"Over 26 million consumers have bought a Wii, so the consumer is saying that, for them, the quality of the visual is not nearly as important as the overall entertainment - the overall value of that experience and that's really what's propelled us," Fils-Aime said during a video interview with CNBC.

"In terms of what the future holds, we've gone on record to say that the next step for Nintendo in home console will not be to simply make it HD, but to add more and more capability," he added.

"We'll do that when we totally tapped out all of the experiences for the existing Wii and we are nowhere near doing that yet, so lots of ongoing opportunity for the consumer in the current generation."

ARM v6+ processor, with an Open GL ES 2.0-capable graphics chip-this may be the TI3430 or the Nvidia Tegra. To show all the eye candy there will be a 3.5" 800 x 480 or 854 x 480 pixels touchscreen. The specification also points out at other things in Pink, like 3-megapixel camera, GPS, light sensor, 3-axis compass, accelerometer, USB, Bluetooth, and full Wi-Fi support.

"Even though the Nintendo DS posted a record year in 2009, EEDAR expects Nintendo to make an official announcement on the DS2 within the next eight months," wrote Divnich.

"Nintendo has always had a controlling stake in the handheld market, despite facing numerous competitors, and EEDAR believes one of the biggest reasons for Nintendo’s success in the handheld market is their ability to remove opportunity gaps for competitors to enter. Nintendo’s transition from the GBA to the DS, a year earlier than anticipated, was a brilliant strategy to remove any upper hand the Sony PSP could have by being first to market."

"Piracy continues to be an issue, not just for Nintendo, but for its third-party publishers as well. Whilst the release of the DSi has slowed down piracy, that slow down will only be temporary as hackers have already managed to bypass the new security systems built into the hardware."

He added: "Many publishers including Sega, Capcom, and now Ubisoft have all expressed that they may be reducing their exposure to Nintendo’s consoles, which will likely lead to heavy declines in both hardware and software sales for the Nintendo DS."

"The considerable contraction in the DS market during the year particularly affected Ubisoft, leading to a €160 million, or almost 50 per cent, year-on-year drop in the Company’s casual segment sales," admitted CEO Yves Guillemot.

"Right now, it's still in development. But the key message that Mr. Miyamoto and Mr. Aonuma is telling us is that it really has to be perfect when it launches," he said. "That really is what the Zelda fan is expecting."

"So for all of those Zelda fans out there right now, I would say enjoy The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, and know that the Zelda title for Wii is going to come out when it's perfect," he said.

There are few things in life more satisfying than finishing a long, difficult book. The payoff, both in reaching the conclusion of the narrative, and the sense of accomplishment at having fulfilled such a large commitment, can be immense. It would be remiss of me to brag about the heavyweight titles I've ticked off over the past few years, but my most recent undertaking was probably one of the most rewarding things I did all last year. Especially as it was mostly about whales.

And so, it was once the case with video games. Particularly before the advent of 'saving', the completion of even a simple game could take huge amounts of patience, effort and time. The ending, like those last pages of a book, was a key reason why we started playing in the first place. Sure, multiplayer and arcade style games still had their place, but fond 8, 16 and 32-bit memories consist more of completion and satisfaction than particular levels or tricky moments.

Over the past few years, however, the idea of a game as simply something to 'finish' has shifted somewhat. For starters, the availability of downloadable content means no story need ever end, as long as the makers think there's a paying audience. Also, the ubiquity of broadband means multiplayer gaming is now the standard, not the exception it once was. There is no real 'finish' to most MMORPGs.

Whereas once the only reason I wouldn't complete a game would be because it was too hard, now small piles of games lie scattered around my television unloved. They will never be finished. Bioshock. Assassin's Creed. Super Mario Galaxy. I even lost interest in Dragon Age, which captivated my imagination for a good three to four weeks. What incentive is there? The fact that I have more games available to me, and more of a higher quality, than I did as a child is certainly a mitigating factor. But is it just me that doesn't care whether or not I 'complete' a game anymore?

Taking Modern Warfare 2 as an example, what does it even mean to 'finish' the game? To complete the narrative 'For the Record' campaign? How about to complete it on the hardest setting? Or perhaps it should be to get 100% in all the different game modes? But then what about Prestige mode, and all that entails?

Remember some of the classic game endings from the days of gaming yore on this list. How many releases from the current generation of consoles would make it on there? Are endings something today's gamers care about?

Games have become so huge, that even story-led titles need scores of subplots and diversions to keep things interesting. It seems nowadays developers are stuck between a rock and a hard place - make a single, satisfying narrative and the game will be accused of being too short. Make something sprawling and huge, and any sense of momentum of the primary narrative is completely lost.

The cutscenes that rewarded finishing Fallout 3 and GTA 4 - two games I did actually manage to complete - were scant reward for the hours of time invested. The satisfaction felt paled in comparison to that with the games of my childhood. Has the great ending been consigned to gaming history's dustbin?

"While physical retail product remains the driving force behind industry sales, the role of digital distribution in the games ecosystem continues to climb," said Anita Frazier, industry analyst for the NPD Group.

"Publishers and retailers must keep an eye on the current state of the marketplace and must map ahead for future strategies."