Maybe I'm just a pessimist. But honestly, did anyone expect this level of success from the Wii? I was intrigued from the beginning, ever since Miyamoto began talking in general terms about it. But after the Nintendo 64's second place finish to the PSX coupled with the demise of Sega as a console maker, fear began to settle in. Would a similar fate fall upon Nintendo? Would we be forced to play future Mario games using the pre-S-controller enormous monstrosity of an Xbox pad? The GameCube didn't do much to soothe any anxiety. Many pointed to the use of cartridges instead of disc technology as a reason for the Nintendo 64's lack of superiority: the CD-based PSX games were cheaper to produce, easier to develop, and could hold much more data. But after the GameCube fixed this, things still didn't quite go the Big N's way. Perhaps Nintendo's style of making games simply wasn't relevant in the current market, I thought. I guess their best times are behind them. Early rumblings of the Revolution's unique features were very general. The only semi-concrete evidence given by Nintendo was that the system would not support HD and not be as powerful as the other next-generation consoles. Without any specifics to go on, many assumed the worst and thought that the company was circling the drain.
What a difference a single video can make. Once Nintendo finally unvieled the controller and revealed its purpose at the 2005 Tokyo Game Show, gamers started to get excited again. The system got incredible coverage by the mainstream media, and everyone wanted one. Wii Sports showed that anyone can play video games, so long as they can move their arms. Now, two years after launch, Nintendo's little system-that-could is the most sold, most owned, and most profitable current generation console. Who would've thunk it? Admittedly, not me.
