Iwata: Nintendo passed on camera technology

For all the talk about Microsoft's Project Natal, one man isn't impressed -- in fact, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata told the Financial Times that he's quite literally seen it before. Or, at least, he's seen motion-sensing cameras before.

Iwata told FT that Nintendo had previously experimented with camera-based motion sensing, but found better results with the accelerometers that became the basis of the Wii Remote. "Until they say when they're releasing it, how much it costs and what software it comes with," Iwata said, "we won't know whether that is the route we should have taken. However . . . I think they couldn't choose to release exactly the same thing."

Of course, it must be noted that pretty much everyone has seen motion-sensing cameras in games before, because Sony sold a lot of them starting in 2003. The idea isn't new, and thus it's not at all surprising that Nintendo has tried it. It's even less surprising that Iwata is psyching out Microsoft by downplaying the technology.

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/06/10/iw...ra-technology/