Everybody Bowls

Discover how Nintendo's humble Wii console, with its revolutionary motion controller, invited everyone to play and changed gaming forever.

After the Xbox 360 pushed high-definition graphics, achievements, and online play toward the center of the console war, Nintendo moved sideways. The GameCube had finished behind Sony and Microsoft, and the next fight looked expensive: more power, more media, more spectacle. Nintendo answered with a small white box, a remote-shaped controller, and a promise that anyone could play.

Before it was called Wii, the machine was known as Revolution. Nintendo president Satoru Iwata, designer Shigeru Miyamoto, and Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aimé wanted to reach people who had never felt invited in. The name Wii, announced in 2006, was mocked at first, but it was short, easy to say in many languages, and meant to suggest “we,” not just “me.”

The real shock came in September 2005, when Nintendo revealed the controller. The Wii Remote looked more like something for a television than a console. Inside were motion sensors; at the front was an infrared pointer used with a slim sensor bar near the screen. With the Nunchuk attachment, players could point, swing, shake, steer, and still move a character with an analog stick.

The Wii launched in North America on November 19, 2006, for $250. Europe followed on December 8, at about £179 in the United Kingdom and €249 across the continent. The box included Wii Sports in the United States and Europe, a pack-in choice that became historic.

Wii Sports was not technically lavish. Its Miis had round heads and tiny bodies, and its five events were tennis, baseball, bowling, golf, and boxing. But it explained itself in seconds. You swung the remote like a racket, rolled your arm for bowling, or jabbed toward the screen. Spectators did not need a manual; they leaned forward and asked for the next turn.

That made the Wii feel different from a graphics race. In living rooms across the United States and Europe, children played with parents, grandparents made Miis with glasses or gray hair, and non-gamers laughed at their own tennis swings. Wii Bowling became the symbol. American retirement communities held leagues and tournaments; as therapy, health claims needed evidence, but as social play it was plainly real.

There was slapstick, too. Soon after launch, reports spread of Wii Remotes flying from players’ hands and cracking televisions, lamps, windows, or walls. Some stories were exaggerated online, but the risk was genuine. Nintendo offered stronger replacement wrist straps in late 2006, and in 2007 began supplying the clear silicone Wii Remote Jacket to cushion the controller.

The launch was not only sports. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess gave traditional fans a vast day-one adventure, with a GameCube version as well. Early Wii models played most GameCube discs and accepted GameCube controllers and memory cards. The Virtual Console sold downloadable classics from the NES, Super Nintendo, Nintendo 64, Sega Genesis in North America, Mega Drive in Europe, and TurboGrafx-16.

Next to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, the Wii was modest. It did not output high-definition graphics, and its hardware was closer to an evolved GameCube than a leap into the future. That helped keep it small, quiet, and cheaper. Nintendo’s North American ads said it best: “Wii would like to play.” The message was not intimidation. It was an invitation.

The rush was extraordinary. Wiis were hard to find through several holiday seasons. Wii Play sold hugely with an extra remote. Mario Kart Wii put a plastic wheel in millions of hands; Super Mario Galaxy proved old-fashioned brilliance still mattered; Super Smash Bros. Brawl, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, and Wii Fit widened the crowd. The Balance Board became part toy, part tool, part conversation starter.

By the end, Nintendo reported more than 101 million Wii consoles sold worldwide. It forced answers from rivals: Sony’s PlayStation Move and Microsoft’s Kinect. Not every motion game was good, and many third-party releases were careless. Still, for a few bright years, Nintendo made the console war feel less like an arms race and more like a party. In the living room, someone passed the white remote to the next pair of waiting hands.