Sony and Microsoft both turned down the opportunity to develop what would become the Wii, its original patent holder has revealed.

Speaking with CVG, Tom Quinn described awkward meetings with the two tech giants during which the atmosphere was outright hostile.

“The meeting went terribly,” said Quinn of his Microsoft encounter.

“The attitude I got from them was that if they wanted to do motion control, they would do it themselves and make a better job of it. I mean, they were just rude.”

“In fact, the meeting went so terribly that one of the executives came over to me afterwards and apologised on behalf of others. I remember him saying how this was not how Microsoft should be engaging with potential partners.”

Things didn’t go any better at Sony, where Quinn met with legendary engineer Ken Kutaragi.

“We were in a tiny little room with a big PC projector and Kutaragi comes in, introduces himself, sits down and – I swear this is true – he closed his eyes the moment I started showing my pitch. He never opened them until I had finished,” said Quinn.

“It was awkward, very awkward, but I still asked him for feedback and he said, ‘Well, can you produce this for 50 cents?’ I laughed and explained that would be impossible, so again I left empty handed.”

Nintendo were an afterthought for the rejected technology.

“You have to remember that Sony and Microsoft were by far the two biggest console manufacturers. Nintendo wasn’t doing well and we hadn’t thought much about them,” said Quinn.

Of course, the Wii went on to sell million more units than both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

“Looking back at the whole thing, it’s crazy how blind Sony and Microsoft were,” said Quinn.

“They were busy beating the crap out of each other and didn’t consider Nintendo a strong competitor anymore.”