" Imagine a puddle waking up one morning and thinking, 'Thisis an interesting world I find myself in, an interesting hole I find myself in,fits me rather neatly, doesn't it? In fact it fits me staggeringly well, musthave been made to have me in it!'

This is such a powerful idea that as the sunrises in the sky and the air heats up and as, gradually, the puddle getssmaller and smaller, it's still frantically hanging on to the notion thateverything's going to be alright, because this world was meant to have him init, was built to have him in it; so the moment he disappears catches him ratherby surprise. I think this may be something we need to be on the watch out for." - DA

There can be no argument: the Nintendo Wii is currentlykicking all-comers to the curb in the next-gen console war. It's outsellingthe PS3 and Xbox by a zillion to one, and will soon overhaul the 360 as thebiggest selling games beast of them all.

But what of the future? In two years when high-definitiongraphics have really kicked in, the appeal of the Wii will surely expire won'tit? (Even Goldie Hawn got old and wrinkly in the end.) And the HD super-consoleswill surely continue selling units long after the Wii has sold its last.

Of course, that's just my opinion, and even if it's true,Nintendo might well take itself out of sync with Microsoft and Sony by launchinga Wii 2 sooner than expected.

But the really interesting battle is going to rage betweenthe PS3 and the Xbox 360. In two years' time, when both consoles are mature andhighly refined, the PS3 will be comfortably competing with the 360 in terms ofprice. And both consoles will be running similar realistic-looking games.

So what is going to be the outcome of these future wars? Willthe Sony PlayStation 3 win-out in the long term by gradually overhauling theXbox with brilliant photo-realistic graphics? That's certainly Sony's goal.

But I'm not so sure. Honestly, I firmly believe thatMicrosoft has played Sony like an absolute pro thus far. It launched theoriginal Xbox in the knowledge that it would never make any money and that itwould be dominated by the Sony PS2.

The original Xbox was the PlayStation 2's cell bitch - andthat's being kind. But the goal was never to win with version one. The plan wasalways to hit the top with console 2, and so far so good.

What interests me now is all these modifications and newmodels that Microsoft is bringing out. Before the Xbox 360 Elite (120GB harddrive, HDMI 1.2 ports) has even hit the shelves, Microsoft has announced thatit's putting HDMI ports into all future Premium models too.

I think this demonstrates that Microsoft is not afraidof letting any of the various models become obsolete. Surely it's only amatter of time before the Core console is retired?

So what comes after the Elite? Web rumours are thatMicrosoft is planning to release yet another console which will include aninternal HD DVD drive. By gradually increasing storage capacity, high-definitionplayback capability with HDMI ports and now possibly an HD drive too, I think Microsoftis disarming the appeal of the PS3 feature-by-feature.

Who knows, the Xbox 360 Ultimate, say, could include a 200GBhard disc, have HDMI 1.3a ports and an HD DVD drive. Plus it'll have the 65nm processingchips, keeping size and efficiency at a premium. That means we might see asmaller form factor, with cooler insides and a cheaper price tag. That sounds pretty good, doesn't it?