The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s PlayStation 3.

 Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of both. As of December 31, 2008 the Wii leads the generation over the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in worldwide sales.
A distinguishing feature of the console is its wireless controller, the Wii Remote, which can be used as a handheld pointing device and detect movement in three dimensions. Another distinctive feature of the console is WiiConnect24, which enables it to receive messages and updates over the Internet while in standby mode.
The Wii is Nintendo’s fifth home console, the direct successor to the Nintendo GameCube, and able to play all official GameCube games. Nintendo first spoke of the console at the 2004 E3 press conference and later unveiled the system at the 2005 E3. Satoru Iwata revealed a prototype of the controller at the September 2005 Tokyo Game Show.[8] At E3 2006, the console won the first of several awards. By December 8, 2006, it had completed its launch in four key markets.
Manufacturer Nintendo
Type Video game console
Generation Seventh generation
Retail availability November 19, 2006 (details)
Units shipped Worldwide: 50.39 million (as of March 31, 2009)[1] (details)
Media 12 cm Wii Optical Disc
8 cm Nintendo GameCube Game Disc
CPU IBM PowerPC-based “Broadway”
Storage capacity 512 MB Internal flash memory
SD card, SDHC card
Nintendo GameCube Memory Card
Graphics ATI “Hollywood”
Controller input Wii Remote, Wii Balance Board, Nintendo GameCube controller, Nintendo DS
Connectivity Wi-Fi
Bluetooth
2 × USB 2.0[4]
LAN Adapter (via USB)
Online services Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection
WiiConnect24
Wii Shop Channel
Best-selling game Wii Sports (pack-in, except in Japan and South Korea) 40.5 million (as of December 31, 2008)
Wii Play, 20.91 million (as of December 31, 2008)
Backward
compatibility Nintendo GameCube
Predecessor Nintendo GameCube
History
The console was conceived in 2001, as the Nintendo GameCube was first seeing release. According to an interview with Nintendo’s game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, the concept involved focusing on a new form of player interaction. “The consensus was that power isn’t everything for a console. Too many powerful consoles can’t coexist. It’s like having only ferocious dinosaurs. They might fight and hasten their own extinction.”
Two years later, engineers and designers were brought together to develop the concept further. By 2005, the controller interface had taken form, but a public showing at that year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) was withdrawn. Miyamoto stated that, “[W]e had some troubleshooting to do. So we decided not to reveal the controller and instead we displayed just the console.” Nintendo president Satoru Iwata later unveiled and demonstrated the Wii Remote at the September Tokyo Game Show.
The Nintendo DS is said to have influenced the Wii design. Designer Ken’ichiro Ashida noted, “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 eventually rejected, with the notion that the two gaming systems would be identical. Miyamoto also expressed that, “[I]f the DS had flopped, we might have taken the Wii back to the drawing board.”
Nintendo has attributed the success of the Wii to the ideas presented in the business strategy book Blue Ocean Strategy. Within the context of a Blue Ocean Strategy analysis, the key factors of the Wii reflect what is termed the “Six Path Framework” described within the book. While Nintendo has not publicly released the factors used, it is believed that they include “price”, “movie playing”, “graphics”, “physics”, “fun”, “game library”, and “magic wand”. Applying the Four Actions Framework would eliminate movie playing, reduce graphics and physics, raise fun and the game library, and lead to the creation of their “magic wand”: the Wii Remote.
Name
The console was known by the code name of “Revolution” until April 27, 2006, immediately prior to E3. The Nintendo Style Guide refers to the console as “simply Wii, not Nintendo Wii”, making it the first home console Nintendo has marketed outside of Japan without the company name featured in its trademark. While “Wiis” is a commonly used pluralization of the console, Nintendo has stated that the official plural form is “Wii systems” or “Wii consoles.” Nintendo’s spelling of “Wii” with two lower-case “i” characters is meant to resemble two people standing side by side, representing players gathering together, as well as to represent the Wii Remote and Nunchuk. The company has given many reasons for this choice of name since the announcement; however, the best known is:
“ 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. No need to abbreviate. Just Wii.
Despite Nintendo’s justification for the name, some video game developers and members of the press reacted negatively towards the change. They preferred “Revolution” over “Wii”[16] and Forbes expressed fear “that the name would convey a continued sense of ‘kidiness’ [sic] to the console.”The BBC reported the day after the name was announced that “a long list of puerile jokes, based on the name,” had appeared on the Internet. Nintendo of America’s president Reggie Fils-Aime acknowledged the initial reaction and further explained the change:
“ Revolution as a name is not ideal; it’s long, and in some cultures, it’s hard to pronounce. So we wanted something that was short, to the point, easy to pronounce, and distinctive. That’s how ‘Wii,’ as a console name, was created.
Nintendo of America’s then-Vice President of Corporate Affairs Perrin Kaplan defended its choice of “Wii” over “Revolution” and responded to critics of the name by stating, “Live with it, sleep with it, eat with it, move along with it and hopefully they’ll arrive at the same place.”
Launch
Wii retail display boxesMain article: Wii launch
On September 14, 2006, Nintendo announced release information for Japan, North and South America, Australasia (Oceania), Asia and Europe, including dates, prices, and projected unit distribution numbers. It was announced that the majority of the 2006 shipments would be allotted to the Americas, and that 33 titles would be available in the 2006 launch window. The Wii was launched in the United States on November 19, 2006 at $249.99. It was later launched in the United Kingdom on December 8, 2006 at £179.[24] The UK suffered a widespread shortage of console units as many high-street and online stores were unable to fulfill all pre-orders when it was released.[25] The Wii was launched in South Korea on April 26, 2008 and in Taiwan on July 12, 2008
System sales
Since its launch, the monthly sales numbers of the console have been higher than its competitors across the globe. According to the NPD Group, the Wii sold more units in the United States than the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 combined in the first half of 2007. This lead is even larger in the Japanese market, where it currently leads in total sales, having outsold both consoles by factors of 2:1 to 6:1 nearly every week from launch until November 2007. In Australia, the Wii exceeded the record set by the Xbox 360 to become the fastest selling games console in Australian history.
On September 12, 2007, it was reported by the Financial Times that the Wii had surpassed the Xbox 360, which was released one year previously, and had become the market leader in home console sales for the current generation, based on sales figures from Enterbrain, NPD Group, and GfK. This is the first time a Nintendo console has led its generation in sales since the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.
On July 11, 2007, Nintendo warned that the Wii would remain in short supply throughout 2007. In December 2007, Reggie Fils-Aime revealed that Nintendo produces approximately 1.8 million Wii consoles each month. Some UK stores still had a shortage of consoles as of March 2007, demand still outpaced supply in the United States as of June 2007, and the console “selling out almost as quickly as it hits retail shelves” in Canada as of April 2008. In October 2008, Nintendo announced that between October and December 2008 the Wii will have its North American supplies increased considerably from 2007’s levels,while producing 2.4 million Wii units a month worldwide, compared to 1.6 million per month in 2007.
In 2007, the Wii was the second best-selling game console (behind the Nintendo DS) in the US and Japan with 6.29 million and 3,629,361 units sold respectively, according to the NPD Group and Enterbrain.During the same year, the Wii had outsold the PlayStation 3 by 3:1 in Japan, while the Xbox 360 had sold 257,841 units in that region that year, according to Enterbrain. In Europe, the Wii sold 0.7 million units in 2006 and 4.8 million in 2007 according to estimates by Electronic Arts. In 2008, the Wii was the best-selling home console in Japan with 2,908,342 units sold, according to the Enterbrain. Prior to the release of the NPD Group’s video game statistics for January 2008, the Wii has been ahead of the Xbox 360 and PS3 in US sales in most months since the Wii and PS3 were released, according to data by the NPD Group.[53] In the United States, the Wii had sold 10.9 million units by July 1, 2008, making it the leader in current-generation home console sales, according to the NPD Group, surpassing the Xbox 360 which was released a year prior to the Wii. As of November 1, 2008, the Wii has sold 13.4 million units in the US, almost two million more than Xbox 360 and over twice the number of PlayStation 3 units sold, according to the NPD Group.
In Japan, the Wii had surpassed the number of Nintendo GameCube units sold by January 2008;the Wii has sold 7,526,821 units as of December 28, 2008, according to Enterbrain. According to the NPD Group, the Wii surpassed the Xbox 360 to become the best-selling “next generation” home video game console in Canada with 813,000 units sold by April 1, 2008, and was the best-selling home console for 13 of the past 17 months;in the first six months of 2008, the Wii had sold 318,000 units in Canada, outselling its nearest competitor, the PlayStation 3, almost 2:1. According to the NPD Group, the Wii has sold a total of 1,060,000 units in Canada as of August 1, 2008, making it the first current generation home console to surpass the million unit mark in that country; in the first seven months of 2008, the Wii outsold the PS3 and the Xbox 360 combined with 376,000 units sold in Canada.In the United Kingdom, the Wii leads in current generation home console sales with 4.9 million units sold as of January 3, 2009, according to GfK Chart-Track. On March 25, 2009, at the Game Developers Conference, Satoru Iwata said that worldwide shipments of Wii had reached 50 million.
While Microsoft and Sony have experienced losses producing their consoles in the hopes of making a long-term profit on software sales, Nintendo reportedly has optimized production costs to obtain a significant profit margin with each Wii unit sold. On September 17, 2007, the Financial Times reported that this direct profit per Wii sold may vary from $13 in Japan to $49 in the United States and $79 in Europe. On December 2, 2008, Forbes reported that Nintendo makes a $6 operating profit per Wii unit sold.
Demographic
Nintendo hopes to target a wider demographic with its console than that of others in the seventh generation. At a press conference for the upcoming Nintendo DS game Dragon Quest IX in December 2006, Satoru Iwata insisted “We’re not thinking about fighting Sony, but about how many people we can get to play games. The thing we’re thinking about most is not portable systems, consoles, and so forth, but that we want to get new people playing games.”
This is reflected in Nintendo’s series of television advertisements in North America, directed by Academy Award winner Stephen Gaghan, as well as Internet ads. The ad slogans are “Wii would like to play” and “Experience a new way to play.” These ads ran starting November 15, 2006 and had a total budget of over US$200 million throughout the year.The productions are Nintendo’s first broad-based advertising strategy and include a two-minute video clip showing a varied assortment of people enjoying the Wii system, such as urban apartment-dwellers, country ranchers, grandparents, and parents with their children. The music in the ads is from the song “Kodo (Inside the Sun Remix)” by the Yoshida Brothers. The marketing campaign has proved to be successful: pensioners as old as 103 have been reported to be playing the Wii in the United Kingdom.A report by the British newspaper The People also stated that Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain has played using the console.
Hardware
The Wii (top) compared in size to the GCN, N64, North American SNES and NESThe Wii is Nintendo’s smallest home console to date; it measures 44 mm (1.73 in) wide, 157 mm (6.18 in) tall and 215.4 mm (8.48 in) deep in its vertical orientation, the near-equivalent of three DVD cases stacked together. The included stand measures 55.4 mm (2.18 in) wide, 44 mm (1.73 in) tall and 225.6 mm (8.88 in) deep. The system weighs 1.2 kg (2.7 lb), which makes it the lightest of the three major seventh generation consoles. The console can be placed either horizontally or vertically. The prefix for the numbering scheme of the system and its parts and accessories is “RVL-” after its code name of “Revolution”. The console also features a recurring theme or design: the console itself, SD cards, the power supply and all the sockets have one of their corners chipped off in a triangular fashion.
The front of the console features an illuminated slot-loading optical media drive that accepts both 12 cm Wii Optical Discs and Nintendo GameCube Game Discs. The blue light in the disc slot illuminates briefly when the console is turned on and pulsates when new data is received through WiiConnect24. After firmware update 3.0, the disc slot light activates whenever a Wii disc is inserted or ejected. When there is no WiiConnect24 information, the light stays off. The disc slot light remains off during gameplay or when using other features. Two USB ports are located at its rear. An SD card slot hides behind the cover on the front of the console.
Nintendo has shown the console and the Wii Remote in white, black, silver, lime green, and red,[74][75] but it is currently available only in white. Shigeru Miyamoto stated that other colors would become available after the easing of supply limitations.
The Wii launch package includes the console, a stand to allow the console to be placed vertically, a circular clear stabilizer for the main stand, one Wii Remote, one Nunchuk attachment, one Sensor Bar, a removable stand for the bar, one external main power adapter, two AA batteries, one composite AV cable with RCA connectors, a SCART adapter in European countries (component video and other types of cables are available separately), operation documentation, and, in all regions except Japan and South Korea, a copy of the game Wii Sports.
The disc reader of the Wii does not play DVD-Video or DVD-Audio discs. A 2006 announcement had stated a new version of the Wii capable of DVD-Video playback would be released in 2007; however Nintendo delayed its release to focus on producing the original console to meet demand. Nintendo’s initial announcement stated that it “requires more than a firmware upgrade” to implement and that the functionality could not be made available as an upgrade option for the existing Wii model.Despite this assertion, third parties have used Wii homebrew to add DVD playback to the original unmodified Wii units. The Wii also can be hacked to enable an owner to use the console for other activities than those intended by Nintendo.Several brands of modchips are available for the Wii.
On July 11, 2007, Nintendo revealed the Wii Balance Board at E3 2007 along with Wii Fit. It is a wireless balance board accessory for the Wii that contains multiple pressure sensors used to measure the user’s center of balance. Namco Bandai produced a mat controller, a simpler less sophisticated competitor to the balance board, that connects to the GameCube controller port.
Wii Remote
From left to right: Nintendo DS Lite, Nunchuk, Wii Remote and strapThe Wii Remote is the primary controller for the console. It uses a combination of built-in accelerometers and infrared detection to sense its position in 3D space when pointed at the LEDs within the Sensor Bar. This design allows users to control the game using physical gestures as well as traditional button presses. The controller connects to the console using Bluetooth and features rumble as well as an internal speaker. The Wii Remote can connect to expansion devices through a proprietary port at the base of the controller. The device bundled with the Wii retail package is the Nunchuk unit, which features an accelerometer and a traditional analog stick with two trigger buttons. In addition, an attachable wrist strap can be used to prevent the player from unintentionally dropping or throwing the Wii Remote. In response to initial incidents of strap failure, Nintendo offers a free, stronger replacement for all straps. Nintendo has also since offered the Wii Remote Jacket to provide extra grip and protection. The Wii MotionPlus was announced as a device that connects to the Wii Remote to supplement the accelerometer and Sensor Bar capabilities and enable actions to be rendered identically on the screen in real time.
Memory storage
The Wii console contains 512 megabytes of internal flash memory and features an SD card slot for external storage. An SD card can be used for uploading photos as well as backing up saved game data and downloaded Virtual Console and WiiWare games. To use the SD slot for transferring game saves, an update must be installed. An installation can be initiated from the Wii options menu through an Internet connection, or by inserting a game disc containing the updated firmware. Virtual Console data cannot be restored to any system except the unit of origin. An SD card can also be used to create customized in-game music from stored MP3 files, as first shown in Excite Truck, as well as music for the slideshow feature of the Photo Channel. Version 1.1 of the Photo Channel removed MP3 playback in favor of AAC support.
At the Nintendo Fall Press Conference in October 2008, Satoru Iwata announced that Wii owners would have the option to download WiiWare and Virtual Console content directly onto an SD card. The option would offer an alternative to “address the console’s insufficient memory storage”. The announcement stated that it would be available in Japan in the spring of 2009. Nintendo made the update available on March 25, 2009. In addition to the previously announced functionalty, it lets the player load Virtual Console and WiiWare games directly from the SD card. The update allows the use of SDHC cards, increasing the limit on SD card size from 2 GB to 32 GB.
Technical specifications
Nintendo has released few technical details regarding the Wii system, but some key facts have leaked through the press. Though none of these reports has been officially confirmed, they generally point to the console as being an extension or advancement of the Nintendo GameCube architecture. More specifically, the reported analyses state that the Wii is roughly 1.5 to 2 times as powerful as its predecessor.Based on the leaked specifications, the Wii is the least powerful of the major home consoles in its generation. The Wii uses a storage system similar to the GameCube, which uses “block” units rather than bytes. The conversion from blocks to bytes is roughly 8.12 blocks to one megabyte.
Processors:
CPU: PowerPC-based “Broadway” processor, made with a 90 nm SOI CMOS process, reportedly† clocked at 729 MHz[87]
GPU: ATI “Hollywood” GPU made with a 90 nm CMOS process,[88] reportedly† clocked at 243 MHz
Memory:
88 MB main memory (24 MB “internal” 1T-SRAM integrated into graphics package, 64 MB “external” GDDR3 SDRAM)
3 MB embedded GPU texture memory and framebuffer.
Ports and peripheral capabilities:
Up to four Wii Remote controllers (connected wirelessly via Bluetooth)
Nintendo GameCube controller ports (4)
Nintendo GameCube Memory Card slots (2)
SD memory card slot (supports SDHC cards as of System Menu 4.0)
USB 2.0 ports (2)
Sensor Bar power port
Accessory port on bottom of Wii Remote
Optional USB keyboard input in message board, Wii Shop Channel, and the Internet Channel (as of 3.0 and 3.1 firmware update)
Mitsumi DWM-W004 WiFi 802.11b/g wireless module
Compatible with optional USB 2.0 to Ethernet LAN adaptor
MultiAV output port for component, composite and S-Video
Built-in content ratings systems:
BBFC, CERO, ESRB, OFLC, OFLC (NZ), PEGI, USK
Storage:
512 MB built-in NAND flash memory
Expanded storage via SD and SDHC card memory (up to 32 GB)
Nintendo GameCube Memory Card (required for GameCube game saves)
IBM’s Wii “Broadway” CPU
ATI’s Wii “Hollywood” GPUSlot-loading disc drive compatible with 8 cm Nintendo GameCube Game Disc and 12 cm Wii Optical Disc
Mask ROM by Macronix
Video:
480p (PAL/NTSC), 480i (NTSC) or 576i (PAL/SECAM), standard 4:3 and 16:9 anamorphic widescreen
MultiAV multi-output port for component, composite, S-video,[94] RGB SCART and VGA
Audio:
Main: Stereo – Dolby Pro Logic II-capable
Controller: Built-in speaker
Power consumption:
18 watts when switched on
9.6 watts in standby with WiiConnect24 standby connection
1.3 watts in standby
Technical issues
The first Wii system software update via WiiConnect24 caused a very small portion of launch units to become completely unusable. This forced users to either send their units to Nintendo for repairs (if they wished to retain their saved data) or exchange it for a free replacement.
With the release of dual-layer Wii Optical Discs, Nintendo of America has stated that some Wii systems may have difficulty reading the high-density software due to a contaminated laser lens. Nintendo is offering a free repair for owners who experience this issue.
The Wii Remote can lose track of the Wii system that it has been set to, requiring that it be reset and resynchronized. Nintendo’s support website provides instructions for this process, and to troubleshoot related issues.
Legal issues
Interlink Electronics filed a patent-infringement lawsuit against Nintendo over the pointing functionalities of the Wii Remote, claiming “loss of reasonable royalties, reduced sales and/or lost profits as a result of the infringing activities” of Nintendo. Law firm Green Welling LLP filed a class action lawsuit against Nintendo for its “defective wrist straps”. A Texas-based company called Lonestar Inventions has also sued Nintendo, claiming that the company copied one of Lonestar’s patented capacitor designs and used it in the Wii console.
Anascape Ltd, a Texas-based firm, also filed a lawsuit against Nintendo for patent infringements regarding Nintendo’s controllers. A July 2008 verdict found that a ban would be issued preventing Nintendo from selling the Classic Controller in the United States. Nintendo is free to continue selling the Classic Controller pending an appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
On August 19, 2008 Hillcrest Laboratories Inc. filed a complaint against Nintendo with the U.S International Trade Commission. The complaint alleges that the Wii Remote infringes on three of its patents. A fourth Hillcrest patent for graphical interfaces displayed on television screens is also alleged to have been violated. Hillcrest seeks a ban on Wii consoles imported to the U.S.
The trademark application for “Wii Remote” was given an initial rejection by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The USPTO claimed that the word remote is commonly used and therefore should not be trademarked. The USPTO will accept Nintendo’s trademark filing if the company disclaims exclusive rights to the word remote in the term.

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