It’s been a few months since E3, so I suppose I should quit being lazy and finally weigh in with my opinions on the motion controller systems unveiled by both Microsoft and Sony at the annual event. As we all know, both companies have been shellacked by the Nintendo Wii, and while they made fun of the Wii’s motion controls at first, they realized very quickly that the technology appeals to a much wider audience, and that’s where the money is! It was only a matter of time before Microsoft and Sony would follow suit in grand fashion.

Now let’s get down to the actual tech. We’ll begin with Microsoft’s Project Natal, a very ambitious peripheral designed to be used in conjunction with their Xbox 360 console. Natal uses a special camera for full body and object tracking; it’s much like the PlayStation 2 EyeToy, and the PlayStation 3 Eye, but to an even finer degree. The tech demo the company showed off at E3 was astounding, and the potential applications are nearly limitless. Headtracking in a FPS, perhaps? Gesture-based menu selection in an RPG? And, of course, physical tracking for sports games, which was exactly what was shown in the demo.

Let’s move on to Sony’s motion controller, which doesn’t have an official name yet. The big difference is that this PlayStation 3 add-on still uses a controller; the prototype is a wand-like device with a glowing orb on the end, but I think we can rest assured that the silly thing will look considerably different once it reaches the production stage. Anyway, Sony’s reasoning behind keeping a controller as part of the process is that they believe some experiences still require it. This would enable users to, for example, use the controller as a gun in a FPS; moving around would move the player character, and you’d still have physical buttons to press for firing and rapid weapon and item switching.

As you can see, both companies’ offerings have unique strengths and applications. While all of this sounds exciting, they’re still missing something big: most self-described “hardcore gamers” don’t want to get their fat asses off the couch. The Wii’s more physical gameplay model works because it’s bringing in people from outside the lazy gamer stereotype. Microsoft and Sony’s technologies look fantastic, but unless there’s a strong push to adopt them across the board by both developers and the fanbase, then they’re going to stall.