Senior regional director of the entertainment and devices division at Microsoft UK Neil Thompson has cleared up statements reported yesterday on the long-term prospects of Nintendo’s Wii.

Maintaining that Microsoft has been the most “innovative force” of all three consoles, Thompson said:

“The gaming market is growing thanks to success of Wii and positive innovation by Xbox in offering a range of consoles that can be scaled up by consumers and true innovation in the online arena.

In the interview printed yesterday, Thompson explained:

“I think you’ve got to look at what consumers want and offering something unique – and I think Nintendo have done a very impressive job at doing that.

“They looked at something which isn’t being offered and that’s probably kept them in the business, where many people perhaps thought they couldn’t last beyond the last generation because the technology has been evolved.”

MCV apologises for any confusion caused.

Microsoft this week revealed that it had come good on its promise to deliver the ‘biggest entertainment launch of all time’ with Halo 3. The title grossed $170 million in its first day on sale in the US, beating previous records set by the release of movie Spider-Man 3 and novel Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows.

According to Microsoft, more than 1.7 million copies of Halo 3 were pre-ordered in the United States before a single store opened its doors at midnight on September 25th, making Halo 3 the fasting pre-selling game in history, surpassing the previous record-setting pre-sales of Halo 2.

The firm is now gearing up for the release of the fourth in the Project Gotham Racing series, which hits shelves on October 12th.