Where Disney currently stands with Natal

Given the family audience Microsoft is targeting with Project Natal, it seems natural that Disney would have a game ready for the system’s launch. That’s not a sure bet, though, says Graham Hopper, president of Disney Interactive Studios. “That’s an interesting question we’re deciding now,” he says. “For us, doing something just to be there [at launch] doesn’t have a lot of appeal. There’s an impetus to be first just for the sake of being first, but we won’t do that.”

That said, there’s plenty of internal enthusiasm for the motion-based controller. And the founder of Bungie Software is leading the charge on it.

Alex Seropian joined Disney last month to act as a ‘coach,’ of sorts to the expanding internal staff of developers. One of his first meetings upon joining was related to Natal and where Disney stood with the peripheral.

Disney’s other ace-in-the-hole, developer Warren Spector, won’t be contributing to any Natal-driven efforts in the near future as he continues work on “Epic Mickey” for the Wii, but it’s a safe bet he’ll be looking closely at the device once that game is out the door.

“I’m completely convinced that gesture controls are the future of gaming,” he says.