Some interesting chatter has been taking place over the last couple of weeks about Natal. Speaking with some of our development and studio sources, many of them are questioning if Microsoft has already gone too far in its demos to show examples of what kind of experience Natal can deliver.

The biggest example, of course, is the much talked about “skateboard sequence” where a teenager comes in with a skateboard and Natal magically scans the skateboard and incorporates it into the skateboarding game. That sequence has been described to us secretly by one of our sources as, “a lot of Star Trek Holodeck sci-fi wishful thinking” at this point.  The source we spoke with said that it certainly can’t be ruled out as possible with the right equipment and hardware, it would appear to be impossible with what Natal is today.

With Microsoft expecting to be able to move millions and millions of the Natal hardware, the focus has to be on the software that is going to drive the buying. Unconfirmed reports suggest that Microsoft has been able to get 70 percent of their stable of developers to commit to developing for Natal. This, of course, is good news; but expect the majority of developers to deliver a dual experience, meaning that released titles will have both controller and Natal support to start with. Don’t expect to see many exclusive Natal-only titles to start with.

While Microsoft will answer a lot of questions when they officially launch Natal prior to E3 in June, like many we will be very interested to see what kind of experience the release product will provide. Our sources tell us not to expect too much, as it will not be the kind of ‘way out’ sci-fi experience that you may have thought you were going to get.