Are Sony and Microsoft Competing with Nintendo?

When Microsoft gave their Black Friday report earlier this week, it didn't require a keen set of eyes to notice that something seemed missing. While they readily boasted 3-to-1 sales of the Xbox 360 versus the PlayStation 3, nowhere was Nintendo and their Wii console mentioned.

On CNET, Don Reisinger isn't surprised by the fact that Microsoft -- or Sony, for that matter -- tend to gloss over such things, but he does seem a little confused by just why they feel that way. 

Earlier this year, Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg, director of product management for the Xbox 360, said the Wii isn't a competitor at all.

"I think for us, we don't really see the Wii as a direct competitor, we actually very much complement the Wii experience," he gushed. "It's obviously clear that we're going head-to-head with the PS3 in this generation."

Sony isn't innocent either, of course. Just a few weeks later, the company's CEO, Howard Stringer, told Bloomberg that he's played the Wii and he's not impressed.

"I've played a Nintendo Wii," he said. "I don't see it as a competitor. It's more of an expensive niche game device."

But for a "niche gaming device" which isn't a "direct competitor," Reisinger notes that it's Wii who blazed the path for others to follow in on Black Friday, and that on the whole, it has almost outsold both Microsoft and Sony's efforts combined.

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