Gates: Nintendo our "toughest" foe

When it comes to console rivalries, many think the most bitter feud is between Sony and Microsoft. Apparently Bill Gates doesn't. In an interview with Japanese TV at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, the Microsoft chairman and world's richest man says he sees another console maker as the Xbox 360's primary rival.

"The strength of Nintendo...in the portable space, has been very impressive," Gates said in a video interview currently viewable on YouTube. "[It's] surprised a lot of people, I think, [that] and the Wii. We see Nintendo as our toughest competition."

Given that the interview was with Tokyo TV, it is possible Gates' comments were about the Japanese market, where the Xbox 360 trails far behind both the PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii. Naturally, many fanboys have taken Gates' comments as another indicator of Sony's greatly exaggerated demise. That viewpoint, though, overlooks the possibility Gates was intentionally slighting Sony in public as part of its ongoing war of words with the electronics giant.