I was very sceptical when the details of the Wii emerged. In fact, more than sceptical, I thought it was going to fail massively. I saw the new controls and thought Nintendo had just lost it; at best it seemed like a regression, at worst a drunken mistake. I felt similarly about the DS, I was certain that the PSP would clean up. After I had digested the news of motion controls, I learnt that the home console would be called 'Wee'. Surely they would change the name in the English-speaking world before launch day?

After the N64 years of admirable but counter-productive integrity and Nintendo's sloppy attempts to attract the mass market audience during the Gamecube years, I was sure Nintendo was finished. Pokemon could keep them on the life support machine for only so long.

How wrong was I? As no doubt everyone on this site can attest, I was extremely wrong.

There has been much heated debate on this forum lately, but if people could give fun reasons for why I was wrong, that would be great.

1) Nintendo pratically owns the handheld market. Less so nowadays (the PSP hasn't followed the Wonderswan yet), but they still have major control.
2) Nintendo actually bothered to advertise in decent amounts.
3) Nintendo bundled in a free game with all Wiis.
4) Pratically every child under a certain age and the Nintendo fanboys/girls requested a Wii.
5) Nintendo did a Microsoft: not producing enough consoles for launch (although I managed to get the last launch day Wii and Twilight Princess in my local games shop. )
6) Nintendo continued to target the "casual" market, mainly through the Wii series of games.
7) Wii Fit.
8) Nintendo blitzed through most of their major franchises within 18 months of launch.

However, Nintendo's production line of Actual Original Games has slowed down, and there's no sign of any F-Zero, StarFox or The New Franchise.

I thought the "Wii" name was a joke when I heard it, but now I am 117% casual gamer converted having played Wii Sports with friends and family for hundreds of hours! I think their "inclusion" strategy was the right concept both commercially and for making games more fun for someone like me who was getting a bit jaded.

I like Brawl, Sonic & Snake in a Nintendo game? Surely they are listening more to the fans now. As you might of guessed, I like King Dedede, I think he's cool (He looks really fat when he swallows an enemy!).

Also VC, I didn't see that coming. Allowing some games to use the GC controller was a good move, in fact, I may not have purchased a Wii if the GC controller wasn't available for Brawl.

Airships in Galaxy? Wow!

Best idea for a thread, ever, asking people to point out why you were admittedly wrong.
How about this: You're a dummy head.

On a tangent, I actually prefer using classic controller for Brawl. I want to master using the Wii remote just for the heck of it. I know someone who actually thinks the nunchuk setup is the best (shudders).

But back on subject, I thought the Wii was going to rule from the moment they unveiled the controller up until they announced the name, haha. Even then though, I didn't think it was going to fail, just didn't expect this massive a success.

The DS was the real surprise to me. I thought it was going to be the next Virtual Boy. Two screens? What for! My doubts were further compounded when Nintendo initially was so hesitant about it that they said it wasn't a replacement for the GBA (yea, right) but a third tier for their platform. Their seeming doubt makes me feel less stupid about my own doubt, but I still can't tell you why you were wrong because it baffles me to this day.

The mechanics of how the Wii succeeded are described here and yes, your feeling that it's a regression was a part of the plan.

Dummy head? I've never heard that before!

The DS looked like a glorified Game & Watch to me. It still amazes me that you can play Mario64 on that thing (the DS, not G&W). In gaming you can feel old pretty fast.