Wii Remote Plus And Wii MotionPlus Comparison

The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America, and in December 2006 for most other regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major home game console, following the GameCube, and is a seventh-generation console alongside Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3.

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata directed the development of the Wii with a strategy focused on appealing to a broader audience through innovative gameplay, rather than competing with Microsoft and Sony on raw computational power. Shigeru Miyamoto and Genyo Takeda led the project, which was initially codenamed Revolution. The result was a console that emphasized new forms of interaction, particularly through its wireless controller, the Wii Remote, which featured motion-tracking controls and could recognize gestures and function as a pointing device. The Wii was Nintendo's first console with native Internet connectivity, enabling online gaming and digital distribution via the Wii Shop Channel. It also supported wireless connectivity with the handheld Nintendo DS console for select games. Early models were fully backward-compatible with GameCube games and accessories. Later in its lifecycle, Nintendo released two more affordable versions: the RVL-101 without GameCube compatibility and the Wii Mini further removed features like online connectivity and SD card storage.

Because of Nintendo's reduced focus on computational power, both the console and its games were less expensive to produce than its competitors. The Wii was extremely popular at launch, causing the system to be in short supply in some markets. ''Wii Sports'', a pack-in game became the killer app for the console while new entries in the ''Super Mario'', '' Legend of Zelda'', ''Pokémon'', and ''Metroid'' series helped boost its popularity. Within a year, the Wii became the best-selling console of the seventh generation as well as a social phenomenon in many countries. Total lifetime sales of the Wii reached over 101 million units, making it Nintendo's best-selling home console until it was surpassed by the Nintendo Switch in 2021. As of 2022, it remains the fifth-best-selling home console of all time.

The popularity of the Wii's motion-controlled games led both Microsoft and Sony to develop their own competing products—the Kinect and PlayStation Move, respectively. The Wii successfully achieved Nintendo's goal of attracting a broader audience to video game consoles, but it also alienated core gamers. In an attempt to recapture this key demographic, Nintendo released their next home console the Wii U in 2012, which proved to be a flop. The Wii was discontinued in October 2013, though the Wii Mini continued production for a few years, and some online services persisted until 2019.

History

2001–2003: Development

Shortly after the release of the GameCube, Nintendo began conceptual development on its next console. According to game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, the company decided early to not aim to compete on hardware power, instead prioritizing new gameplay experiences. The project was initially referred to by the placeholder name "GameCube Next" (GCNext or GCN). Nintendo originally envisioned pricing the console at around .

Miyamoto cited the unconventional input controllers of ''Dance Dance Revolution'' as an inspiration for developing new kinds of controllers. On September 24, 2001, Nintendo began collaborating with Gyration Inc., a company that held several patents in motion-sensing technology, to prototype motion-based input devices using Gyration's patents.

After succeeding Hiroshi Yamauchi as Nintendo president in May 2002, Satoru Iwata acknowledged that the company had fallen behind industry trends, particularly in online gaming. He also wanted Nintendo to develop hardware and video games that would appeal to all demographics. Internal market research revealed that Nintendo's prior focus on unconventional hardware had made its platforms more difficult for third-party developers to support, weakening its competitive position. One of Iwata's first major initiatives in response was the development of the Nintendo DS, a dual-screen handheld console with a touchscreen, to revitalize their handheld console line.

In 2003, Iwata met with Miyamoto and Genyo Takeda to discuss the company's market strategy. He directed Takeda to “go off the tech roadmap” in designing the new console, emphasizing that it needed to be accessible, especially to non-traditional audiences, including mothers. He also wanted backward compatibility with earlier Nintendo games to reduce household clutter. Takeda led hardware development, while Miyamoto focused on designing a new controller, leveraging Gyration's motion-sensing technology. Iwata proposed using motion controls as a means to simplify the gaming interface and expand its appeal. An initial prototype was completed within six months.

The Nintendo DS was said to have influenced the design of the new console. Nintendo observed that the DS's novel dual-screen interface had attracted non-traditional players and aimed to replicate that success on their home console platform. Designer Ken'ichiro Ashida recalled, "We had the DS on our minds as we worked on the Wii. We thought about copying the DS's touch-panel interface and even came up with a prototype." The idea was ultimately abandoned to avoid redundancy between the two systems. Miyamoto later remarked, "If the DS had flopped, we might have taken the Wii back to the drawing board."

2004–2005: Announcements

At E3 2004, Iwata first unveiled some details of the project under its new codename, "Revolution," a reflection of his belief the console would revolutionize the gaming industry. BBC News' technology editor Alfred Hermida wrote that Nintendo's struggle to match Sony and Microsoft in the home console market made success crucial.

The console, still named "Revolution", was formally presented to the public at E3 in May 2005. At this time, the console's motion controller was not yet finalized and was omitted from the unveiling. Iwata held the console above him with one hand to emphasize its size relative to its rivals. The reduced form factor meant lower power consumption and less heat output, and was also designed to appeal to parents, who were thought to be more likely to allow the device into the living room if it was small and attractive. The console's minimalist aesthetic invited comparisons to Apple's original iPod. Iwata reportedly used a stack of three DVD cases as a reference for the final size. The prototype shown was black, though the final retail version, released the following year, was only available in white.

In September 2005, Iwata demonstrated a prototype of the controller at the Tokyo Game Show. By this stage, the hardware closely resembled the final Wii Remote and Nunchuk. During the presentation, Iwata demonstrated the controller's motion-sensing capabilities, supported a video with commentary from developers such as Hideo Kojima and Yuji Horii, who had tested the controller and believed people would be drawn in by it.

The console's official name, "Wii," was announced in April, a month ahead of E3 2006. The stylized spelling—with two lowercase "i"s—was designed to represent both two people standing side by side and the pairing of the Wii Remote and Nunchuk. In its announcement, Nintendo explained: "Wii sounds like 'we', which emphasizes that the console is for everyone. Wii can easily be remembered by people around the world, no matter what language they speak. No confusion."

The name drew widespread mockery and criticism. ''Forbes'' reported that Nintendo fans feared the name would perpetuate the perception that Nintendo made consoles primarily for children. ''BBC News'' reported the day after the name was announced that "a long list of puerile jokes, based on the name," had appeared on the Internet. Some video game developers and journalists expressed a preference for the codename "Revolution." President of Nintendo of America Reggie Fils-Aimé defended the name, saying that the company chose the name over "Revolution" because they wanted something short, distinctive, and easily pronounceable in all cultures.

The Wii was made available for press demonstrations at E3 2006, where Nintendo also revealed several planned launch titles. At the same event, the company reaffirmed its intention to release the console by the end of 2006.

2006–2010: Launch

Nintendo announced the launch plans and pricing for the Wii in September 2006. The console first launched in the United States on November 19, 2006, priced at . Other regional release dates and prices included Japan on December 2, priced at , followed by Australasia on December 7 at , and later, the United Kingdom on December 8 for , with most of Europe receiving it at €249.99. Nintendo aimed to have around 30 Wii games available by the end of 2006 and anticipated shipping over 4 million consoles by the year's end.

As part of its launch campaign, Nintendo promoted the Wii in North America through a series of television advertisements directed by Academy Award winner Stephen Gaghan. The internet ads campaign featured slogans like "Wii would like to play" and "Experience a new way to play". Launched in November 2006, the campaign had a budget exceeding for the year.

These ads targeted a broader demographic compared to other consoles, inviting parents and grandparents to experience the Wii. Nintendo’s goal was to appeal to a wider audience than its competitors in the seventh generation. In December 2006, Iwata stated that Nintendo didn’t view itself as "fighting Sony," but instead focused on how to expand the gaming demographic. This strategy proved successful as the Wii became a global social phenomenon throughout 2007.

The Wii's launch in other regions took several years. It arrived in South Africa on September 30, 2007, South Korea on April 26, 2008, Taiwan on July 12, 2008, India on September 30, 2008, and Hong Kong on December 12, 2009. Nintendo had planned to work with its localization partner, iQue, to release the Wii in China in 2008, but was unable to meet the requirements to circumvent the ban on foreign-made consoles imposed by the Chinese government.

2011–2014: Successor and discontinuation

Nintendo announced the successor to the Wii, the Wii U, at E3 2011. Nintendo had recognized that the Wii had generally been shunned by the core gaming audience as it was perceived more as a casual gaming experience. The Wii U was aimed to draw the core audience back in with more advanced features atop the basic Wii technology. The Wii U features the Wii U GamePad, a controller with an embedded touchscreen and output 1080p high-definition graphics that serves as a secondary screen alongside the television. The Wii U is fully backward-compatible with Wii games and peripherals for the Wii, including the Wii Remote, Nunchuk controller and Wii Balance Board, and select Wii U games including support for these devices. The Wii U was first released on November 18, 2012 in North America; November 30, 2012 in Europe and Australia, and December 8, 2012 in Japan.

Nintendo continued to sell the revised Wii model and the Wii Mini alongside the Wii U during the Wii U's first release year. During 2013, Nintendo began to sunset certain Wii online functions as they pushed consumers towards the Wii U as a replacement system or towards the offline Wii Mini, though the Wii Shop Channel remained available. Nintendo discontinued production of the Wii in October 2013 after selling over 100 million units worldwide, though the company continued to produce the Wii Mini unit primarily for the North American market. The WiiConnect24 service and several channels based on that service were shuttered in June 2013. Support for online multiplayer games via the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection were discontinued in May 2014, while the Wii Shop was closed in January 2019, effectively ending all online services for the console. The Wii Mini continued to be manufactured for some time after.

Despite the Wii's discontinuation, some developers continued to produce Wii games well beyond 2013. Ubisoft released '' Just Dance'' games for the Wii up to '' Just Dance 2020'' (2019). Vblank Entertainment's '' Shakedown: Hawaii'' along with '' Retro City Rampage DX'' are the most recent Wii games, which were released on July 9, 2020 (more than 13 years after the Wii's launch). On January 27, 2020, Nintendo announced that it will no longer repair any faulty Wii consoles in Japan starting on February 6 due to a scarcity of spare parts.

Hardware

Console

In building the Wii, Nintendo deliberately chose not to outpace the performance of rival consoles. Unlike the company's previous consoles, they built the Wii from commercial off-the-shelf hardware rather than developing customized components. This decision significantly reduced manufacturing costs, allowing Nintendo to offer the console at a lower price point. As Miyamoto explained, "Originally, I wanted a machine that would cost $100. My idea was to spend nothing on the console technology so all the money could be spent on improving the interface and software."

The Wii's central processing unit, named Broadway, is a 32-bit chip developed by IBM. Based on the same PowerPC architecture as the GameCube's Gekko processor, it runs at 729 MHz and was manufactured using a more efficient 90 nm process, reducing power consumption by about 20% compared to Gekko's 180 nm process. Other system functions are handled by Hollywood, a system-on-a-chip (SoC) developed by ATI that combines graphics, audio, and input/output functions. Its graphics processing unit (GPU) is an updated version of the GameCube's Flipper, running at 243 MHz, 1.5 times faster, allowing it to support more advanced visual effects and including 3 MB of embedded texture memory. It also contains Starlet, an ARM-based coprocessor with 96 KB of RAM that manages input/output operations and system security. Hollywood integrates 24 MB of high-speed 1T-SRAM that works alongside 64 MB of GDDR3 memory mounted on the motherboard, bringing the total system memory to 88 MB. In terms of computational power, the Wii was about 1.5 to 2 times more powerful than the GameCube, but was the least powerful of the major home consoles of its generation.

The Wii's motherboard has a WiFi module, supporting 802.11b and 802.11g modes, and a Bluetooth module to communicate with its controllers. A USB-based LAN adapter can connect the Wii to a wired Ethernet network.

Games are read via a front slot-loading optical drive compatible with Nintendo's proprietary 12 cm Wii discs and 8 cm GameCube discs. However, it does not support standard optical media such as DVDs or CDs. Although Nintendo had planned on incorporating this feature into later revisions of the Wii, the demand for the console meant a delay in their schedule, until the feature lost interest. Nintendo later explained that they felt that most consumers owned other devices with DVD playback capability, and it allowed them to avoid the additional cost associated with licensing patents for the technology. The optical drive slot is illuminated with LEDs that indicate system activity, for example, pulsing blue when receiving messages via WiiConnect24 or during disc reading.

The system includes 512 MB of internal flash memory for storing saved data and downloaded content. This storage could be expanded via SD cards inserted into a slot behind a front panel. A later system update enabled users to launch Wii channels and play Virtual Console and WiiWare games directly from SD cards.

The rear of the console houses video output and power connectors, along with two USB ports. When oriented vertically, the top panel reveals four GameCube controller ports and two GameCube memory card slots.

At launch, the Wii was Nintendo's smallest home console. Measuring wide, tall, and deep in its vertical orientation, the system was slightly larger than three DVD cases stacked together. The console was designed to operate either horizontally or vertically. Its included stand, used for stability in vertical placement, measures wide, tall, and deep. Weighing , the Wii was the lightest of the three major seventh-generation consoles.

Wii Remote

The Wii Remote is the primary controller for the console. The remote contains a MEMS-based three-dimension accelerometer, along with infrared detection sensors located at the far end of the controller. The accelerometers allow the Wii Remote to recognize its orientation after being moved from a resting position, translating that motion into gesture recognition for a game. For example, the pack-in game ''Wii Sports'' includes a ten-pin bowling game that had the player hold the Wii Remote and perform a delivery of a ball; the Wii Remote could account for the player's position relative to the Sensor Bar, and their arm and wrist rotation to apply speed and spin to the virtual ball's delivery on screen. The infrared detectors are used to track emissions from LEDs in the included Sensor Bar, which is placed just above or below the television display, as to track the relative orientation of the Wii Remote towards the screen. This gives the Wii Remote the ability to act as a pointing device like a computer mouse on the television screen, with an approximate range of for accurate detection. In addition, the Wii Remote features traditional controller inputs, including a directional pad (D-pad), three face action buttons, a shoulder trigger, and four system-related buttons including a power switch. The Wii Remote connects to the Wii via Bluetooth with an approximate range, communicating the sensor and control information to the console unit. The Wii Remote includes an internal speaker and a rumble pack that can be triggered by a game to provide feedback directly to the player's hand. Up to four Wii Remotes could connect wirelessly to a Wii, with LED lights on each remote indicating which controller number the Remote had connected as. The remote is battery-operated, and when the Remote is not powered on, these LED lights can display the remaining battery power.

A wrist-mounted strap is included with the Wii Remote, with one end affixed to the bottom of the unit. Nintendo strongly encouraged players to use the strap in case the Wii Remote accidentally slipped out of their hands. Nintendo recalled the original straps in December 2006 and provided a free, stronger strap as a replacement, as well as packaging the new strap in future bundles after the company faced legal challenges from users that reported damage to their homes from the Wii Remote slipping from their hands while playing. In October 2007, Nintendo also added a silicone Wii Remote Jacket to shipments of the Wii and Wii Remote, as well as a free offering for existing users. The Jacket wraps around the bulk of the remote but leaves access to the various buttons and connectors, providing a stickier surface in the user's grip to further reduce the chance of the Remote falling out of the player's hand.

Accessories can be connected to a Wii Remote through a proprietary

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