The gloves are off as top figures from Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft all get their handbags out!

Sony's Ken Kutaragi, Microsoft's Robbie Bach and Nintendo's Satoru Iwata have jumped into the fray of the post-E3 battleground for console supremacy as Japanese newspaper features all three critising each other.

Kutaragi belittled Microsoft, claiming the company would not be intimidated and that the PS3 will be the console to watch next generation. Microsoft had previously boasted about the Xbox sales beating the PS2 in America lately, on which Kutaragi had this to say: "Beating us for a short moment is like accidentally winning a point from a Shihan [Karate master], and Microsoft is still not a black belt."

Meanwhile in the Microsoft camp, Chief Xbox Officer Robbie Bach said Sony and Nintendo's E3 presentations "weren't surprising", saying the PS3 specifications were nothing better than the Xbox 360's and declaring Microsoft "will become the market leader with our next-generation console,". On Nintendo, he said the company would become nothing more than a "niche" player.

Satoru Iwata, Nintendo's President critised his rivals on their desire to concentrate on CPU power and high-definition visuals which would do nothing but "bloat up development costs", making life for small developers tough. He stated Nintendo was aiming to attract non-gamers by creating new types of games, and used Nintendogs as an example of this. Also, "we're not about selling new kinds of TVs or taking control of the living room," he added.

Bach claimed that the PS3's seven player support and double HDTV output, was frankly just showing off and a step too far, and critised the company for taking the risk of using Blu-Ray, a format that yet might not succeed. Kutaragi retaliated saying that using Blu-Ray was an attempt to help the sales of the format for the good of the industry, as the PS2 did with the original DVD market from 2000.

More of the companies throwing their toys out of the pram as it breaks!