History of video games/Platforms/Wii

Development
The preceding console to the Wii was the Nintendo GameCube. Wii development began almost immediately after the launch of the GameCube.

Prototype Wiimotes for the Revolution were wired controllers that reused GameCube controller plugs and GameBoy Advance SP buttons, as well as back and pause buttons instead of + and -.

On April 27th, 2006 the Nintendo Revolution had its name revealed as the Nintendo Wii.

Launch
The Nintendo Wii saw a North American launch in November of 2006. For over a year after launch, the Wii was regularly sold out. The Wii was advertised using music composed by the Yoshida Brothers.

Revisions
In October 2011 a hardware revision of the Wii was released that removed GameCube support.

The Wii Mini was released in Canada in December 2012. The Wii Mini also lacks GameCube support.

Legacy
101.63 million Wii consoles and 921.85 million Wii games were sold over the course of Wii production.

The Wii was succeeded by the Wii U.

On January 30th, 2019 the Wii shop channel shut down.

Releases for the Wii continued long after the system was discontinued, with the multi platform Shakedown Hawaii receiving a limited 3000 copy physical release in 2020.

Nintendo stopped repairing Wii consoles in March 2020 due to an inability to find parts needed for repairs.

Technical strategy
"Please understand, I am not saying that technology is unimportant. I understand that technology is important. But if we are just focusing on technology and investing in an IT manufacturing plant to come up with higher performance processing [chips], we will not succeed."

The Wii represented a technological departure from previous home console strategies from Nintendo, focusing on features over raw compute performance. The system was effectively an evolution of the previous GameCube architecture, leading to the common developer idiom that the Wii is "two Gamecubes duct-taped together". This idiom was famously used by Maxis developer Chris Heckler at a speech given at GDC (Game Developer Conference) in 2007. While not literally true, as could be effectively be said for some console designs from the 1990's, the idiom is mostly accurate when referring to the general performance of the system, where most specifications are roughly double what the Gamecube offered.

Console
The Wii is powered by a 32-bit PowerPC architecture IBM 750CL Broadway CPU clocked at 729 megahertz. The Wii has 64 megabytes of GDDR3 RAM for general use, and 24MB of 1T-SRAM located close to the GPU. The Wii uses an ATI GPU named Hollywood, clocked at 243 megahertz. The GPU also includes an undocumented independent computer based on an NEC ARM926EJ-S processor, unofficially known as Starlet, and clocked at 243 megahertz and has independent ROM and RAM, which handles security tasks.

The Wii has 512 megabytes of NAND flash storage. The Wii's SD & SD-HC card reader supports cards with up to 32 gigabytes. Initially the system software supported SD cards with a capacity of up to 2 gigabytes. However the Wii Menu 4.0 update increased the card size support to 32 gigabytes. The Wii uses a slightly modified full size DVD disks with special burst cuttings for game media, which are capable of holding either 4.7 or 8.45 gigabytes for one layer disks and two layer disks respectively. Due to using it's own proprietary media, the Wii is unable to play standard DVD or CD disks.

The Wii supports 2.4 gigahertz Wi-Fi b/g.

The Wii Shop channel played synth Bossa Nova music while shopping.

Wiimote
The Wii became one of the first major consoles to use micromachine technology, with its integration of the MEMS Analog Devices ADXL330 three axis linear accelerometer in the Wiimote.

Development Kit
The Wii Development kit is internally similar to a Wii, but has 128 megabytes of RAM, double the amount used in the consumer model. This was a common feature of development kits, as developers often required the additional overhead for tooling and technical reasons.

Wii Sports
There was debate between Reggie Fils-Aimé and Shigeru Miyamoto as to whether Wii Sports should be a pack in title or not. The ultimate decision to pack in this high quality casual game as a showcase of the system capabilities helped contribute to the massive success of the Wii.

Read more about Wii Sports on Wikipedia.

Pokémon Battle Revolution
Read more about Pokémon Battle Revolution on Wikipedia.

2007

 * Super Mario Galaxy
 * No More Heroes
 * Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn - Direct sequel to Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance
 * Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
 * Super Paper Mario
 * Wii Fit

Mario Party 8
In the United Kingdom initial copies of this game were pulled after it was discovered there was an offensive word used in game.

Read more about Mario Party 8 on Wikipedia.

2008

 * Super Smash Bros. Brawl
 * Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse
 * 428: Shibuya Scramble
 * Captain Rainbow
 * Klonoa - 2.5D platformer. Critical success, commercial failure.

The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces
Read more about The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces on Wikipedia.

2009

 * Wii Sports Resort
 * MadWorld
 * Just Dance - First entry in the Just Dance Series. Wii exclusive.
 * New Super Mario Bros. Wii
 * Monster Hunter Tri
 * Sin & Punishment: Star Successor
 * A Boy and His Blob

2010

 * Super Mario Galaxy 2
 * Epic Mickey
 * Xenoblade Chronicles
 * Sonic colors/sonic colours

2011

 * The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
 * The Last Story
 * Pandora's Tower
 * Kirby's Return to Dream Land

Fortune Street
In 2019 Fortune Street gained internet notoriety after a reference to the character Yoshi dodging taxes was found in the game, predating the meme "Yoshi commits tax fraud" by several years.

Read more about Fortune Street on Wikipedia.

2012

 * Mario Party 9

Special Editions
Special editions and versions of the console.
 * Starlight Gaming Station - Kiosk for hospital use.
 * Gold plated Wii - One off THQ modified Wii intended as a 2009 gift for Queen Elizabeth II.

External Resources

 * Video Game Console Library - Nintendo Wii page.