OneAndOneIs2

...are "I told you so"

I started saying, years ago, when the next-gen console wars between Xbox 360 and PS3 were just starting to heat up, that neither of them would win because the Wii was clearly superior to either of them.

Not just because it was cheaper for customers and more profitable for Nintendo (PS3 and the 360 both cost more than they sold for when they launched, unlike the Wii), but because Nintendo had clearly understood that gaming superiority isn't about how close to photo-realistic the graphics are.

All the Xbox and PS had to offer was souped-up versions of the same games the originals had, and irrelevant excess features. Sure, you can watch a DVD on your Xbox, but so what? Everyone already has DVD players, we buy games machines to play games on, not watch movies.

The Wii had a completely new way of interacting with the games, and because you couldn't hide crap games behind beautiful graphics, they had no choice but to make the games fun to play.

The detractors of the Wii generally point to its relatively-underpowered graphics hardware as a huge flaw. They're quite right that I've never seen a Wii game as close to photo-realistic as the 360 or PS3 can manage.

But so what? Gaming is about having fun, and games don't become less fun because they have less-sophisticated graphics hardware.

You might just as well say that The Simpsons will never be as entertaining as Big Brother, because the primitive, blocky cartoons don't look realistic enough.

So it's nice to see on ars technica that the Wii is still unarguably superior to both the Xbox and the Playstation in one arena that is both measurable and highly-important: Sales numbers.

It must be particularly galling for Microsoft, the company that dismissed the Wii as underpowered and lacking in features, to be watching their own machine come last, with 1.3 million sold in December, when Nintendo came first with an amazing 3.8 million Wiis sold in the same period.

I was having an argument with a fervent gamer last year about consoles. He maintained that the graphics of the Xbox made it far superior to all other consoles. I held to my view that the Wii was the only console worth buying.

Neither of us changed the others' mind.. but judging by how the general population is voting with their wallets, I think I win this one on points :o)