I don't see any backing out, just him saying what we all know to be true, even the blindest HD fan knows that Mario will have far greater legs than MW2

He's not picking a beef.  The guy who interviewed him on TV the other day kept asking him about COD4, and he kept saying "Yeah, that's a great title, it's going to be huge, I'm going to enjoy it myself."  Reggie is actually a Call of Duty fan.  And the guy kept saying "Oh yeah, well is it gonna do better than Mario, huh, huh, HUH???"  And then finally Reggie went "Well MW2 is on multiple platforms... but Mario will outsell it on either platform alone."  Which is obvious, and a safe bet.  And the guy was like "REALLY REALLY ZOMG NO WAY!" so Reggie said "Yeah, but it'll probably take until the end of January."  He was being really nice about it, and the whole internet is going crazy and focusing on one thing he said.  He's definitely not going out of his way to start a war.  But the guy interviewing him really went out of his way to get Reggie to make a bet against MW2.  That quote is why most peopled watched the show online later.

Still, if Reggie's wrong... it'll only take Mario until February or March at the absolute latest.  And then Mario will sell for years and years and years, while Call of Duty gets a sequel.  These are going to be 2 of the biggest games of the generation either way.

This NSMB is a rehash that will never live up to DS. I predict Galaxy numbers

No you STFU, he was asked directly in an interview, what was he supposed to say?

saved for later

Well the first MW had Better guns, Better level designs, and it had incredible legs.

Unless its bundled NSMB wont have alot of legs.

Why do people bring this bet up like it's some big deal? The thing was insignificant, he could probably care less about it.
(And he's going to lose horribly, I predict it won't be until at least July when NSMBWii overtakes)

As for MW2's legs, think of it as comparing it to Nintendo legs. Is MW2 going to sell like Mario Kart Wii did a year after being on the market? I highly doubt it.

This is why you see people from Nintendo like Miyamoto saying, "[New Super Mario Bros Wii] is the type of game to sell a year after release." It's basically being compared with the likes of their huge 20mil+ sellers on the Wii (Wii Fit, MK Wii, WSR, NSMBW) or DS (Brain Age, Nintendogs, NSMB).

Reggie is right that MW2 will see probably the biggest 2nd week drop in history . But that's because it had the biggest first week in history. And it will probably fall to baseline sales faster and to a lower level than NSMB. But NSMB's week 1 may not even be half of the 360's MW2 week 1 and MW2 will still be selling substantially through December. I think the Lead MW2 takes from being out sooner than NSMB and the mammoth week 1 pretty much deals a death blow the Reggie's bet. But lifetime I expect NSMB to outsell MW2 on 360.

that indeed. MW2 opened too high for beating it in 2 months time.

Reggie was backed into a corner when he first made the comment about MW2, yet continuously praised it, said that it would do well (obviously) and he would enjoy playing the game himself.

With regards to this comment he's right, MW2 is probably going to have decent legs but it's still going to be much more front loaded the NSMB Wii which will continue to sell well for the next couple of years. Not because it's necessarily the better game but because it's not going to get supersceded by the next, latest and greatest FPS sometime next year. Mario is a game on a system in a genre that is underrepresented and without alot of competition, this is why it will continue to sell and why it has a very good chance of eventually outselling MW2.