This 1999 Interview Suggests Miyamoto Was Thinking About The Wii During The N64 Era

. . . and that led to the Wii's reign over the other consoles of the era.

@Dancampulung One could argue there were more HD consoles in homes than Wii consoles.

Wii is one of the BEST Nintendo machine for playing Casual games.
I like to play Casual games such as Cooking Mama, Imagine series, Petz, All Star Cheer Squad, Fling Smash, DDR Hottest Party 3, DDR II, My Sims games, etc.

The N64 controller sure didn't help get people into gaming. It wasn't horrible to use, it just looked intimidating.

@RadioHedgeFund how? The Wii sold over 101 million units, the PS3 was about 89 million and 360 with 85 million.

@RadioHedgeFund I think the Wii had a wider reach for a time considering it wasn't squarely aiming to be a console for the hardcore gaming crowd but by the end of the generation I just thought Xbox 360s and PS3s became more commonplace, especially after they introduced their own peripherals for the casual crowd while still being targeted towards core gamers

This is reaching.

@progx 101 Million vs 174 Million.

@progx 89m + 85m = 174m HD consoles compared to 100m Wii consoles. It is unlikely a high percentage of players owned a 360 and a PS3.

@TheFrenchiestFry Kinect was a genuinely interesting way of expanding the player base. It worked pretty well and the voice commands for the UI and some games were spot on, for example using it to tell the satnav in Forza Horizon where to go.

@Anti-Matter there was a game called Wii Party that had a tank battle game that is one of the best games I’ve ever played in my life. Little wooden toy tanks rolling around, 1 shot death. The difficulty spike was immense. It was a breathtaking little achievement that Nintendo just threw onto a game that was mostly “Miis doing nonsense”

@Crono1973 @RadioHedgeFund so... let's throw the Wii in with the SD line-up of consoles. I'll just throw the PS2 in with the Wii, then SD outnumbered those consoles at that time (350 million). The PS2 was still selling well into 2008.

The Xbox 360 didn't really hit its stride until 2008, then PS3 in 2010. HD TVs were mad expensive from 2006-2008. Early plasma TVs were still about $1,000-2,000 around the release time of the Wii. Were there more HD consoles at the end? Yes. Early on, the Wii dominated early on in that console generation.

All three systems had some form of motion control at the end. Graphics did not seem to be an interest until Wii sales fell flat after 2010.

As i recall at the time, similar ideas and quotes were used to fuel the rumour of a light gun style peripheral for N64 that plugged into the memory card/ rumble pak slot. So yeah it's partially legit.
Both Knife Edge and Sin and Punishment were rumoured to be compatible.

@progx Cool your jets, guy. Nobody is denying the impact of the Wii. This is pure sales figures. It does work both ways, for example we could argue that with DS sales likely not cannibalising Wii sales there were more people with Nintendo consoles than the Xbox 360, PSP and PS3 put together.

The Wii broke a lot of new ground but Nintendo failed to capitalise on that. The Kinect sold 35m units by the end of 2011 and this was the same year Nintendo was drilling down on its core fanbase with titles like Skyward Sword, Xenoblade and The Last Story. There were no Nintendo games in the top 10 of 2011, sadly.

I didn't buy a 360 until 2010. I stuck with the Wii even through the very dry spells when E3 was like having your teeth pulled out as a Nintendo fan.

So come on then Nintendo - where is that spirit of accessibility now? 1--2-Switch ain't enough for my motion-controlled appetite! 🤤

"While you could argue that the Wii was a blip rather than a full-blown revolution"

And who is this You from the universe where Kinect, PS Move and the gyro in every PlayStation machine from Gen 8 onwards never happened? Are motion controls not used even in some mobile games? Is VR tech across the board not looking into them actively in pursuit of more sensory immersion than gamepads can offer? Blippity blip.

@nhSnork totally agree. Motion controls in gaming were available in the 90's a Tilt pad for playstation was a 3rd party peripheral to compete with analogue sticks. They didn't catch on. It took the success of Wii and it's motion controls for the gaming industry to "always" consider some form of motion in gaming.
That tilt controller was the "blip", the Wii changed the game forever.

@RadioHedgeFund I owned all three at the time.

@progx Look, someone said that there were more HD consoles in homes than Wii's. You seemed confused so I did the math for you.

Think about it this way, the Wii was unique while the HD Twins (as they were called) had similar capabilities and libraries which is why lumping them together makes a little sense.

@FargusPelagius and Nintendo arguably had its own blip back then anyway, with the Power Glove. Although it didn't help that the tech was still even less precise and manifested in a glorious total of two dedicated games (not counting a few more unreleased ones). But Wiimote brought it all back with a vengeance.

@Slowdive The Wii was fantastic in the beginning and I liked the motion controls in Twilight Princess (liked, not loved) because they were just waggle. When the motion controls became more demanding of the player in Skyward Sword, it was a real problem for me. Not only was I terrible at using the motion controls but I had moved on from motion controls by the end of 2011 when the game came out.

I feel like this is more PR speak than anything actually indicative of a Wii mentality, but hey, I'll take an opportunity to celebrate the machine that got me into games in the first place.

@nhSnork yeah the tech hadn't been fine tuned to a properly commercial standard. I remember people complaining about having to "recalibrate" their wiimotes alot, but the end user never had it so good with Wiimotes. For it's simplicity in concept it was a versatile product.

@Slowdive a note about Skyward Sword. It's timing in the U.K was quite awkward, alot of shops dedicated to gaming were going out of business and wii shelf space was overflowing with pre owned games, to the point barely any shelf space was available for "new" games. My local HMV had a grand total of 2 copies of Skyward sword at launch, both opened up (i hate it when they do that) collectors editions with the golden wiimote plus. Wii had plummeted hard that year and you could tell the game shops were struggling to make good decisions in regard to stock. Especially when you consider U draw had launched in Feb and destroyed THQ (and shelf space).
Skyward Sword might have gone down better with a traditional mode, but Nintendo were determined to use it to try an help push Wiimote plus's.

I really don’t understand why they focused that well on being available for a wide public and after that enormous accomplishment they went with the most complex interface mankind has ever seen with two screens divided, million buttons, totally different controller for a second player et cetera.

Wiiu was insane..

Considering the Wiimotes were originally prototyped with the GameCube, why is this a surprise? Of course he was thinking about it, but the cost wasn't low enough at the time so it got shifted to the Wii.

Miyamoto is admittedly a huge force behind Nintendos success, but he has far too narrow a vision focused on making everything accessible to everyone.

@RadioHedgeFund not really sales figures dont lie

@RadioHedgeFund single sales for ps3 single sales for 360 not combined.wii beat both...just like the switch has outsold the xbox one already lol when its said and done it will also outsell the ps4 lol considering switch is at 80 million consoles sold In the 4 years it's been out

@Darkyoshi98 Again, there were more consoles capable of HD graphics installed in homes over that generation than there were Wii consoles. On the other hand if we include DS and PSP sales there were more Nintendo consoles.

I love how pointlessly defensive Nintendo fans are on here. I’m not mocking the Wii or it’s achievements. I’m pointing out that by 2012 more traditional consoles had achieved a bigger user base to the point that Nintendo never bothered to come up with a direct HD sequel to the Wii with better Wii remotes.

It’s actually a shame. I really wish Nintendo would bring out Wii Sports Resort on the Switch.

Tbh, games are FARR TOO EASY these days. To were some games just aren't fun. They could def ramp up diffcultty some going forward.

Miyamoto and his kids are why nintendo went the insufferable ‘everyone wins’ design route.

I honestly can’t stand him, much less the entitled white idiots that jerk off to his style.

If you feel triggered right now, you’re a ***** moron.

This is why the Wii was imo the worst era. At least for people like me. They almost completely forgot their core audience and targeted almost every game toward beginners, party- goers, and those that had previously never gamed like Wii Fit for Mom and Wii bowling for Grandpa.

Did the Wii sell incredibly well amongst the non-gaming crowd? Yeah it really did.

But imo it really sucked for the rest of us that were expecting something different. This was the time period I noticed all my friends migrating to Xbox and PlayStation. And it was the only console growing up that I wasn’t excited about getting from the get go.

The Wii is partly why I think the Wii U sold so terribly. The motion fad had died out with the casual audience, and they had pushed aside most of their core audience, so I believe they really put themself in a pickle (I understand Wii U had other issues that contributed as well).

I liked the Wii. It might just have my favourite selection of exclusives on a Nintendo console, and the backward compatibility/VC was nice too.

But suffice it to say, the system is perhaps the most successful failure and really set the stage for the Wii U. No other console have I ever witnessed such a sharp rise-fall in public interest with unit and software sales plummeting 3 years in, and mass exodus of hardcore and casual gamers alike post-2009. And Nintendo's insistence on waggle over IR-aiming really sullied the reputation of motion controls possibly for good.

This video goes over the issues with Nintendo's approach to innovation well: