SANTA MONICA, California (Reuters) -- Sales of Nintendo's quirky Wii video game machine could top the legendary PlayStation 2, making it the biggest hit in the industry's history, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata said on Thursday.
Nintendo Co. Ltd. sped past Sony Corp. in market capitalization last month to become one of the 10 most valuable companies in Japan.
Iwata in an interview also played down the threat to Nintendo's business of a price cut in Sony's PlayStation 3 and the introduction of a thinner PlayStation Portable.
The Wii has outsold Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3 monthly since its November launch, helped by its relatively affordable $250 price tag and a motion-sensing controller that can be swung like a bat, for instance.
Instead of offering lifelike graphics to appeal to hard-core gamers, who are mostly men, Nintendo has appealed to an audience including women and the elderly with innovative but easy-to-play games.
"Sony's PS2 sales of 100 million units is an extraordinary number that our home game console business has not achieved," Iwata said.
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