I’m not going to talk about Natal in particular, because who knows what software there’ll actually be for the bloody thing, but if you’re using pure mocap for your motion control, it actually solves a lot of problems if you’re trying to do certain things (and it’s wholly compatible with well, buttons, so it’s more flexible at least). The wiimote is unsuited to completely mimicing certain types of actions because there’s a hard limit on weight and balance. A wiimote will always be as big and as heavy as… well, a wiimote.

If you’re using mocap via cam, you can actually use properly weighted and sized items or rough equivalents where necessary. So that does allow for a different type of experience. Now, I’m not saying that for the home console market it actually makes sense to do this. Space limitations are probably a bigger concern than getting weight and size right. But if someone ever brought the concept of arcades back (with more modern sensibilities), a Natal like device would make a lot more sense. Communal spaces with prop equipment and mocap capable interfaces are in many ways a vastly superior solution for numerous types of games. Doing it in your living room, perhaps not so much.