if I didn't have to use any controller, as quite frankly controllers are somewhat of a bother for this type of game - but ONLY IF Natal will follow my exact movements and recognize any errors I make in real time, correcting me when it needs to and correctly estimating how much effort I put in all the time (these functions are presently covered by the Wiimote and Nunchuk).

On the other hand I don't see any reason for the Gem to attract new audiences into gaming that the Wii hasn't reached.

So before MS shows any games that they are releasing for it, people should bitch about the fact that no games will work on it and the games that do, will be shovelware?

bla bla bla bla bla

And I forgot to wear my lollerskates today.

Maybe people are limited in their vision, but Microsoft hasn't yet shown any evidence (or even an indication) that Natal will work well for anything but simple games.

It doesn't seem to be able to detect fingers, or to provide an IR-aiming like feature. These two things alone, if true, will severely limit what games are possible on it. I glanced at your thread and some of your ideas seem to depend on being able to place things precisely on the screen. Of course this can be made with gestures instead of aiming, but that makes it similar to using a D-pad...

The stuff we saw working on Natal was very rough, without much precision in terms of control. Until we know for sure, it's very hard to have faith on something which capabilities we don't even know.

The lack of finger detection is definitely a let down, but it is by no means the end of gaming possibilities.  Even if it did detect fingers, you would not be able to point at something on the screen directly.  Natal has no idea where the screen is, unless you begin the game by doing some sort of calibration such as "Here I am, here is my tv".  The way on screen control is going to be done via Natal is all relative to the body.  The distances your hands are from your body are translated to screen coordinates.  Pretty simple actually since Natal has the (x,y,z) position of your entire body.  Plus, this gives allows for direct manipulation of on-screen items in 3 dimensions.  Move your hand forward and the on-screen indication moves forward as well, by getting smaller.  I really don't see how you can judge any accuracy from anything we have seen so far.

Obviously calibration relative to the screen would be needed, that would be the easy part.

Didn't they say the other day that accuracy was about 4 cm? What we saw in terms of accuracy was that "Paint Party" demo, which looked more like throwing buckets at the wall than actual painting.

I hope I'm wrong. If I'm wrong, it's because MS has done a piss poor job of showing Natal's capabilities.