Despite its huge success, the panel also sounded a note of caution over the long-term prospects of the Wii, specifically in relation to its portfolio and the gaming habits of its casual audience. "There's a risk that they [casual users] could actually put the Wii in the wardrobe if there isn't a steady stream of games that please them," argued Swedish games industry analyst Martin Lindell.

"You've got to remember there's a difference between buying and playing - the fact that you get your grandma to play the game doesn't mean she's going out to buy it," added Parker. "I'm still in that kind of faddish feeling about the Wii."

For Cole, Nintendo's historical issues with third-party support poses a risk: "It's a huge issue that Nintendo dominates the platforms they own, as that's how they make all their money," he said. "We see the Wii having a higher installed base but the PS3 generating, by about 2010-11, more revenue in terms of software."

Nick Parker, MD of Parker Consulting and an analyst for Screen Digest, argued that 360's failure to succeed in key continental Europe territories pointed to a fundamental image problem. "The trouble with Xbox 360 is it hasn't managed to shake off this urban, irreverent adult male feel; so it hasn't gained traction in the more casual gaming markets of mainland Europe such as France, Spain and Italy, where it's stalled," he said. "And there are already rumours of Xbox 360 being delisted from certain retailers."

Parker, a former VP of strategic planning at Sony Europe, maintained that Microsoft had failed to learn from the mistakes of its first console: "I think they started off badly with the Xbox itself: blood and breasts. This alienated it immediately to a lot of consumers around Europe, and they never got over that. The brand image never went away. And although Halo 3 is a big game, it just emphasises again what the Xbox is all about.