Howard Stringer, chief executive officer of Sony Corp., said in an interview that Nintendo Wii video game console, which is the most successful system in this generation, is not a rival for Sony’s PlayStation 3 since it is less technically advanced.

“I’ve played a Nintendo Wii. I don’t see it as a competitor. It’s more of an expensive niche game device. We’re selling a lot of PlayStation 3s now and it’s still the best way to buy a Blu-ray player,” Howard Stringer said last week at the Allen & Co. media conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, reports Bloomberg.

It is indisputable fact that Sony PlayStation 3 is much more powerful compared to Nintendo Wii, however, it is much more expensive and customers may not necessarily need exceptional performance to enjoy video games. Moreover, Nintendo Wii features motion-sensing game controller that allows to play sports games, something which is absent from the list of PS3 titles.

Sony PlayStation 3 can also playback DVD and Blu-ray movies, but many people are not interested in watching movies using their game consoles, which is why the capability does not immediately transform PS3 into success.

So far Nintendo has sold about 28 million Wii game consoles, Microsoft sold roughly 20 million Xbox 360 systems and Sony sold about 14 million PlayStation 3 machines, according to some estimates.