Sony’s nascent Motion Control system, as revealed at E3, is “superior” to Microsoft’s Project Natal. That’s the pronouncement of one esteemed gamesbiz analyst.

Nope, it's not Michael Pachter this time. Instead Doug Creutz, of investment banking specialists Cowen and Company, is the man with the controversial message:

"The Project Natal demo from Microsoft got most of the ink, but I really thought Sony's demo was superior from a gaming perspective," he tells Gamasutra.

"Natal appeared to me to be a technological solution in search of a problem. Do I really care if I can navigate my Netflix queue without using a controller? I had a very hard time envisioning playing Modern Warfare 3 using Natal. By contrast, I had a very easy time envisioning it (and enjoying it) using Sony's control/motion capture scheme.

Okay, so Creutz’s opinion is not exactly gospel in as much as it is informed by a possible failure to grasp Natal’s full potential. Although we can see where he’s coming from – it’ll be a tragic state of affairs if all we end up with is a bunch of games and applications where Natal functionality is shoddily implemented just because it’s there. That’s the big problem with much of the Wii’s catalogue, after all.

Elsewhere Creutz hits the Natal nail more squarely on the head:

“Microsoft appears to be trying to steal casual gamers away from Nintendo, which is a difficult proposition given that you're essentially asking casual gamers to upgrade twice during the cycle (assuming they already own a Wii).”
“In contrast, Sony is squarely targeting the core gamer market, which is what they need to be doing. Of course, there is a wide chasm between a demo and a finished, playable, appropriately-priced product.”

Well, fair points or not, the jury is still most definitely out on both products until they launch. Meanwhile it remains the responsibility of both platform holders to ensure the possibilities of their new technologies are fully – and sensibly – realised. Fingers crossed that doesn’t turn out to be some crazy, hopeless dream...