And there was the "Hold your wee for a Wii" fiasco  where a woman died after participating in a bizarre competition run by a Californian radio station.

Once the Wii appeared, some commentators pointed to its relatively low specs, others made derogatory comments about "cheesy" games.

Guess what, guys? Nintendo was right, and we were wrong. As I recently reported, Wii is outselling Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 by a country mile.

The reason for Nintendo's success is that they have largely ignored the demands of geeks and  hardcore gamers, and produced a system and games catalogue that appeals to regular people from kids to grandparents. In retrospect, it's hard to be surprised: there are a lot more of them than there are serious gamers.

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet."{moscomment}