The Story of the Wii

What is Wii?

The Wii (note: not Nintendo Wii – Nintendo always intended the name to be just Wii) was launched in November 2006 as Nintendo's shot in the next gen console wars. Wii sits in the 7th generation of consoles, competing directly with the PS3 and Xbox 360. To say it competes directly is however to miss the point entirely – Nintendo very cleverly side-stepped the whole 'my console has more powerful and better graphics than your console' games being played by the other entrants into the 7th generation console marketplace. This was always their intention; reportedly, according to Shigeru Miyamoto (Nintendo's game designer) the feeling was that power wasn't the be all and end all, with too many powerful consoles competing probably ultimately hastening their own extinction. This may also be down to the Gamecube experience – though a successful console, it never (in Europe at least) acquired the ubiquity of the Playstation 2 and latterly the original Xbox. This may well have strengthened the determination within Nintendo into following a different approach - the initial concept of a different form of player control was born at the time of the Gamecube launch. Development of what was known as the 'Revolution' began in earnest in 2003, with first demonstration of the Wii Remote taking place in September 2005.

Enter The Wii

In 2006 the name of the console and project was changed from Revolution to Wii, with the new name apparently being because, according to Nintendo, “Wii sounds like 'we', which emphasizes that the console is for everyone. Wii can easily be remembered by people around the world, no matter what language they speak. No confusion. No need to abbreviate. Just Wii”. The Wii trademark symbol further continues the feeling of inclusivity that is the Wii's hallmark, with the two 'ii' characters apparently representing both the systems two controllers (Wii Remote and Nunchuk) and two people side-by-side. Obviously, there was much sniggering amongst journalists and gamers when the new name was revealed, with many jokes getting into circulation. However, over time the new name has settled in and become something of an asset to the console, continuing to differentiate it from its competitors as Nintendo obviously intended.

Today

After becoming the 'must-have' console of Christmas 2006, the Wii has gone on to consolidate its position in the next generation console wars, comfortably outselling its main rivals in Japan by a margin of between 4:1 and 6:1. In the US market in the first half of 2007 it outsold the PS3 and Xbox360 combined; In terms of consoles shipped, the Xbox 360 still has the lead over the Wii, but it has been available for a whole year longer. By June 2007 in excess of 9.3 million Wii consoles (not Wiis – the plural is Wii consoles or Wii systems according to Nintendo) had been shipped with demand still exceeding supply in some markets.

The success of the Wii is a vindication of Nintendo's philosophy for the console and their attempt to target a different demographic. It has caught some of the games companies by surprise, with them now having to scramble to catch up with a console they thought would not be successful, with only the likes of Ubisoft having had the foresight to back the Wii from the beginning. Witness the success of the Raving Rabbids game! It as also said that it is cheaper to develop for the Wii than the other 7th Gen consoles, which bodes well for future games releases.