Written by: Suleman Sultan
When the Wii was released in 2006 it blew away the gaming world. With its innovative Wii-mote it marked a turning point for console gaming. Since then Nintendo has sold nearly 96 million units as well as the numerous accessories.
The Wii was designed by Nintendo’s engineers because Nintendo wanted to develop a system that would draw in a demographic other than young adults and children. Nintendo’s chief game designer Shigeru Miyamato stated that, “The consensus was that power isn’t everything for a console.”
He was right, at first, Nintendo blew away the competition. It seemed like Nintendo was going on a never ending climb with its Wii sales. The console was marketed for all ages and as it turned out everyone wanted one. With its games mainly aimed at children and its technology marketed for social events it became the must have system. The Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3 were forced to stay on the side lines.
So why then has the Wii practically disappeared from the spot light? Nowadays you barely hear about it, sometimes I wonder if anyone even makes games for it anymore.
Since 2006 not only did Nintendo consistently create the same type of games for the Wii, but they also kept marketing it for its innovative technology.
What so bad about that you say?
Well it’s ok if you’re the only console on the market with an innovative technology but Nintendo seemed to have forgotten that it had enemies lurking behind the bushes. Blinded by success maybe? The giants known as Microsoft and Sony within about 4-5 years after the release of their consoles developed their own motion technologies for their consoles. The Xbox 360 eventually gained the Kinect and the PlayStation 3 gained the Move.
With the Xbox and PlayStation 3 entering the competition, Nintendo became as it has now been labeled in the gaming world, “a children’s console.”
So once again why has the Wii disappeared?
Nintendo, after being thrown a curve ball by Microsoft and Sony decided it would start on a new console. They unveiled the Wii U on June 2011. Since then the Wii has become an aged console that you can buy at a second hand store. In fact selling you Wii will probably get you less money than one Xbox or PS3 game.
Hopefully Nintendo learnt from the mistakes of the Wii because the the gaming world has mostly forgotten Nintendo. Unless Nintendo creates something truly unique then it could be the end of Nintendo’s console gaming system, ending up like Atari and Sega.