Sony Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida was quoted as saying the Wii U was "in a generation of its own."

Now, it's Nintendo's turn to take a subtle jab at the competition. In a new interview with The Telegraph , Nintendo president and CEO Satoru Iwata wonders if the new PlayStation and Xbox will boast the graphical leap gamers are expecting.

"If they decide to increase the spec numbers, will the consumers be able to realise the difference enough so that they can understand it's much superior to today's machine?"

At the same time, Iwata says if the machines were indeed a great deal more powerful, this could hinder developers as it only means there's a steeper learning curve involved. We've seen this in the past, especially with the PlayStation brand; game creators need a few years before they really start tapping into the full potential of a new piece of hardware. And a great many gamers believe that neither the PS1 or PS2 got "maxed out" by developers.

In general, though, Iwata isn't too concerned with Sony or Microsoft.

"I never think in terms of how we can compete against the other companies, rather our primary focus is to make consumers feel the uniqueness and attractiveness of our products. So any improvements in graphics are just a portion of what we want people to enjoy from Nintendo. More importantly, I want people to say Nintendo are offering unique experiences."