Satoru Iwata, the Nintendo president, unveiled Wii Fit in Santa Monica in July.

In what has become a signature Iwata move, the game comes with a new controller, the Balance Board, a pressure-sensitive, mat-like device that is used to regulate physical workouts, tells you whether you are overweight and will even scold you if you slouch.

There is nothing quite like it on the market (unless you count Nintendo's hit Brain Training game, which is designed for the handheld DS device and panders to neuroses over cerebral rather than physical “fitness”).

The promotional video for Wii Fit featured a young woman using it to take her through a yoga routine — a video game maker's blue ocean, if ever there was.

To explain: Mr Iwata is a big believer in the “Blue Ocean” theory of business. It says that to stay ahead, a company needs to tap fresh markets — “blue oceans” — that are not patrolled by rivals and subject to cut-throat competition.

It was that thinking that led to the development of the Wii — a video games console designed for “people who don’t like video games”.

Numbers cited this year by Nintendo appeared to vindicate the strategy.

Sales of hardware and software were up more than 40 per cent in the UK in the first half of the year, compared with the same period in 2006, and surged more than 110 per cent in Japan, the company said.

Nintendo accounted for two thirds of the growth.

Crucially for Nintendo games, the ratio of men to women has fallen to two to one from an industry average of four to one.

Yesterday it emerged that sales of the Wii (9 million) had overtaken those of the Xbox 360 (8.9 million).

That means that the Wii is now the best-selling “next-generation” console — despite Microsoft’s machine being released about a year earlier.

The Sony PS3, meanwhile, languishes on about 3.7 million units.

The question is just how long Nintendo can stay at the top in a famously cyclical industry.

Other groups are aping its decision to target “non-core” gamers — diving into its blue ocean.

"There is no doubt that our blue ocean will turn red," Mr Iwata told The Times in July.

There are also questions over how long the Wii’s basic technology will cut it with consumers.

Can a cute array of controllers hold off the PS3’s phenomenally powerful processing power over the longer term?

Some analysts suggest that the PS3 has suffered from a paucity of good games — and is just one hit title away from global domination.

But recent data suggests that the Wii has another weapon up its sleeve: a broad base of good will.

According to Brandintel, a firm that tracks consumer sentiment by monitoring blogs, chatrooms and other internet sites, the Wii is the games console that attracts the warmest feelings from the online public.

It is hard not to think that good vibes and dinky new controllers may keep Nintendo on top for a while yet.

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