Afro Republican
Banned
The Wii came out in 2006 and within two years became a force to be reckoned with. Wii would like to play became a popular slogan, and people from young to old gravitated towards it creating a huge casual market that would make the Wii a money printing machine.
They got even bigger once dancing and fitness started taking off bringing in new demographics of casuals to the system. It's affordable price made sure that it would continue to sell out for the first several years, and it was the biggest selling console that generation by a large margin.
of course this came at a few costs:
1. The price of the Wii was due to the poor graphics of the Wii arguably being quite a bit worse than the original Xbox, it was basically a slightly stronger GameCube, relying more on it's wiimote gimmick to sell consoles than visuals.
2. The hardcore market was mostly abandoned. Even some of Nintendos core hit titles arguably where stripped down, however not all of them. Regardless, the top selling software at the time would be games that many core gamers rejected leading to many of them over time moving toward PC/360/PS3.
3. Shovelware, while popular systems always have it the Wii had more than usual. The Wii was often used for testing grounds for real games released on the PS3/360, or more commonly, casuals would by the latest shovelware trends in large numbers. This led to shovelware third-parties being successful and causes traditional third-parties to move away or only give the system limited support.
4. It's last few years Nintendo lost focus and wasn't able to keep momentum, trying to nickle and dime the quickly cratering Wii base and putting out a new "slim" SKU that would bring with it some pretty extreme limitations. Of course sales did not increase and continued to crater, leading to the Xbox and PS3 across multiple regions to become champions displacing the Wii despite it's previous wide lead.
Of course there are some good things:
1. The controller was innovative and while not always used properly and often used as an alternative button press. It offered a new way to play.
2. Easy access through the SD slot allowed emulation and homebrew opportunities.
3. The online sometimes worked for some games which was good.
4. It was cheap and affordable.
5. Some of Nitnendos first-party still kept their quality.
So how do you feel about the Wii 12 years from now? Where do you place it.
They got even bigger once dancing and fitness started taking off bringing in new demographics of casuals to the system. It's affordable price made sure that it would continue to sell out for the first several years, and it was the biggest selling console that generation by a large margin.
of course this came at a few costs:
1. The price of the Wii was due to the poor graphics of the Wii arguably being quite a bit worse than the original Xbox, it was basically a slightly stronger GameCube, relying more on it's wiimote gimmick to sell consoles than visuals.
2. The hardcore market was mostly abandoned. Even some of Nintendos core hit titles arguably where stripped down, however not all of them. Regardless, the top selling software at the time would be games that many core gamers rejected leading to many of them over time moving toward PC/360/PS3.
3. Shovelware, while popular systems always have it the Wii had more than usual. The Wii was often used for testing grounds for real games released on the PS3/360, or more commonly, casuals would by the latest shovelware trends in large numbers. This led to shovelware third-parties being successful and causes traditional third-parties to move away or only give the system limited support.
4. It's last few years Nintendo lost focus and wasn't able to keep momentum, trying to nickle and dime the quickly cratering Wii base and putting out a new "slim" SKU that would bring with it some pretty extreme limitations. Of course sales did not increase and continued to crater, leading to the Xbox and PS3 across multiple regions to become champions displacing the Wii despite it's previous wide lead.
Of course there are some good things:
1. The controller was innovative and while not always used properly and often used as an alternative button press. It offered a new way to play.
2. Easy access through the SD slot allowed emulation and homebrew opportunities.
3. The online sometimes worked for some games which was good.
4. It was cheap and affordable.
5. Some of Nitnendos first-party still kept their quality.
So how do you feel about the Wii 12 years from now? Where do you place it.