Scot Bayless has done time at Microsoft as a studio manager, a senior producer at Sega, and has also held executive roles at Midway, Capcom, EA. He's been around the block. And now he's making the news rounds for calling out Microsoft's upcoming Natal motion-sensing game technology, saying that it's going to fail.
"When I met with Microsoft in 2008 to look at Natal I asked: 'When will you integrate this into the 360?'" Bayless stold Retro Gamer magazine. "Their response was: 'We're probably going to wait and see on that.' To which I said: Then you're going to fail.'"
That's a pretty early call in my book, but he does go on to say taht he feels like the lack of integration could hurt developer interest.
"Plays like this always fragment and the disincentive to developers is powerful; when I'm spending tens of millions on a game, the last thing I want to do is lose 90 per cent of my market."
Again, this feels like a call that's way too early. I'd think with all that experience he'd know that waiting and seeing is the best bet. Who knows, maybe gamers will go nuts over Natal. Besides, calling Microsoft out for Natal's rumored $150 price point seems more solid right now.
Ex-Microsoft Studio Boss: 'Natal Will Fail' [NowGamer]
Dale North is Destructoid's Editor-In-Chief, a founding editor, and specialist in Japanese gaming. An accomplished musician, Dale was reporting from Japan during the earthquakes of 2011. Luckily, he got the fuck out alive and is home in America now with his wife and beloved corgi, Einstein. Dale is also a co-founder of Destructoid's sister anime site
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Contest:
12:00 PM on 05.27.2010 | 
Meh there needs to be more information on Natal before I can mark it as a power glove.
Maybe parents will pick it up for their kids for Xmas or if they have a famaily but the Halo playing, CoD shooting, Mass Effect popping, Crackdown showstopping players will not pick this up.
Did I do it right?
but i still agree with scot bayless!!!!
sigh
Still if you develop cheap enough games for launch, and there's not a metric fuck ton of other titles out at launch you're pretty well guaranteed that most Natal owners are going to buy your game just on the basis that they need something to play on their new toy.
I predict a bunch of shovelware as it gets off the ground and if it takes hold and finds its way into more homes quality software will follow.
Personally I'm not sold on Natal or Move, but so far I think the Move combination of wand/nunchuk/eyetoy looks a bit more interesting.
Microsoft's E3 press conference suddenly turns pitch black. A spotlight appears over a man, center stage, facing the audience. In a large screen behind him is a ball of clay against a white background. The man uses only his hands and a natal camera to mold the clay into whatever he wants. He proceeds to create a world filled with creatures your imagination cannot yet perceive. Then, he interacts with his creation with gamers across the globe.
The audience is quite for a moment, followed by a sudden roar of applause.
Or they could just do that Cirque de Soleil performance I keep hearing about. That'll win gamers over.
I lawled.
Besides that, if they stripped out the internals of Natal to drop the price and it *still* costs $150, I call bull on that.I'd be satisifed with high cost-high functionality or low functionality-low cost, but not high cost-low functionality.
But I should hold my outrage for an officially announced price.
And if the $150 price point is true... It'll never take off. I think even at $50 they're still going to have trouble getting people to buy one.
In the end, it will only be as good as it's games I suppose, but when you develop tech without a need you WILL get shit product.
Either of those would win me over.
Regardless, I guarantee every one of the next generation of Xboxes come with Natal (and hopefully a hard drive).
natal will have a better shot waiting for the next generation of consules when it can be integrated into Xbox'x just like Wii's motion controls.
@thefaulk
Who says he was "fired" as opposed to "quit"
It's a big waste of money, if you ask me.
If developers aren't willing to to agree on hardware where is the future of Natal?
To be honest even the creators don't seem thrilled about Natal from Scott's words.
And marketing the thing as a "casual-only"-device will rather alienate their customer base than winning new ones.
i say fat chance, because if lazy gamer x isn't going to be sold on the AMAZING games that have come out for current motion controlling consoles, it's just not going to happen.
I rest my case.
In fact, I think both Natal and Move will end up being relative failures at the end of the day (though perhaps they can keep the tech for future gens?).
The Wii is successful because EVERY owner of EVERY Wii has access to the same motion controls, as do the game developers. Hell, even the Wii Motion Plus appears to be dead in the water with little support.
You simply can't introduce new add-on tech requiring all new games and expect it to succeed.
Sony might have the upper leg here though because theoretically it might be possible to PATCH in Move support to some older games, creating a base library on day one for a new product. I'm sure it can't be done for ALL games, but it's got to be possible for some.
MS on the other hand has a buttonless interface that, even if they could somehow patch in Natal support to older games, it would be meaningless because only games specifically designed for the thing have any chance of being decent when controlled by it. Also, Natal is apparently a pretty serious piece of tech and likely processor-heavy, meaning any game already using most of the 360s power would have a hard time running with Natal at the same time.
However, I see the same thing happening for the Move, unless Sony tries to keep Move games DualShock3 capable... which would just kill support for the Move.
"Just because nintendo was successful with it doesn't mean sony and microsoft should follow suit."
It's called progress. Building on one's idea's and innovations. Nintendo patented one of the first "traditional" controller setups. It would only make sense for others to follow suit.
Maybe I am lacking in vision, but I'm going to stick with regular controllers until they really get this motion controls thing down.
"You think you can motion control? How about this, bitch!"
Natal, as outstanding as the technology is, lacks some real incentive for owning one. But knowing Microsoft, there may well be a "rabbit-in-the-hat" coming soon in order to shift those Natal units.
But overall, I can't help but feel rather skeptical regarding Sony's as Microsoft's entry into the motion control market.
Then again, everybody felt the same about the Wii, back in 2006...