Sony may be confident in their claim that "next-gen starts when we say so," but from the looks of it they misspelled Wii. Quite surprisingly, Nintendo's newest little white box of hype might soon be in prime position to do serious damage in previously uncontested areas. In a market where the Wii is making little to no attempt to directly brawl with the likes of Microsoft and Sony (which is to say, a new approach is being taken), it's a curious thought that the PS3's biggest threat may very well be an unintentionally competing Wii. We've heard it said before, "Nintendo doesn't want to drag themselves in a console war." But with a console that just screams "sports!" - they may not have much of a choice.

If Sony's titan of consoles, the PS2, was known for anything throughout its life it was its sports games. Between the years of 2004 and 2006 alone, PS2 titles made up for more than a third of the top grossing games, with over half of those titles being sports games, as reported by the NPD Group. The top sports games for Sony's PS2 averaged out in those years, they stand at a little better than 5th on overall game rankings. Such a standing is really a powerful message in the midst of games like Halo, Halo 2, San Andreas and Gran Turismo. By just looking at direct sales, it's clear that sports games have been an increasingly strong point for Sony.

While the numbers have yet to be calculated on the unfinished 2006 year, it should be noted that as of the latest NPD Group October report, Electronic Arts' Madden 07, which recently broke franchise records, stood tall in the top three games sold for that month, doing better on the PS2 platform than on any other - including the likes of the Xbox and 360. While it's too early to tell how well PS2 sports did in 2006 with the continued rise of Microsoft in the console market, it would be safe to say that if the yearly results are anything like October's sales, sports titles will have continued their importance in the PS2's console line-up well on the eve of Sony's next-gen platform: the PS3.

So we know that baseball, football, basketball and the likes have been great performers on the PS2 over the years. But where does the Wii come into conflict? Quite simply, the Wii devastatingly impacts the PS3's income just by its design. Nintendo shipped every Wii in the United States with Wii Sports, a tech demo compilation title of sorts that familiarizes consumers with the system and its potential. Mega popular publisher and developer, Electronic Arts, was the first to really get their feet wet in the technology by releasing an already solid Madden 2007 at Wii launch. The general consensus around the gaming community, journalistic or otherwise, was that if an already proven game such as Madden 07 turned out to be a technical flop on the Wii, Nintendo might be in some trouble.

Thankfully though for Nintendo (and more importantly its fans), Madden has received a warm, if not long-needed welcome from the community in the NFL exclusivity era. Reviews have come in from dozens of places, including established sources like IGN and GameSpot, citing that in their humble opinions, the series made a turn for the better on the Wii. The second-nature feeling of passing and running has no doubt improved the title a good deal, with stiff-arming an opponent the simple matter of flicking the WIi remote to the left or right, and juking the intuitive idea of jerking the nunchaku joystick in the preferred direction, among other things. Yes, Madden 2007 has been regarded as a pretty good representation of what can be done in sports games with the Wii control scheme. But what will attract sports gamers more? Increasingly involving graphics, or the immersive experience of actually feeling like you're playing with the pros?

While many developers have turned down the PS3 in light of troublesome development costs and expectedly weak overall system sales compared to Nintendo's cheaper, more available Wii, other companies know Sony much better than that. At least one publisher/developer seemingly understands that even the great commercial success of the PS2 didn't come overnight, in fact the system didn't even have any "killer apps" of sorts until the following year, at which point the system began grossing sales into the record books. 2K Games have already announced more than 20 titles in development for the PS3 in the coming year, with an assumed majority of them being sports titles.

Still, unfortunately for the big black mammoth, sports games may no longer be a PlayStation trademark. The "big boys" of sports - EA and 2K - will no doubt continue pushing their titles out on all new-breed systems, so the games will definitely be there for consumers. But will they be buying? What happens when the clerk says: "So, do you want that on the Wii or the PS3?" And what about sports fans in general, are more players picking up a PS3 over a Wii? There's obviously going to be a level of "loyalty" to Sony in there somewhere, but it has got to be close. We all know Nintendo will attract more new gamers, but this is the one area where the Wii can really steal a big chunk of old gamers from the competition.

One really has to question: If Nintendo achieves its goal of broadening the gaming fan base, and the control scheme really does turn out to enhance more than just football games, why would Sony's long-time sports fans want to stick with the more expensive, less-developed for PS3? Don't count Sony out by any means, but for the first time in a long time I think it's safe to say that Nintendo may have Sony a little worried. After all, a Wii Bit of Muscle can go a long way in this industry.

Check out the stats and figures used in this article from the NPD Group on the next page.