Wii, Wii, Wii… all the way home! A revolution in home gaming
If you have overheard children or teenagers discussing ?Wii?, they are probably not using the English personal pronoun as a plural to refer to a group of their friends. Most likely, they are referring to what is new in video gaming systems: the Wii video game system, one of the hottest new interactive video game consoles released by Nintendo.
Described by the Nintendo company as a seventh-generation console, Wii has followed in historic footsteps of gaming systems such as Atari, Odessy, Nintendo, Sega, Sony Play Station. Today, the Wii video gaming systems primarily compete with Sony’s PlayStation 3, Microsoft’s Xbox 360.
The design for the Nintendo Wii – now with a mind-boggling huge array of Wii games – was already in development in the early months of the year 2000, managed by developers, programmers, and engineers and overseen by Nintendo’s celebrated game designers. During the early stages of the design and testing period, the Wii console was known by the code name of ?Revolution.? The Nintendo company’s primary goal in creating the Wii was to totally revolutionize home video gaming systems.
These early Wii systems, marketed as ?Revolution? consoles did not appear in the market place until the middle of 2004. The first consoles to hit store shelves were sold out instantly. Online auction sites such as e-bay sold these early new video gaming systems for nearly $3,000 each. The Nintendo company quickly realized that they had underestimated the popularity and sales potential of these consoles.
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Nintendo displayed their concept for the wireless controller at a trade show in Japan in 2005. But, it wasn’t until April of 2006 that the Nintendo company planed the retail launch and marketing campaign and opted to rename the gaming consoles ?Wii?. Most importantly, the Nintendo company wanted a name that would be easy to pronounce in any language.
In English, the word ?Wii/we? implied the gathering of two or more friends or acquaintances to play with. The word also suggested that the wii was appropriate for everyone; inviting players of all ages. Furthermore, the two i’s in Wii seemed to be emblems for the two stick shaped controllers. Last but certainly not least, the short, simple name made it easy to promote and reference the video gaming systems in any language, without the need for abbreviation or translation confusion.
The most unique aspect of the Wii video gaming system is the hand-held remote, a one-handed controller that connects with the console using Blue tooth technology and contains a combination of infrared detection and accelerometers to sense its position in three dimensional space.
This unique feature enables players to use movements and physical gestures, such as swinging their arm while holding the controller in order to hit a tennis ball, golf boll, or roll a bowling ball on a wii game. A wrist strap can be attached to the controller and fasted to the players wrist as a safeguard against accidentally throwing or dropping the device.
Another distinguishing feature of the Wii console is an element called the WiiConnect24, which enables the console to receive messages and updates over the internet. This makes it possible for players to compete against remotely against friends, or even other unknown remote players who are also connected and ready to interact with what is new in video gaming systems.
Ultimately, the Wii has certainly revolutionized the concept of video gaming systems. The very first game available for the Wii was Wii Sports, which came with the Wii system. Some of the latest and most popular Wii games include: Just Dance, Super Mario Galaxy 2, Monster Hunter Tri, Toy Story 3, Wipeout, Call of Duty, Alice in Wonderland, The Avatar Game, and many others.