Editor's note: I've read a few articles about the Kinect/Move hate train now, and Matthew's is my favorite. His brusque, persuasive diction relies on his experiences as a father and his no-nonsense pragmatism: two credentials that are very hard to argue with. -James

I should be on Nintendo's payroll for my exemplary PR work since the Wii's launch. 

I can list almost a dozen friends and families that went and picked up one simply because of word of mouth buzz that I personally instigated. Your opinions of motion controls be damned; at the end of the day, it features a simple and engaging interface that a lot of people felt interested in. Granted, I wasn't able to turn those people on to something like The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, but in the end, that's not the point.  What matters is that it made gaming accessible to all those people who aren't interested in reliving adolescent male fantasies.

So it should be more than obvious that Sony and Microsoft want a piece of that pie, and they've brought their own whip cream in the form of Move and Kinect. While I am interested in and respect both technologies, neither of them will be the gaming showpiece at my parties or family game nights any time soon. Why? Because they're just too damn expensive.

Now, we could lie to ourselves and say that price shouldn't be part of the equation involved in quantifying value, but that's just what it is: a lie. Even if we weren't in a recession and jobs flowed like water, the $100-plus price tag of motion controls on top of an already $200 to $300 console isn't just a barrier to entry: It's the Berlin Wall.

What I'm about to write, in all honesty, is a bunch of hearsay and conjecture. But I can validate my opinion by stating the following: I work a solid nine to five -- as does my wife. We have a mortgage on a lovely house, bills to pay, and share three awesome little boys -- whom I don't intend to sustain on a diet solely consisting of ramen for a few weeks just so we can all ride on virtual rafts and drink magical potions.

Coming to it, the biggest problem lies in the fact that developers will view Move and Kinect as mere peripherals and not the pillar of interactive entertainment Sony and Microsoft so badly want them to be. The Wii is what it is right out of the box, and it's cheaper to boot. Granted, this gives gamers the impression that it's an inferior product because it doesn't run at a higher resolution and a lot of the titles fall into the grouping we call  "shovelware" or "minigame collections." But here's another soul crushing moment of truth to counter that: A lof people don't own an HDTV, and if they do, they don't know how to use it properly, or they just plain don't give a shit.

I personally own an Xbox 360, but even having jumped that hurdle, nothing about the Kinect compels me to pick it up. They can say "it's not for me" until they're blue in the face, but nobody I know is going to want to have a me-too experience for what equates to $100 more than a Wii (a console and a Kinect). Also, I can't think of a single piece of software that takes advantage of its unique hands-free gaming in an equally unique way. The hardware holds so much potential, and yet it's squandered on stuff that I played with a PlayStation Eye quite a few years ago.

I don't know why you're smiling at that last paragraph, Sony. Your stuff is totally derivative: a technogically improved knockoff, but a knockoff nonetheless. And your price? Steeper yet (when you include a PS3). Ease of use and accessibility were paramount to the Wii's success. Why is it that this family guy from South Dakota (me) of all places can understand that and a megacorporation like Sony can't? The Move features too many components to set up for the average user.  You need a camera and the standard remote for starters -- which isn't too bad -- but when you add in the navigation controllers (er...Nunchuks) and games that support a second set of Move controllers, even soccer moms will scream.

The pricing really is the key, and the moths in my wallet say no way.

How is it that something that should be simple has become so obtuse? Maybe it's just me, but neither of these items will cry out to me from store shelves at Walmart. And to avereage Joe Consumer? Well, I doubt that they are going to bite at paying upwards of $300 to play "that tennis game" that they heard about around the water cooler, either.

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Nintendo must be cherry red with embarassment right now.

When he isn't trying to shoot three-pointers with a remote in his hand or thinking about petting a cheetah with his imagination in front of a TV, Matthew H. Mason writes on his blog, Chronicles of an Incorrigible Games Enthusiast.  You can also follow him on the Twitter @mhmason.