It is said soon, but this past weekend was the tenth anniversary of the launch of Nintendo Wii in the United States, the first territory in which this machine was put on sale. Shortly after, already in December, it would also reach Europe and Japan to become a global phenomenon.
Understanding what this console meant for Nintendo is to understand the context in which the Japanese was at that time: GameCube, despite being a great system, achieved somewhat reduced commercial success and put a company in need of a major booster. Does the situation sound familiar to you?
And boy was it a shock. The fever for Wii was total, the consoles were sold out wherever they were put on sale and everyone wanted to be part of what that daring system brought to the room. A decade after that explosion of jubilation for the Big N, we are going to remember the keys to that system.
The machine was sold like churros
And when I say churros, I mean the fact that no Nintendo home console has ever been able to even come close to the Wii numbers. With 101 million machines shipped, it is the third best-selling desktop console of all time, behind the first two PlayStation, and the fifth if we include laptops in the comparison.
His games also split him into sales
Of course, such a fleet of machines caused a large distribution of titles. As usual, it was the Kyoto company’s own developments that had the best acceptance among the Wii public, especially those designed to take advantage of the most special features of the console.
The movement starts and ends here
The great change, the bet with which Nintendo chose to revolutionize what has been seen until then, went through its idea of motion control. Over time we have seen that the revolution was simply punctual, and that in the end the industry preferred to return to the path of traditional control, but for a brief period of time it was the madness that everyone wanted to live and propelled the sales of Wii as the foam.
An opening message
Nintendo wanted to open video games to new audiences and could not make it clearer during the promotion of the console. Two grandparents happily playing in a video game ad? And also entire families, with protagonists of all ages. When had that been seen?
Wii Sports, the best pack-in game ever included
If the main function of a pack-in game, those games that come standard with the console, is to convince people to buy the machine, none more effective than ‘Wii Sports’ . This selection of minigames gave what it gave, that is clear, but when you wanted to show the console to someone, everyone hallucinated hitting the air feeling Rafa Nadal.
Super Mario Galaxy and everything else
There is no doubt that the Nintendo Wii had really great games, but in my opinion, none were able to overshadow ‘Super Mario Galaxy’ and its sequel. One of the most impressive twists and turns of a series that, for many years to come, remains synonymous with fun with the highest standards.
Social the Nintendo way
The social and the online began to be something worth mentioning in the world of consoles ten years ago, and how could it be otherwise, Nintendo faced the paradigm shift in its own way, completely separating itself from the competition. Wii came with the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection system, the WiiConnect24, the Mii, and other such proposals. It was by no means the best online service of the moment, but it was a very necessary step for the Japanese company towards this territory.
The virtual console and the power of retro
These last weeks we are witnessing the overwhelming success of the Mini NES, an explosion of sales at the expense of the retro spirit that has its gestation precisely on Wii, where Nintendo began to throw nostalgia with the virtual console. This sales channel was a triumph that has caused its creators to continue to strengthen this branch of business in recent years.
Good morning, competitors
Microsoft and Sony didn’t even see it coming, that’s a fact. At E3 2009, three years after the Wii was released, both decided to try their luck with motion controls by introducing Kinect (then Project Natal) and PlayStation Move, their respective reinterpretations of the formula that was giving Nintendo millions. They arrived too late and were not enough to stop the total victory of Wii in that generation; in fact, I daresay they even reinforced their argument.
