He's certainly not an unbiased source, but Tsunekazu Ishihara, President and CEO of The Pok�mon Company, believes that Pok�mon will play a deciding role in the console race. The notion is certainly not unreasonable, as Pok�mon is still as hot as ever today. It's the second most successful video game franchise in the world (behind only Mario) and the most recent Pearl and Diamond games on DS absolutely dominated the April charts with over 1.75 million copies sold.

"The hardware which has Pok�mon on it will be the winner," declared Ishihara to GameSpot.

It's not always easy for a game franchise to go on for ten years or more without feeling somewhat stale, but Pok�mon continues to have great longevity.

"I think perhaps the continued success is due to the fact that every time we create a new game there's always a new surprise, something new to discover, and a new element of fun. That's something that we always try to have in mind when we evolve the game," said Ishihara. "For example, every time there is a new iteration of the game, a new region and therefore new Pok�mon are discovered."

He continued, "If you look at what's happening at the moment, there are many intellectual properties that have made these crossovers between TV, movies, and games, and I think have applied similar methods [with the Pok�mon brand]. So, we have to continue to look at new ways and ideas so that we don't get left behind or snowed under by these copies. So we have to keep topping ourselves."

Can they top themselves again this month and drive the Wii to even greater heights? Pok�mon Battle Revolution ships for Wii in just a couple weeks.