Senior Nintendo marketing vice president George Harrison has described the rivalry between MS and Sony as a 'war' which is fuelled largely by who can spend the most money rather than who can attract the largest audience. Harrison commented that Nintendo are happy to stay out of their little war and feel that there is a big audience which the big two are not talking to.

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George Harrison, senior vice-president for marketing at Nintendo of America, describes Microsoft and Sony's rivalry as a competition over who can spend the most money on games rather than attract the largest audience. (Microsoft recently spent $50 million on additional exclusive content for Grand Theft Auto IV, five times as much money as was spent developing the Xbox 360's current best-selling game, Gears of War, according to statements made by Epic Games Vice-President Mark Rein.)

"We're happy to stay out of that," Harrison says. "Microsoft is going to get their Halo fans. Sony is going to get their Ridge Racer fans. We just feel that there's a whole audience that no one is talking to."

He could be right. Nintendo is set to reenergize its classic franchises with Wii games like Mario Galaxy and Super Smash Bros. Brawl, where the company's archetypal characters Star Fox and Link duke it out in an arena-style format. And although less than 10 million Wii consoles have been sold, Wilson expects sales to jump to 16 million by the end of the year.

And while at one point it seemed as if Nintendo were crazy to introduce a console without advanced technology or high-definition graphics, the naysayers are looking increasingly wrong. If the Wii takes the lead this holiday season, expect publishers to continue shifting development resources toward casual games to capitalize on the console's success.