The introduction of motion-controlled games via the Wii Remote led both Microsoft and Sony to develop their own competing products-the Kinect and PlayStation Move, respectively. The Wii repositioned Nintendo as a key player in the video game console marketplace. As of 2021, the Wii is the fourth best-selling home console of all time. Total lifetime sales of the Wii had reached over 101 million units, making it Nintendo's best-selling home console until it was surpassed by the Nintendo Switch in 2021. Within a year of launch, the Wii became the sales-leader against the other seventh-generation consoles, and by 2013, had surpassed over 100 million units sold. A bundled game, Wii Sports, was considered the killer app for the console. The Wii was extremely popular at launch, causing the system to be in short supply in some markets. Later in its lifecycle, two lower-cost Wii models were produced: a revised model with the same design as the original Wii but removed the GameCube compatibility features and the Wii Mini, a compact, budget redesign of the Wii which further removed features including online connectivity and SD card storage.īecause of Nintendo's reduced focus on computational power, the Wii and its games were less expensive to produce than its competitors. Initial Wii models included full backward compatibility support for the GameCube. The Wii also supports wireless connectivity with the Nintendo DS handheld console for selected games.

The Wii was the first Nintendo console to directly support Internet connectivity, supporting both online games and for digital distribution of games and media applications through the Wii Shop Channel. The primary controller for the Wii is the Wii Remote, a wireless controller with both motion sensing and traditional controls which can be used as a pointing device towards the television screen or for gesture recognition. Game designers Shigeru Miyamoto and Genyo Takeda led the console's development under the codename Revolution.

In developing the Wii, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata directed the company to avoid competing with Microsoft and Sony on computational graphics and power and instead to target a broader demographic of players through novel gameplay. It is Nintendo's fifth major home game console, following the GameCube and is a seventh generation home console alongside Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. It was first released on November 19, 2006, in North America and in December 2006 for most other regions of the world. The Wii ( / w iː/ WEE) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo.

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