I sense undertone of sony hate in those words you've typed there jim.

This --> "I just want the whole silly fascination with motion control to end."

Asking us what we think is kind of silly, is it not? I mean, most of us haven't touched either of these input methods, only seen them on the internet and TV.

But it was never supposed to be a real question, was it? Just a subtle way to get fanboys all riled up.

You're amazing, Sterling. God bless you.

There's so much bias in the world.

I like motion controls and i cannot lie

I dunno. I don't mind motion control as long as it doesn't require too much input from my fat ass. While not quite as interesting as Natal, I see myself enjoying Sony's dildos more than MS's box of magic lag.

This...makes perfect sense. I favor neither but this sounds logical.

In before awesome Sexual rant.

Has he even played with Natal or Sony's Wand? If not, he needs to stfu.

Same as infinte combo, he hasn't tested natal so what proof does he have to say it will "lag"

Eh. Natal looks more fun, but I doubt it'll have many games, since to develop for it, you would have to ONLY develop for it. Sony Wiimote looks like it'll at least have the potential to have it's games co-developed with Wii games.

personally i agree. and i do think that gaming will benefit from motion controls

TBH, wii is far more interesting then recycled FPS games a la 360

EternalDeathSlayer: I think we are all capable of speculation.

So Natal is still laggy? Well that doesn't sound great for its future, since it was reported to be laggy at TGS back in September. Plus if developers are complaining about it now, the launch is less than a year away. So the games are probably half way into the development cycle, it might be too late to fix it now.

"The Wii has done barely anything truly innovative so far."

Oh come on give Nintendo at least a little credit, because if that was the case than Sony, and Microsoft wouldn't be jumping head first into motion controls by copying what Nintendo has done. It's Sony, and Microsoft who are trying to caught up to what the Wii is doing right now, not the other way around!

I know Jim, I was just playing around. It's strange actually; I see all these people accuse you of posting flamebait and shit, and I actually find myself searching every article trying to find out what's going to piss somebody off.

Also, @ PEICanada7: Sony and MS are copying Nintendo because they see dollar signs. Just because a bunch of dumbass consumers blindly flock to the Wii does not make it truly innovative. Sure, it's changed things, but when broken down bit by bit there is nothing really different about it, besides the fact that it makes my arms tired even more than jerking off does.

Oh, I guess to be fair we could say that it has made games more accessible and easier to play for non-gamers, but that's not really innovative, it's just dumbing down what we already have.

When you look at where this generation is right now, you kinda feel like this motion input craze will flop. On the Wii, it works great for mini-games and very specific stuff, but when you play a major AAA game, that tech feels half-baked.

When a great hardcore game made by someone else than Nintendo releases on the Wii, it completely fails at retail, driving companies to just ship mini-game collections, and other non-games for it.

And when you add up how many PS3s and XBOX360s are already in homes, without that technology, you come up with the fabulous number 64 million !

I think that if Microsoft or Sony whishes to make this thing work, they would basically have to give their peripheral for free with every new system AND track down every corrent customer they have & mail them the stuff without asking them if they want it or not.

Then, and only then, IF they make a good game for it, maybe it won't be a flop.

At this point, a game that only uses that tech and isn't compatible with the older control scemes of those consoles are pretty much doomed from the start.
Even a 15 year console cycle can't make an add-on like this break critical mass. Just like the Wii is really suffering from not having a regular controller sometimes...
At least , if we are lucky, some "traditional" game might use those new "toys" in tandem with normal controls to bring something new to the table.
The first thing that comes to my mind is including HEAD TRACKING in a FPS...

By the way, copying Nintendo serves no purpose simply because even Nintendo doesn't know why people bought so many WIIs ! How can a copycat add-on, late in the game, with no launch buzz and no software to push it, is gonna compete with a console that is already in the living room of everyone interested in what it has to offer?

When Sony introduced their Eyetoy it was just a feature you could play and have fun with, but Microsoft wants to start a revolution with an accessory that's actually based on that same Eyetoy.
And while Nintendo are owning the casual market with their motion controls, I wonder what Microsoft and Sony are trying to achieve with theirs. Are they aiming for casual market more, or are they're really going for innovative controls. If that's what they're going for, that should turn out interesting. But at first we will suffer through huge waves of casual stuff for a couple of years, till the developers will figure out how to use this new types of controls properly. And that will happen if more 3-d party developers will be involved in this, because at first we'll see stuff from MS and Sony's first-party devs.
And if MS are aiming for causality and accessibility with their Natal, while Sony are going for innovation in terms of controls mechanics, which is likely, that's where their path will split.
And It's been almost 5 years since 360 is out, so for Microsoft Natal is not only a new toy, but it's also their way to keep 360 from drowning. Because with every single Playstation console, Sony are aiming for 10 years of lifespan, while original Xbox was one the market for only 4 years. If Natal will fail, they'll have to release a new console in a 2 or 3 years from now. And by that time the gaming industry will become Sony's Kingdom once again probably.

Seems like exactly what any reasonable person would conclude from what Microsoft and Sony are offering.

Sony's Sexaxis motion controlling dildo has proven gameplay applications (as well as obvious theoretical ones) that have been shown to work, with varying degrees of success on the Wii due to the limitations of Nintendo's implementation. It isn't going to be great for everything, but it will work well for enough kinds of games that it will not merely be a gimmick. Sony has a number of hurdles to overcome in making the Sexaxis Motion Dildo a success, but with the right combination of quality software, distribution, and pricing they could make it happen. I wouldn't bet my shiny nickel on it though. Given Sony's historical record with keeping secrets we should know by now if they were making the right moves to position this thing for success, and last I heard they were still working on whether they needed a nunchuk-like offhand controller (spoiler: they do) or whether it would work well enough to require people to hold a Dualshock 3 with one hand.

Natal on the other hand is, in practice, a high fidelity EyeToy, a concept that failed in real world gameplay applications, not due to low fidelity, but due to being fundamentally not fun as a gameplay mechanic. It is really neat technology that surely does have applications for which it will be useful. None of those however are fun or interesting video games. If I were betting my shiny nickel I'd put it on there being one *almost* fun tech demo that is relatively neat (Microsoft's EyeToy:AntiGrav, if you will) amid a sea of shovelware garbage of no real value and a catalog-wide push by Microsoft to get Natal-powered gimmicks into every even semi-major release, a move that will fail to entice players who aren't already interested while simultaneously failing to deliver a compelling experience for those who do make the jump early.

I'll also make the side bet (of a shiny penny!) that when Natal comes out of the gate limping Microsoft will rush to put some sort of (by then referred to as) Sexaxis-like controller in the hands of Natal users because holding something with buttons is more functional than waving your arms like a fool. They might even re-brand this device Natal HD.

"Playstation's motion control will allow Wii ports" - This. No More Heroes like it's supposed to be played!

"lack of physical buttons is really going to restrict the kind of games that can be done with it" OMG finally someone on the game midia think what i think!!horray!Natal will give us a lot of new gamming expiriences but IMO it is limited to the ones that allready exist.yes i like sony controler more, but i can see natal being more sucefull, since i think it will have a more casual appel. Sonys motion thing probably wont be a huge seller,but with the rigth game, Natal can sell over 10 million

"last I checked, the 360 controller has force feedback and since Natal let's you use a controller with it I'm having a hard time relating to your argument."

But what would be the point of that?

Other than facial recognition (which, aside from player creation, is going to have limited use), the only thing you could reasonably do with a controller in your hand is ducking/dodging. Very few, if any, developers who primarily use the 360's dual-analog controller in their games will bother including such a minor feature as duck/dodge.

And let's not forget that every massively successful console, from the Game Boy to the PS2 to the Wii to the iPhone has had a enthusiast-backing. If you don't have that enthusiasm from the enthusiasts at the onset, there will be no one to recommend these things to the non-enthusiast majority.

At this point, Nintendo has lost a sizable portion of the enthusiasts who originally backed the Wii BUT they had them at launch and a year or two after and there are still many who recommend it to family. It's not just marketing, Microsoft has advertised the 360 far more than Nintendo has the Wii—they even had a year's head start—but they were easily overtaken because the 360 was a bit too 'hardcore' for most enthusiasts to recommend it to their non/casual-gaming friends and family.

I don't care for either. People need to quit drinking the kool aid the execs and pr guys keep spitting out about these things. Even some of the mainstream press have crowned Natal one of the most innovative technologies ever. Stupid stupid people like lemmings to a cliff edge.

Im looking forward to the PS3 Gem. As a gamer who would not be. It will be a day one purchase. Natal is still up in the air for me. Until I see it really in action(IE used with a game) then Ill hold my judgement.

Personally I think both will be failures. Sony already has the PSEye and they've done little to nothing with it. Nobody really seems interested in games that are based on user imput as control.

I think most gamers will continue to want the option to use the standard controller.

When all is said and done, I'm just expecting the next Nintendo console. They know they'll need something REALLY innovative to keep their momentum.

@Marusdragon it's been done with 1 wii mrs and 2 led lights.