Microsoft and Nintendo might be facing-off on the next-gen battlefield come the launch of Revolution, but Bill Gates' empire is still man enough to give credit where credit is due: it really, really likes Shigeru Miyamoto.
In fact, it seems that if there's one fabulous dream that the Washington, Redmond giant would love to see realised, it's getting the Nintendo genius on-board. Microsoft's Peter Moore has revealed his desire that "one day he [Miyamoto] will bring his incredible content and his incredible vision for what gaming should be to the Xbox," in a recent interview with EGM magazine.

Ha, good luck on that one Mr Moore, who says - presumably in jocular manner - that he'd be willing to forfeit his slick cars and "give up my house, too, if I could get it reimbursed back on my expenses" in order to secure the talents of Shigeru Miyamoto for Microsoft's Xbox venture.

EGM's interview also found Moore and big Bill Gates himself discussing Revolution and its controller/wand, both impressed by Nintendo's innovation but remaining sceptical about its potential. "Nintendo... You've got to give it to them... They march to the beat of a different drummer," said Gates, although added that "We'll watch and see... Holding two different things like that? Anyway..."

Airing further views on Nintendo's innovation (and Revolution), he went on to say that "Sometimes that makes them incredibly right and sometimes that makes them incredibly wrong. They're certainly making a very different bet in terms of how much they're putting into the graphics this time," and Gates also explained that he thinks that "there is a question as to whether they can get outside the young age bracket at all. That's been tough for them."

And does he wish Microsoft had invented a similar controller to Revolution's? "Uh... No," he replied, while apparently laughing.

Meanwhile, Peter Moore admitted to EGM that he found Revolution's controller "very intriguing". "I'm always a big fan of companies that try and innovate in a space where we need to do things a little differently," he said, but like Gates it's still 'wait and see' because "there's no game to demo against it yet, to get a feel for it". Still, Moore said he still respects and admires the fact that Nintendo is "willing to take what is clearly a huge risk to innovate."

"Let's see if it works out for them," he concluded. ...