The wii is basically a slightly more powerful GameCube with novel controls. It competed with (and outsold) the ps3 and xbox360 which offered HD visuals and integrated online play.

If you're a gamer though you know there were problems with the console. The appeal was to a very casual audience and that's why it sold well.

No true gamer fallacy

The Wii is the 8th best selling console of all time (if you count the Game Boy, Switch, and DS as consoles) and the 4th if you don't.

Almost any gamer who has played a fallout, diablo, mass effect or RD game also owned a wii.

I play lots of games and I liked the Wii, and bought one.

So it was outdated tech except for the parts that weren't? If you add in "outdated graphics tech," sure, but saying it's just outdated period does Nintendo a big disservice.

One of the issues with the Wii was that the controller tech was too immature, hence the later addition of the MotionPlus stuff, and how the Switch versions of "use it like a pointer" games are so much more robust.

The Wii is actually a perfect example of that philosophy. It was built using outdated, underpowered tech, but in spite of that, was a huge success because they did something unusual and innovative with it.

Lower graphics tech, more advanced controller tech. It's not a single dimension.

Accelerometers and IR sensors were advanced tech in 2006?

Specifically CPU. The Wii's internals weren't much more powerful than the GameCube's.

... but as peer threads have noted, this is a relatively new vector for them in terms of value brought to the marketplace. They were competing on grade-A computing and graphics tech in the console space, but did the math and (IMHO wisely) concluded they weren't going to win that fight against Microsoft and Sony (and the manufacturing deals MS and Sony could cut and the manufacturing they could do in-house). So they instead noted those two firms were competing on making the same kind of game and pivoted to providing a platform to make the kinds of games they couldn't put on those consoles (but were starting to show up in arcades, where the inability to compete with the home console market had led to the need to incorporate more interface gimmicks).

People at Nintendo have used that turn of phrase to describe their approach.

https://medium.com/@adamagb/nintendo-s-little-known-product-...