Nintendo Wii: The First Year

November 19th is the one year anniversary for the Nintendo Wii. Despite being the last next-generation console released, the Nintendo Wii has sold the most units. In fact it is the fastest selling videogame console in history. We will review Nintendo Wii's record-breaking year.

What Went Right for the Nintendo Wii
First-Party Games
Nintendo has made some of the most revered and revolutionary games ever. Their Nintendo Wii games are no different. No other next-generation games have the same impact in the culture than Wii Sports has. Not to mention the incredible sequels to established franchises Nintendo continues to churn out.

Marketing
While Sony and Microsoft were targeting the same people, Nintendo went to an unconventional root and targeted people who usually don't play videogames. As a result, the Nintendo Wii was able to gain a huge competitive advantage with the mainstream media and pop culture. The differential marketing reflected in the Nintendo Wii's sales numbers.

Virtual Console
As mentioned before, Nintendo has developed some of the greatest videogames in history. By re-releasing them on the Nintendo Wii's Virtual Console, Nintendo assures that new generations of gamers be able to enjoy the games from the past while older gamers get to relive the nostalgia all over again.

What Went Wrong for the Nintendo Wii
Wi-Fi Play
Although it was done to protect younger children, Friend Codes (basically your ID number for online games) have been a bust on the Nintendo DS and now on the Nintendo Wii. In fact, the whole Nintendo Wi-Fi network lags behind its competitors seeing that it still lacks many features such as voice chat.

Inferior Graphics
Despite having the biggest install base, the Nintendo Wii is hardly getting any big third-party games. This is because the Wii can't output graphics at the capacity that third-party developers wanted. It will only get worse for Nintendo down the road as Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 games are only beginning to stretch their graphical prowess.