When Nintendo set out two years ago to broaden the demographic of computer game players, it was easy to think that the Japanese electronics giant would fail. Yet with the help of simple puzzler titles such as Brain Training for the handheld DS, and a new way of interacting with the console - the Wii Remote – a whole new group of people have bought in.

Nintendo, which was in danger of becoming an also-ran in the static console market, is now the market leader, and an epidemic of virtual tennis injuries could be on the way.

Last year the DS accounted for one in three games machines sold in Britain, where a record 7.4 million consoles came off the shelves. But here’s the real proof that we are all gamers now: last year games software sales were £1.72 billion. Music sales were £1.75 billion in 2006, and are estimated to have fallen by 10 per cent in 2007, below the level of games sales. That amounts to official proof that Lara Croft is bigger than Madonna.

Nintendo has got two things right. First, people like using consoles to play computer games. This may seem obvious, but Sony got caught up in the “battle for the living room” – a dangerous conflict in which its generals thought people wanted to watch high-definition movies on their console, as well as lust over finely drawn graphics.

In fact, the public just wanted to pay as little money as possible to have a bit of fun (and use a DVD player to watch a standard-definition movie). At a little over £200 with games thrown in, Nintendo got the Wii pricing right.

Then, both Sony and Microsoft took too narrow a view of what a gamer was all about. Any newspaper or magazine editor could tell them that not everybody wants to run over pedestrians in Grand Theft Auto, or blow up the enemy in the latest Halo. Readers love crosswords, su dokus and other puzzles, none of which are fuelled by the latest technology, but all of which are simply fun and challenging, with a “playability” that eludes many computer games.

Not that this is to moralise about games – first-person shooters have their place in the culture of 2008. Yet the people who like them probably own a console already – there are nearly ten million PlayStation 2s dotted around the UK. Console numbers were always unlikely to grow further if the public were offered only the same content, and the same narrow view of human nature.

Sony, in particular, is paying a high price for its overengineering, which stems from the last excesses of the era of the console’s godfather, Ken Kutaragi. The PlayStation 3 is a remarkable piece of kit, and those willing to spend £299 will not be disappointed, but the company’s market share is suffering. Microsoft, by contrast, always seems to be in the games market as a hobby of its own.

The Wii is well ahead in terms of sales worldwide, at an estimated 19.2 million, while the PS3, at 8.9 million, is only now matching Microsoft’s Xbox 360 in weekly sales globally (and do not forget the Microsoft console sells poorly in Japan). But Sony seemed to think that its key audience was cap-wearing skateboarders, when women, in particular, often wear other clothes.

Although it is reasonable to bet that the Wii will peak sooner, and the PS3 has perhaps three years of growth left ahead, Sony will have spent a lot of money to get those customers because it has to sell the consoles at a hefty loss. Their numbers may not be as high as it achieved previously, and it is still not certain that it will be able to kill off the rival to its Blu-Ray high-definition DVD standard. Given that games was the one area where Sony was the clear market leader, Nintendo’s revival is particularly damaging.

Somehow the BBC managed to provoke a series of minor outrages over Christmas. Extras, with Ricky Gervais, featured an entire scene shot in Carphone Warehouse. If you thought there was no advertising on the BBC, think again. Apparently, the use of the shop was “editorially relevant” because Stephen Merchant’s character worked there. But Carphone didn’t pay, which presumably makes it all right then.

Jools Holland’s Hootenanny, which many of the stay-at-home classes use to see in the new year, is not, of course, filmed live. This may be an old story, and it wouldn’t be possible to get all those celebrities in one room on December 31, but some stories are so old they get forgotten.

Quite a few viewers probably thought they were watching a live show – they were not obviously told otherwise – and were wondering where David Tennant had parked the Tardis. After all, how else could he have made his way back from Billie Piper’s wedding?

Doubtless every viewer has a stock of other complaints about the BBC Christmas schedule, although the Corporation can comfort itself with one thing. Far fewer people were watching ITV, which doesn’t try too hard because advertisers are spending less.

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