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The Wii was on the of the best selling consoles of all time? I believe only surpassed by the PS2. Is the gimmicky a personal opinion or something you believe d

The Wii was on the of the best selling consoles of all time? I believe only surpassed by the PS2. Is the gimmicky a personal opinion or something you believe didn’t resonate with customers?

ChoGGi 2y ago
Looks like the DS and switch both sold about 50m more units. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_game_consoles https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_game_co...
- darkwizard42 2y ago
  Yes, great source. filter that by Home vs the mobile category to see it is only beat by PlayStation. You could argue the Switch is a home console as well.
  - extraduder_ire 2y ago
    The switch may be kind of hard to count for home console sales, since the switch lite is a portable console (lacks hardware to use the dock) and may be included in some sales numbers.
    - baby 2y ago
      The switch was basically the first hybrid
  - ChoGGi 2y ago
    Good point, I just looked at consoles in general.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
jjice 2y ago
"Gimmicky" in the sense that they used movement controls and that's non-standard in the industry and went away mostly afterwards. I'm considering anything that isn't a traditional stationary control (keyboard + mouse or controller) as "gimmicky" or out of the ordinary. In terms of sales, you're absolutely right - the Wii crushed it. I'd be curious to know about usage and software sales though. Maybe I'm wrong (very possible), but almost everyone I knew had a Wii at some point, but they didn't use it outside of a family toy with a few games when they first got it. I'd still consider that a win for Nintendo compared to less sales, but I'd imagine the average Xbox 360 or PS3 had a lot more software sales per console.
- bsimpson 2y ago
  The Wiimotes were a clear influence on the Joy-Cons. Nintendo still uses motion controls; they just made them portable and more resilient with gyros instead of IR.
  - jjice 2y ago
    Right, but it's not the main focus in the majority of games. In many games that do offer gyro support, it's usually able to be toggled off. It's not like the Wii where the core of the controllers was pointing them and swinging them around.
    - bsimpson 2y ago
      I don't remember motion controls being a majority of Wii games either. A lot of them were played with a Nunchuk to emulate a classic controller (or attached to the actual Classic Controller or Rock Band instruments to play cross platform games). The motion control that comes to mind beyond Wii Sports were circling the Wiimote to collect things in Mario.
      - staticman2 2y ago
        The Wii exclusive Zelda, Skyward Sword, was motion control only. Even games that didn't require motion controls for basic gameplay still required you to do things like turn the controller around and use the pointer to select options from a menu rather than using the D pad. (I'm thinking Punch Out). I think Donkey Kong country occasionally made you shake the controller.
setgree 2y ago
Fifth best selling of all time and most successful of its generation, per Wikipedia.

The Wii was on the of the best selling consoles of all time? I believe only surpassed by the PS2. Is the gimmicky a personal opinion or something you believe didn’t resonate with customers?

ChoGGi 2y ago

Looks like the DS and switch both sold about 50m more units. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_game_consoles https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_game_co...

darkwizard42 2y ago
Yes, great source. filter that by Home vs the mobile category to see it is only beat by PlayStation. You could argue the Switch is a home console as well.
- extraduder_ire 2y ago
  The switch may be kind of hard to count for home console sales, since the switch lite is a portable console (lacks hardware to use the dock) and may be included in some sales numbers.
  - baby 2y ago
    The switch was basically the first hybrid
- ChoGGi 2y ago
  Good point, I just looked at consoles in general.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

jjice 2y ago

"Gimmicky" in the sense that they used movement controls and that's non-standard in the industry and went away mostly afterwards. I'm considering anything that isn't a traditional stationary control (keyboard + mouse or controller) as "gimmicky" or out of the ordinary. In terms of sales, you're absolutely right - the Wii crushed it. I'd be curious to know about usage and software sales though. Maybe I'm wrong (very possible), but almost everyone I knew had a Wii at some point, but they didn't use it outside of a family toy with a few games when they first got it. I'd still consider that a win for Nintendo compared to less sales, but I'd imagine the average Xbox 360 or PS3 had a lot more software sales per console.

bsimpson 2y ago
The Wiimotes were a clear influence on the Joy-Cons. Nintendo still uses motion controls; they just made them portable and more resilient with gyros instead of IR.
- jjice 2y ago
  Right, but it's not the main focus in the majority of games. In many games that do offer gyro support, it's usually able to be toggled off. It's not like the Wii where the core of the controllers was pointing them and swinging them around.
  - bsimpson 2y ago
    I don't remember motion controls being a majority of Wii games either. A lot of them were played with a Nunchuk to emulate a classic controller (or attached to the actual Classic Controller or Rock Band instruments to play cross platform games). The motion control that comes to mind beyond Wii Sports were circling the Wiimote to collect things in Mario.
    - staticman2 2y ago
      The Wii exclusive Zelda, Skyward Sword, was motion control only. Even games that didn't require motion controls for basic gameplay still required you to do things like turn the controller around and use the pointer to select options from a menu rather than using the D pad. (I'm thinking Punch Out). I think Donkey Kong country occasionally made you shake the controller.

setgree 2y ago

Fifth best selling of all time and most successful of its generation, per Wikipedia.