Says he was "merely putting Wii Sports into a wider cultural context".

Wii Sports screenshot

Nintendo has moved to clarify comments made by UK boss David Yarnton yesterday at a London press conference.

Yarnton, Nintendo UK general manager, said in his speech: "For all the recent talk of record breaking entertainment launches, it might just be that the defining and most influential video game of this generation is a simple game of tennis that the whole family can gather around and play and enjoy together."

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While we saw this as a thinly veiled dig at Microsoft's record-breaking Halo 3 launch in September, Nintendo has denied Yarnton was making reference to the multi-million selling FPS.

In a statement Nintendo said today: "We did not mention any games or other companies and it was certainly not a dig at anyone. We were merely putting Wii Sports into a wider cultural context alongside cinema, books and TV. We would echo the recent comments from our US colleague Reggie Fils-Aime where he commented the Halo trilogy was indispensable and a valuable addition to our industry."