Nintendo Wii
- Manufacturer
- Nintendo
- Production
- 2006–2017
- Generation
- Gen 7
- Type
- Home
- Launch price
- $249
- Units sold
- 101.6M
About Nintendo Wii
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.
Source: Wikipedia (text under CC BY-SA 4.0).
Library & collector facts
1,597licensed games
- North America: 1,265
- Japan: 1,262
- PAL: 1,335
Lineage
Release timeline
- 🇯🇵 Japan
- December 2, 2006
- 🇺🇸 North America
- November 19, 2006
- 🇪🇺 Europe / PAL
- December 8, 2006
- 🇦🇺 Australia
- December 7, 2006
- Lifespan
- 11 years on market
Pricing
Launch price (2006)
- 🇺🇸 USD
- $249
- 🇯🇵 JPY
- ¥25,000
Controller
Wii Remote (Wii Remote Plus / Plus)
Launch titles & exclusives
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess · Wii Sports · Excite Truck · Trauma Center: Second Opinion · Red Steel · Rayman Raving Rabbids · Madden NFL 07 · Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam · Marvel: Ultimate Alliance
Wii Sports (NA/EU/AU — sold separately in JP and KR)
Wii Sports · Wii Sports Resort · Super Mario Galaxy 1 & 2 · The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword · Mario Kart Wii · Super Smash Bros. Brawl · Xenoblade Chronicles · The Last Story · Pandora's Tower · Sin and Punishment: Star Successor · Metroid Prime 3 · Donkey Kong Country Returns · Punch-Out!! · Kirby's Epic Yarn
Just Dance 2020 (2019) — the surprise final game on the platform
Operation Rainfall trilogy CIB (Xenoblade Chronicles NA ~$200–$400+, The Last Story, Pandora's Tower); Sealed launch Wii bundles; Club Nintendo Doc Louis's Punch-Out!! (download-only, no physical edition)
Hardware specs
- Os
- Wii system software
- Cpu
- IBM Broadway @ 729 MHz
- Gpu
- ATI Hollywood @ 243 MHz
- Ram
- 24 MB 1T-SRAM + 64 MB GDDR3 SDRAM
- Weight
- 1220 g, RVL-101, 1130 g, Mini, 724 g
- Dimensions
- Width: 157 mm, Height: 60 mm, Depth: 197 mm, RVL-101Same, MiniWidth: 160 mm, Height: 46 mm, Depth: 193 mm
- Display Output
- Composite video (480i, 576i (PAL)), S-Video (480i (NTSC consoles only)), RGB SCART (576i (PAL consoles only)), Component video (YPbPr, ) (480i, 576i (PAL), 480p)
- Storage Internal
- 512 MB flash memory
Hardware revisions
- Original Wii RVL-001(2006)
full GameCube backward compatibility, 4 GCN ports + 2 memory card slots, Nintendont/homebrew-friendly
- Wii Family Edition RVL-101(2011)
GameCube compatibility removed (no controller ports), redesigned to lay flat
- Wii Mini RVL-201(2012)
deeply cost-reduced (no online, no SD slot, no GCN), released only in Canada then EU/US later
Launch colorways & special editions
- Black
- Red Mario 25th Anniversary (2010, with Wii Sports + New SMB Wii)
- Blue (Wii Sports Resort bundle)
- Pink (JP/EU)
- Limited gold-themed Zelda bundles
- Wii Family Edition (no GCN compatibility, 2011)
Modding scene
- Difficulty
- soft-mod
- Custom firmware
- Letterbomb (free); BootMii; Priiloader; Homebrew Channel
Reception & legacy
Sold out for over a year worldwide; mainstream press coverage unprecedented for any console; sometimes dismissed by 'core gamers' as a gimmick
Wii Remote wrist-strap class actions (people throwing remotes through TVs); Hot Coffee-style controversies around Manhunt 2 (initially AO); the GameCube-compatibility removal in later revisions angered fans
Best-selling Nintendo home console (~101M); brought gaming to non-gamers (the 'blue ocean' strategy) and reshaped industry thinking about casual audiences; the Mii became a global icon
References
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Nintendo Wii in the news
Recent coverage mentioning the Nintendo Wii, gathered from 80+ gaming-news sources.
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