While it seems just about everyone and their mom has weighed in on the Natal debate, when Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter speaks, people listen, whether it's to criticize him for his bold predictions or not. Pachter recently predicted that Natal would outsell PS3's Arc -- five to one in fact -- simply due to the fact that it will likely be cheaper. He's not the only one who thinks the device has potential. Co-founder of Naughty Dog, Jason Rubin, recently expressed his thoughts on Natal during the latest episode of GameTrailers' Bonus Round.

"I think Natal and things like Natal are going to revolutionize more than gaming," said Rubin. "Putting Natal in the Xbox gives it the opportunity to become a lot more than just a gaming machine. The things you can do outside of gaming justifies buying Natal. If Microsoft plays its cards right it can sell far more Xbox's to people who don't buy games."

Microsoft wants Natal to replace your TV's remote control. Is that what gamers want?

[via IndustryGamers]

We all know them, love them and are aware of the great games that they make, but what makes Naughty Dog such an excellent developer?

The studio has a tendency to create a new IP every generation for the Playstation. As we all know, they are the creators of the hugely popular Crash Bandicoot franchise on the Playstation. They moved on to their Jak and Daxter series. While boasting rather similar platforming, the sequels brought guns into the mix. Of course, on the Playstation 3, they began their Uncharted franchise, which boasts amazing visuals and an incredible cinematic experience.

I list the following reasons why Naughty Dog is one of the best developers around.

Their consistency

I'm sure many of you, myself included grew up with Crash Bandicoot, having very fond memories of it being the best game around at the time. Naughty Dog managed to produce 3 great platforming games in that era as well as creating in my opinion the greatest cart racing game of all time, Crash Team Racing. What I admire about them is that they don't milk their franchises creating sequel after sequel. They have the talent to create a whole new experience, which is exactly what they did with Jak and Daxter. The franchise has definitely made a landmark on platforming games for the PS2, showcasing likable characters and innovative gameplay, which they continued throughout their time on the Playstation 2.

Jak 2 and 3 pushed the boundaries further creating the best platforming experience on the system. Moving onto the Playstation 3, Naughty Dog has once again done the same, entered the console with a new franchise delivering unforgettable experiences with its Uncharted franchise combining intricate story telling with great dialogue and great gameplay. Uncharted: Drake's Fortune is still one of the best single player experiences on the system. Do I even need to say anything about Uncharted 2? It sets the benchmark for visuals on a console and single player experiences.

My point of the praise is that Naughty Dog, time and time again has delivered and not only met expectations, but surpassed them in many cases. Every single game they have made is not only a "good" game, but a fantastic game. To rank the top games of all time on each Playstation console, a Naughty Dog game will pop up on everyone's list. This is no small feat, and I applaud them immensely for this.

Their support for their fans and online community

Uncharted 2 being their first online multiplayer game ever is one hell of an entry. I myself am an avid fan of the online and have sunk hundreds of hours into it. While following closely on the online news and being part of the community, I have been very impressed with Naughty Dog's involvement. They are constantly updating the game with title updates and bug fixes, trying to make the online experience as best as they possibly can. While many other developers do this, I am impressed with the level at which Naughty Dog has done it.

I have been impressed seeing Arne, Senior Manager of Marketing Communications answering many questions that people ask on their website and forwarding feedback to the team. They have just announced more DLC, which is very impressive. It will contain more maps, skins, medals and trophies. I'm sure they will continue their efforts on the online, further pleasing the community.

Their culture

From watching many interviews and behind-the-scenes footage, Naughty Dog operates differently to other developers I have seen. First of all, they are open with their methods and have talked with many developers, including Bungie, Infinity Ward and Insomniac. They also have what seems like a fantastic work environment which is described as having no hierarchy of power. All employees have equals rights and contribute to the company. The employees are open with each other and work very closely together. It's not a matter of "here is the finished product, add your part to it,"  it's a collaboration of the ideas of all employees. Issues are pointed out and worked on until a desirable outcome is reached. This means that all teams are constantly communicating with each other.

This also applies to the voice acting. Creativity is encouraged and many lines in the game are improvised by the voice actors adding their own style to it, It was not a case of reading between the lines. Another interesting method is that they also give their employees a break after games are developed, this gives them time to relax and think of new ideas, it is reported that most ideas came from this time period. Certainly a unique company, but whatever they are doing is paying off.

Their effort and talent

While silly and rather hard to justify, it shows. In just two short years, they have managed to attain such progress in their games, the jump from Uncharted: Drake's Fortune to Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is astonishing. In two short years, they have redone their own engine, which has produced the best visuals on a console to date, showcasing breathtaking environments and amazing character models. They also added their first online mode to any of their games and an in-depth one at that, having fantastic co-operative and competitive modes while retaining the same amazing visuals in the game. Not only this, but delivering arguably the best single player experience ever. Amy Hennig wasn't kidding when she said they slaved in those two years.

I myself am a huge fan of all of Naughty Dog's work and appreciate the effort they put into their games. I hope you appreciate them a bit more and that they continue to make great games in the future.

Naughty Dog's website gets an upgrade as more stats are available for Uncharted 2 players to check out.

Naughty Dog's Arne Meyer writes:

"It’s been a while in the works—we recently made a major update to NaughtyDog.com to add a ton more detail to everyone’s multiplayer stats and we think you’ll really like this website update. There’s still a few things here and there that need tweaking and updating, but this update brings us quite close to our original vision of displaying multiplayer stats from UNCHARTED 2."

Once we get back to the studio in 2010 we’ll be looking at how we can potentially expand our stats display further. We’d love to hear your thoughts on the new stats display and the types of things you’d like to see, so please let us know in the comments or in the PlayStation.com forums.

Below is a brief overview of what’s new and updated with multiplayer stats.

Career

• We’re now displaying expanded details of competitive and cooperative stats separately
• Many personal stats can compared to global averages
• You can now view in-depth stats for any single gametype, map or valid combination of both

Match History

• A full history of previously played matches is now available
• Per match details by player is now available as well

Weapons

• Updated the kills by and deaths by stats to be accurate for competitive games only

Medals

• Competitive and cooperative medals awarded has been split out into two separate pages

A couple things to note:

• Currently, custom games aren’t displayed or factored into all the stats.
• There is delay before a match you’ve played shows up in your match history while we process the stats. The delay will vary depending on how many games are being played that day across the entire player population—please, be patient if it doesn’t show up quickly!

Naughty Dog, the developer behind the critically-acclaimed PS3 exclusive Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, praised the Wii in a recent interview with G4TV. However, the studio is also a subsidiary of Sony, so we won't be seeing any Wii titles from them any time soon. Naughty Dog co-president Evan Wells was asked if the developer was considering motion controls for any of their next projects.

"I'm not a Wii hater at all, in fact, it’s probably one of my most played consoles in the house," he responded. "I have a 3-year old son which might account for some of that, but I think Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort are some of the best experiences of this generation, honestly. They’re immensely playable and competitive, and just great fun with a group of people in the same room.

However, Wells said that the studio has no intentions to use motion controls in their games. "We really don’t have any interest in using the motion control to do a third-person action game," he explained.

That said, he didn't dismiss the concept for all PlayStation 3 games. "Yeah, I think the PlayStation audience is totally for it, in fact, I bet you there are lot of closet Wii owners in the PlayStation community," added Wells. "If there is some really good software for that motion controller, I think it can be a big, big success."

In an interview with G4Tv, Naughty Dog co-president Evan Wells commented on the prospect of more content for Uncharted 2's co-op. It's certainly a possibility the company is exploring, but nothing's set in stone, and it doesn't sound like they're too firm on the topic.

"The objective-style co-op that we have where we have those little narrative moments…It's something that we are considering and we'd really like to do, but it's a much, much bigger investment of time because we have to do a lot of motion capture with the actors and record a lot of voices," explained Wells. "So we would absolutely want make sure that we talk to our community and make sure there was the proper demand for it."

Below is a list of what is different:

• Added Version number to game menu – should display 1.03 after this update
• Added Clan Tags – all players can now add a custom four letter Clan Tag in the Profile Menu (square) to display on-screen before their PSN ID
• Load times have been decreased significantly
• Added “Rematch” functionality
• Adjusted some Boosters for balance
• Addressed issue with Player’s Met screen in game menu and XMB displaying incorrectly
• Addressed issue with Double Cash not doubling medal cash rewards

We’ve also made a slew of other changes to improve player experience.

I spoke with our multiplayer lead designer, Justin, to give us the lowdown on what’s so great about a few of these updates. Justin quickly shot me back an e-mail with the following info:

Clan Tags is an addition we’ve been working for a while on. While it’s not full Clan support, we wanted to be sure that everybody can fly their Clan colors within UNCHARTED 2 multiplayer. Support for this is available to all players from the very beginning and can be edited within the player Profile menu – the same place where you choose your boosters.

We have significantly decreased load times . You will notice that the game loads into a map much faster after leaving the vote screen. This will help get players into games faster and keep people playing instead of waiting in the menu system.

We have also added Rematch functionality. At the end of a game, all players will be put back into matchmaking together, allowing you to play the same group of people over again. This decreases wait times, while still allowing people to leave after a match if they so desire. Again, this gets people into games faster and allows more time playing and less time in the menus – all of which is a very, very good thing!

As we can see, many great improvements, I personally found all improvements are great and the loading times after voting is almost non existent.

Its official, Uncharted 2 wins Game of the Year at the 2009 Video Game Awards. A well-deserved game that definitely did deserve Game of the Year. Selling millions of copies and receiving critical acclaim from around the world, Naughty Dog has created a masterpiece.