Scot Bayless, a former studio manager at Microsoft, thinks Project Natal will 'fail'
Bayless was a Senior Producer at Sega of America when the 32X peripheral launched for the Mega Drive/Genesis, and thinks a similar fate could befall Microsoft's upcoming add-on. "When I met with Microsoft in 2008 to look at Natal I asked: 'When will you integrate this into the 360?'" Bayless said in the latest issue of Retro Gamer. "Their response was: 'We're probably going to wait and see on that.' To which I said: Then you're going to fail.'"
The games industry veteran, who has also held executive roles at EA, Midway and Capcom, believes the peripheral will split consumers, putting off developers. "Plays like this always fragment and the disincentive to developers is powerful; when I'm spending tens of millions on a game, the last thing I want to do is lose 90 per cent of my market."