Project Natal by Microsoft uses the entire body as the controller.

Expect a battle to emerge among the PS3, Xbox360 and Wii this Christmas -- this time centered around games supporting motion sensing systems.

T&A: Initially announced and slated for release by Sony by Spring of this year, the motion controller of which a prototype was shown at E3 last year, will now makes its debut in Autumn this year, based on news from Reuters and BBC.

This puts its right-smack up against the planned launch of Microsoft’s Project Natal for the Xbox360, which according to Robbie Bach, Microsoft’s President for Entertainment & Devices Division at CES 2010, will launch by end-2010.

Project Natal is a radical controller-less motion sensing system where users use their entire body to navigate their avatars in-game. We’ve covered this as a news post awhile back.

The Sony PS3 motion controller is somewhat similar to the Wii motion sensing controller, except that in the PS3’s case, the PlayStation Eye camera atop the HDTV will detect the movements of a special light-emitting sphere on the controller instead of using infra-red sensors like the Wii.

Expect the console gaming season in Christmas 2010 to be one of the hottest ever as different console manufacturers, and game publishers for the Nintendo Wii, Microsoft Xbox 360 and Sony PlayStation 3, release games that tap on these new motion sensing systems.

Meanwhile, here’s a video of Sony’s PS3 prototyped motion sensing controllers in action at last year’s E3 2009 event in Los Angeles, USA.