Pachter weighs-in on upcoming Arc and Natal retail war

With both Sony's Arc and Microsoft's Natal landing in stores later in the year, Michael Pachter has concluded who he thinks will win the motion controller war, and it all has to do with price point.

"The key to success with a retrofitted motion controller is penetration," Pachter told NowGamer. "If price points are high, it is unlikely that Natal or Sony’s motion controller will sell many units; if they are very low, they will sell a lot more. Without a meaningful installed base of consoles with the new motion controllers, developers will not be able to cost justify development of games that require motion control.

"Therefore, it’s a chicken and egg problem.

"My uninformed opinion is that Microsoft will price relatively low (around $50), and Sony will price higher (around $100), and that suggests that Microsoft will have greater success.

"If my assumed price points are off the mark, the outcome will be different."

While Sony has continued to remain rather quiet regarding its controller - unless you count changing its release date or denying its name time and time again - Microsoft has instead been relatively open with Natal.

Aaron Greenberg even predicted that it will be in "millions" of homes come Holiday 2010.

Guess we'll find out once the holidays hit who wins the match- hopefully, it's the consumer.