The original idea for the Nintendo Wii was being bounced around in 2000 – however, the concept wasn’t made known to the public until 2004. Nintendo’s purpose, in this case, was to completely reinvent the home gaming industry. While Nintendo fans were excited about the prospective product, many were worried that it would not see the light of day as Nintendo had originally intended.
Most doubts were alleved after Nintendo revealed their concept for the wireless controller (later to be known as the Wiimote) in a Japanese show circa 2005. By late 2006, the Wii was, predicted, in great demand. Stores couldn’t keep their shelves stocked to fill the Christmas holiday demands. Some were paying into the thousands of dollars on Ebay to get their hands on one. In additional, fundraisers were able to sell high volumes of tickets when the prize was a Nintendo Wii console.
However, the road to the Wii’s success was a rough one. When the Nintendo GameCube was released in 2001, it was very successful, but company researchers thought that more could be accomplished with available technology. As the Nintendo DS was in its final stages, many of the aspects of these two systems were being worked and reworked into the overall design of the pending Nintendo Wii.
Wii programmers, developers, and engineers painstaking combined their visions to encompass the final product that we now today know and love and as the Wii. Many different concepts were implemented to make it affordable so that it would be marketable to the masses. Nintendo released that it had to be accessible to the general public, and without this factor it wouldn’t matter how good the Wii was, it couldn’t be successful. The Wii from the beginning was to be family-oriented, and was therefore offered at a price that many families could manage.
The next new aspect of the Wii was that it was to go above and beyond just the basic nature of current video games. Players were to be given the chance to become a part of the game, and the right tools and accessories would be needed to accomplish this. Much effort went into the design of realistic movements and graphics in order to allow this to happen.
Lastly, but certainly not least, the games needed to be fun and interactive. Nintendo wanted to alleve parental worries that this game console, like so many others that were available, would contribute to their children become inactive in other crucial areas of their lives. Furthermore, the system must be intuitive and simple enough to be usable by all ages, even those older individuals who weren’t as technology-savvy.
Nintendo’s name for the game console was changed several times before release. “Revolution” was a name that was seriously considered. However, Wii execs had a worldwide vision for the system, and therefore, wanted a name that would be easy to pronounce in most languages, not just English.
Since the game system was something that everyone should be able to enjoy, the idea that “we” should be included in the title was introduced. Nintendo decided to change the spelling, however, in order to give it a more distinctive name that would be connected to Nintendo directly. This marketing strategy was extremely successful, and now the Wii Nintendo name is known widely all over the world. Packaged games are widely available in stores, and users can also download full version games over the Internet.
No one can really question the success of the Wii game console – financially, commercially, or quality. The Wii has won several awards over the years it has been available. Since September, 2007, it has consistently been the top-selling game system. Other companies have since tried to copy the standards that Nintendo set, but so far, none have been able to generate the same type of following, not by far.
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