The Battle of Seattle

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This is part of Nintendo's bid to lose the kids-only label and grab a chunk of the elusive twentysomething market. "We're doing more to attract these audiences," admits Miyamoto. Not that the company is dissing its core tiny-tot gamers. Witness the Game Boy Advance, Nintendo's new handheld, which will serve a dual purpose as a controller for the GameCube.

But once Pokemon playing gives way to bedtime, the plan goes, Dad will be able to put the Cowboys through their paces. Microsoft is coming at it the other way around: let Dad buy the Xbox in the first place, partly because he wants to play dvds on it (GameCube runs on 3-in. mini-CDs), and then buy a couple of cartoonish multiplayer games (like the Marioesque Fuzion Frenzy) for the kids.

Both strategies may work. And that could lead to an unprecedented holiday season with not one but two hot gifts to grab, each in short supply. Each company hopes to release at least 1.5 million units by year-end--a million more than the number of PlayStation 2s that were available last Christmas, assuming the two can avoid the kind of chip shortage that bedeviled Sony. From the retailer's point of view, "it's like having a ticket on every horse in the race," says Joe Firestone, CEO of Electronics Boutique. Looks as if we have a winner already.