Amazon.com, the online retail mammoth-site where buyers trample each other, virtually speaking, during purchasing rush hours such as the pre-Christmas period, has recently (on Friday) issued a press release chronicling its latest transactions. And the Nintendo Wii made it into the section called “Amazon.com's Hot Holiday Bestsellers”, and made it in style. 

“Nintendo Wii dominated the top sellers in video games and hardware, including the Wii console, the Wii remote controller and the Wii nunchuk controller” - these are the exact words of the report covering “Nov. 15 through Dec. 19 based on units ordered.”

Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3 are still alive and selling themselves, probably, somewhere under the pile of Wiimotes. It looks like the Wii's outstanding November performance will have a most meaty sequel in December.

CNET News made some calculations showing the Wii's sheer crushing dominance when it comes to units sold these last years: 43,75 million. The Xbox 360's 26,49 million and the PS3's 18,82 million are also impressive, but they aren't gargantuan.

The casual gameplay of Wii titles was thought by some to place Nintendo's console on another shelf than the other two more hardcore gaming machines. But it would seem that, in terms of actual competition, the Wii is directly trampling on Microsoft's and Sony's gaming hardware profits.

As a matter of fact, the hardcore genre is no longer as worshiped as before, and the “serious” consoles have already made more than tentative steps towards Nintendo's family-friendly, virtual hula-hooping policy.

As video games are slowly seeping into the mainstream entertainment industry, old-school gamers will find themselves faced with more and more ridiculously easy challenges. Unfortunately for them, ridiculously easy sells big-time.