Wii

From Sega Retro

Wii logo.svg
NintendoRevolution.jpg
Wii
Manufacturer: Nintendo
Release Date RRP Code
Nintendo Wii
JP
Nintendo Wii
US 		$249.99249.99
Nintendo Wii
EU
Nintendo Wii
AU
Nintendo Wii
HK
Nintendo Wii
KR
Nintendo Wii
TW

The Wii (pronounced "we"), codenamed Revolution, is a video game console created by Nintendo as the successor to the Nintendo GameCube in 2006. It competed in the seventh generation of home video game consoles, in which, due to a radical shift in marketing strategy by Nintendo, it came to dominate, selling almost 100 million units worldwide. The Wii was succeeded by the Wii U in late 2012.

Overview

Rather than opt for the traditional tactic of creating a system significantly more powerful to its predecessor, Nintendo designed the Wii to capitalise on what it thought would be the future of gaming - new and innovative ways to play paired alongside a marketing strategy which targeted who Nintendo deemed as "non-gamers". The result was a system not too dissimilar from the GameCube, but instead utilised motion control - Wii Remotes, which not only responded to button presses like traditional controllers, but could be moved and rotated by the player in the real world, creating an effect on-screen.

Nintendo put its innovative controller ahead of traditional aspects such as graphics and processing power, creating a system capable of playing a very different selection of video games than its rivals. It was seen as a major shift in strategy which was also mirrored to some extent by the already available Nintendo DS handheld, and Nintendo worked this concept to a great extent, capitalising on similar extensions such as the Wii Balance Board and Wii Motion Plus. Third-parties also got on board in the early years trying to persue a similar strategy, and from Nintendo's perspective it paid off, creating one of the most successful home consoles in history.

However, by 2010 much of the novelty had worn off - those in favour of traditional console gaming experiences migrating over to the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 to capitalise on the superior technology on offer. Third-party developers saw their games suffer on the Wii, with only first-party Nintendo games being seen to utilise the technology in meaningful ways. As a result, although more Wii consoles outsold the competition for much of the generation, software attachment rates were low, and many third-party publishers abandoned the system entirely. Later models stripped away GameCube backwards compatibility, and slowing sales caused Nintendo to develop and release a successor, the Wii U, built to regain the support the company had lost.

Sega support

Like many publishers, Sega was optimistic with the Wii when it first launched, and the vastly differing specifications to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 led to the creation of many Wii exclusive games. Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz was a launch title for the console, and was followed by titles such as Sonic and the Secret Rings, Samba de Amigo and NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams. Sega also published games attempting to appeal to more traditonal gamers such as The House of the Dead: Overkill and in the west, the controversial MadWorld. It also published High Voltage Software's The Conduit, expected to be a top FPS for the system.

Though initially enthusiastic about the Wii, by 2010 Sega were merely releasing multi-platform games and niche titles such as Gunblade NY & LA Machineguns, axing support entirely by the end of 2011. It is assumed, much like other third-parties, that Sega's titles did not sell particularly well on the console, with output instead being directed at the Wii's rivals with the expectation of generating more profit.

Sega was a major supporter of the Wii's Virtual Console service, allowing the system to play downloadable Sega Mega Drive and Sega Master System games, as well as a small selection of arcade games. Support for this service also began to deteriorate after 2010, although this may have simply been down to a lack of games to re-release at this point.

List of Sega games for the Wii

By region

Promotional material

  • NintendoE32006ArtworkCD Wii take 0501.jpg
  • NintendoE32006ArtworkCD Wii 2discs 0501.jpg
  • Wii-mini1.jpg

References


Non-Sega consoles
Nintendo
Nintendo Entertainment System (1983) | Game Boy (1989) | Super Nintendo Entertainment System (1990) | Nintendo 64 (1996) | Game Boy Color (1998) | Game Boy Advance (2001) | Nintendo GameCube (2001) | Nintendo DS (2004) | Wii (2006) | Nintendo 3DS (2011) | Wii U (2012) | Nintendo Switch (2017)
Sony
PlayStation (1994) | PlayStation 2 (2000) | PlayStation Portable (2004) | PlayStation 3 (2006) | PlayStation Vita (2011) | PlayStation 4 (2013) | PlayStation 5 (2020)
Microsoft
Xbox (2001) | Xbox 360 (2005) | Xbox One (2013) | Xbox Series X (2020)
Mobile
iOS | Android | Windows Phone
Other
Atari 2600 (1977) | Intellivision (1979) | ColecoVision (1982) | Atari 5200 (1982) | PC Engine (1987) | CD-ROM² (1988) | Super CD-ROM² (1991) | R-Zone (1995) | Game.com (1997) | WonderSwan (1999) | Neo Geo Pocket Color (1999) | N-Gage (2003) | LeapFrog Didj (2008) | Stadia (2019)
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