HOWZAT

The early sales figures tell only part of the story. There is ample evidence that there is more buzz and excitement surrounding the Wii. For example, dedicated gamers have been camping out to queue up for the limited stocks available, and forming online discussion groups to help track them down. In the UK, Hitwise, the internet-data firm, has reported that Nintendo Wii has suddenly become the most searched-for gadget, quickly overtaking Apple’s Ipod.

“Nintendo seems to have stolen the high ground in terms of playability and entertainment value,” said Paul Jackson at Forrester Research. “Nintendo seems to be surfing this wave of public interest and this idea of accessibility that they started with Nintendogs and these brain games.”

Nintendogs, Brain Age and other similar “brain-training” titles are games designed for the Nintendo DS, the hand-held console aimed at a broader audience than just hard-core gamers. They are very different from traditional shooting and racing games.

Dawn Paine, Nintendo UK marketing director, said the Wii followed the DS in trying to offer new types of games and a new interface. Brain- training games brought in older players while Nintendogs attracts young girls. She said Nintendo was trying to do something more than the same old stuff with this year’s technology. “For us the technology is not the main element,” she said. “We felt it was crucial to stir up the market and offer this paradigm shift.”

Jackson agreed: “Sony and Microsoft are talking to the converted. Nintendo is trying to attract people who used to play games or who have never played games — people who don’t consider themselves gamers.”

In doing so, Nintendo has opted out of the technological “arms race” which previously characterised much of the competition in the games industry.

Microsoft and Sony have broader strategic goals for their consoles, hoping their machines can be the entertainment hub of the digital home — a device that can also store music, photos and videos.

One of the reasons the PS3 is so expensive, and so late to market, is because Sony is using it to deploy Blu-Ray, the technology it favours for high-definition DVDs. As a company focused on electronic gaming, Nintendo has no such ambitions.

It is not without its own problems. Some early buyers of the Wii have found that the wrist strap supplied with the remote control broke too easily, in some cases causing the device to fly out of their hands. Nintendo has offered customers stronger replacement straps, but an American law firm has already filed a class-action suit.

Neither the lawsuit nor the problem with the wrist straps looks likely to stop the Wii from outselling its predecessor, the Gamecube, but it is far too early to count Sony out. The estimated 90m players of PlayStation 2 provide a huge pool who could play their existing games on the new, more advanced machine. And Sony’s strong recovery in the flat-screen TV market shows the brand’s enduring power.

However, Microsoft is hoping to end the year with 10m Xbox 360 consoles in the marketplace, and is working on the launch next year of a follow-up to the successful Halo 2 game. The enthusiastic reception given to the Wii is a reminder that it is not always the best technology that wins battles in consumer electronics. Stringer has his work cut out.