The Project Natal. The Revolution has Come!

Microsoft claims that Project Natal will “revolutionize home entertainment”but according to one analyst Sony’s motion controller is “superior from a gaming perspective.”

Project Natal wowed many a gamer and journalist at E3 with its fluid body-based controls courtesy of a 3D motion sensing camera ti detect every shimmy and shake. However not everyone’s as impressed.

speaking to Gamasutra Industry analyst Doug Creutz believes Natal is a solution to a problem that wasn’t there and that Sony’s own motion controller is a better gaming proposition.

“The Project Natal demo from Microsoft got most of the ink, but I really thought Sony’s demo was superior from a gaming perspective,” said Creutz.

“Natal appeared to me to be a technological solution in search of a problem. “Do I really care if I can navigate my Netflix queue without using a controller?

Fair point with Netflix. But what about games?

“I had a very hard time envisioning playing Modern Warfare 3 using Natal. By contrast, I had a very easy time envisioning it (and enjoying it) using Sony’s control/motion capture scheme.

Creutz seemed to admit that while Natal could be a worthy addition to the casual games market existing fans of casual games, who are likely to have a Wii will be non too pleased at having upgrade twice (don’t forget MotionPlus).

“Microsoft appears to be trying to steal casual gamers away from Nintendo, which is a difficult proposition given that you’re essentially asking casual gamers to upgrade twice during the cycle (assuming they already own a Wii).

Creutz suggested that Sony has the better gaming strategy by concentrating on what the company knows rather than attempt to go all-out casual.

“In contrast, Sony is squarely targeting the core gamer market, which is what they need to be doing,”

Strong words. Is Microsoft simply copying the Wii or will it really “revolutionize home entertainment” as Microsoft says?