Crutial to capture the imagination of the mass-market is to bundle a game or, more likely, a pack of mini-games with natal. It worked with Wii Sports and it will work with Natal or Xbox540, as I call it from now on.

Maybe in 2014 or later we will then see a complete new Xbox720.

In this industry, products are regularly advertised multiple years before projected release. Why should tech be different?

Microsoft will definitely package it with some new 360s, along with a controller, though I’m not sure it makes sense to package Natal with all versions.

If they were not losing money on the 360 hardware through reliability issues, I’d say they’ll probably sell Natal sensors for less than cost. Microsoft sells a lot of games per console due to have so many quality games. That quality will transfer over, and the 360 will quickly have more quality motion control games than the Wii. The software sales will be able to support a Natal hardware discount.

Microsoft just needs to be sure to market the 360 against the Wii as more than motion control gaming. Netflix is a strong selling point for consumers who game rarely or not at all. High-definition motion gaming and on-demand movies (and television?) are a powerful combination. Microsoft’s selling point needs to be that plus a simple interface which mimics the universally familiar action of browsing channels on TV.

That is a an interesting theory and a complete possibility I suppose. I’m more apt to believe that they will just make Natal a standard part of the 360 package. Getting a sizable Natal install base as quickly as possible will be key to getting 3rd party publishers on board. I just don’t think splitting the target user into Natal owners v/s non Natal owners would be the best idea. They should be making all 360 owners(or atleast future 360 owners) Natal owners. They need to get the word Natal as far away from the word “add-on” and “periphrial” as possible.

I don’t see why they can’t skip an upcoming 360 price drop, and pack Natal standard with all sku’s. Sure they will likely have to take a loss on it at launch, but so is the launch of a console. In a recent interview with Shane Kim, he likened Natals launch to that of the 360.

Until the cats out of the bag, who really knows though?

I dont see them offering a dumbed down version of the NXE simply because that would be more costly then it would be to not do it. Why slim down the NXE, Im sure MS will want to sell Natal users on Netflix, HD movies and other downloadable content.

Perhaps the Natal 360 will be the first slim 360.

Oh, and I think the reason Natal is black is so it won’t clash with the TVs it will be attached to, unlike the HDDVD player, I dont think its meant to sit on top of the 360, from what I saw of it, it sits above or below your TV screen, neatly integrating into the appearance of the TV itself.

While it’s lifespan may be limited it fills a very important space. Wii owners are not going to jump to 360 before Natal ships, but anyone contemplating a Wii will now think twice and with PDP Freedom / Lips etc they may be inclined to rather go the 360 route in anticipation of Natal.