I doubt Nintendo expected the groveling and apologetic press releases to get this deep, this fast — but I’m sure they’re secretly loving every minute of it at their Ivory Tower in Kyoto right now.

First, EA bowed down humbly to Mario and Company after the Wii’s stellar launch. Then, Ubisoft declared from high atop their mountain of cash (courtesy of the Wii) that they, too, were sorry for shoveling schlock into the Wii’s automated disc drive for the past six months.

Today, Activision takes a knee and bows before Reggie, Miyamoto and Iwata with the hopes that the new Lords of Pongtown will show some restraint when they signal the beginning of the hardcore video gaming apocalypse in the near future.

Activision CEO Robert Kotick (via Game|Life):

For a few generations, Nintendo software was better than third-party software. When you look at where we are today…we think we’re actually in the best position and probably even in a better position than the first-party to leverage our development dollars … We’re reinvesting against the Nintendo platform in a way that in the last cycle we really did not.

Don’t go getting a big ego now, Nintendo.