Chris Hecker has apologised for his comments regarding the Wii.

The Wii is a piece of sh*t! They're the words of Chris Hecker, a Maxis developer whose outspoken comments left many people shocked yesterday as he had a pop at Nintendo's new machine.

However, since then, Hecker has put his hands up and issued a formal apology.

I don't know who has read the internet, yesterday. In a [unintelligible] panel I said a bunch of things. I was trying to be thought provoking and entertaining and fun and a lot of the stuff went too far over the top�on the entertaining and fun side, so that it was no longer thought provoking, just inflammatory. And in the process I hurt a bunch of people I care about. And so, I want to apologize now.

When I'm on stage, I'm me. I'm talking talk from me. From me. I'm not representing EA or Maxis.

I want to make two things perfectly clear.

I do not think the Wii is a piece of shit. Nintendo needs to be applauded for trying to interface on the controller front, the user interface front, on making games accessible, on making a console that you don't need to mortgage your house to afford.

Secondly, it's totally obvious � and I'm sorry that I implied otherwise � that everyone at Nintendo is passionate at making great games. Some of the games give me hope that we will be seen as an art form on par with movies and books.

We'd like to see him grovel some more, but we believe in second chances and what-not. So, fair play to the guy for facing up to his mistake and issuing the apology.

Life, will indeed, go on.