The History of the Nintendo Wii

The vision for the Nintendo Wii was in the works as early as 2000. However, the public didn’t get a taste of the concept until mid 2004. The goal of Nintendo with this product was to revolutionize the home gaming console industry. Many consumers were very excited about the ideas but some worried that they wouldn’t be able to materialize.

Those doubts were soon cast aside though when Nintendo revealed their concept for the wireless controller at a show in Japan in 2005. In late 2006 The Nintendo Wii was in high demand. In fact, stores couldn’t get enough of them to fill the demands for the holidays. Many people were paying thousands of dollars for them on eBay and other online auction sites. There were also plenty of charity fundraisers selling high volumes of tickets due to the prize being a Nintendo Wii.

The road to such success was one that took many twists and turns though. In 2001 Nintendo released the GameCube. It was quite successful but the researchers for the company felt that so much more could be accomplished due to the technology we have available. As the same time the Nintendo DS was being finalized. Many of the concepts of these two early works though are a crucial part of the overall design of the Nintendo Wii.

It took the visions of both developers, programmers, and engineers to get the Nintendo Wii that we love today to take shape. They had a variety of concepts they needed to implement. First, they needed to make it affordable or people weren’t going to buy it no matter how good it was. Nintendo make it known from the start they wanted the Wii to be family oriented. Therefore it had to be offered at a price that the average family could afford to buy it.

Next they wanted to go beyond the basics of playing video games. They wanted to give players a chance to be a part of the game. This was different from simply enjoying playing the game. Being able to use the right tools and accessories would make a huge difference in this area. A great deal of effort was put into offering very realistic movements and graphics to allow this to happen.

Last but not least they wanted the games to be fun and interactive. They wanted parents to be willing to buy this type of gaming console without worrying that their kids would become inactive in other aspects by playing it all the time. They wanted to make sure people of all ages were going to be able to have a great time using it as well.

The name of the Wii was changed many times before it was released. One of the top names that was considered was Revolution. However, the executives of the Wii had a worldwide vision for this home gaming console. Therefore, they wanted a name that would be simple to pronounce in any given language.

Since the goal of the company was to offer something that everyone could enjoy, using the word WE in it was something that many people loved. The spelling of it was changed though to give it a more distinct element that would be connected to the Nintendo brand in the minds of consumers from all over the world. This is a marketing strategy that certainly was worked out well for Nintendo.

No one can question the success of the Nintendo Wii though. It has won many different awards in the few years it has been on the market. Since September of 2007 it has been the top selling home gaming console. Even though other companies are trying to copy the standards that Nintendo has set they haven’t been able to generate the same consumer following.

The Nintendo Wii was just released in both China and South Korea in 2008. There are plans to launch it in Morocco and the Philippines later this year or in early 2009. This is due to customer demands from those regions. Many people there already have them but they have been paying a premium price for them on the black market.