You know, to me it sounds more and more likely Project Natal is premature. They showed it to the world too early, and now have rushed to get the final product to match. They are 'hoping to have' seated gameplay working, and they'll have voice interfacing...at a later date. The downgrades smack of a vision that hadn't been properly researched, and an optimistic spec sheet with four player tracking wasn't realistic. MS seem to be scrambling for a release date no matter what. Holiday Season 2010, even if it's missing half its features. Even the avatar change announcement, that's happening a few months before release, where proper testing during prototype phases would have identified this earlier. Their other casual peripheral creations, LIPS and "Your In The Movies", were similarly released without being ready.
It's like the opposite of Sony! Richard Marks does lots of research and testing and won't release a product they don't feel is ready, which means Sony sitting on tech for years and not doing anything with it. MS seem to be chasing an idea without having done the proper groundwork, and because they were so public in the beginning, the changes to the original idea which inevitably come with product development have also been public, resulting in a sorry list of downgrades and negative PR among gamers.
Fortunately for MS, that still won't impact their target audience much, but it's not a good way to run a business. I wonder who the driving force is?
Edit : It's worth noting MS have clarified this lack of voice commands is for non-English langauges, and not an inherent tech shortcoming, although that still means for non-English countries, MS are chasing their own spec sheet and you'll just have to cross your fingers they get your language working. One almost wonders why MS bother with non-English countires, seeing as they put such little effort into them!
