It’s fair to say that Nintendo is known for incredible eyes and humbling lows with the hardware that they’ve put out over the years. Yet, it’s also undeniable that when they have a hit, they REALLY have a hit. The Switch alone proves that, and the Switch 2 is potentially on that same path of success. However, before that, the biggest console that the company had was the Nintendo Wii, which literally changed how we play video games via the motion controls. For legendary creator Shigeru Miyamoto, the Wii will always have a special place in his heart.
He mentioned this in a chat with IGN, and part of the reason for that love was the simple idea that helped create the Nintendo Wii:
The Wii is special to me. At the time, I and [former Nintendo president Satoru] Iwata felt that games were becoming something specifically for gamers and we wanted to change that by creating something that could be experienced by anybody.
That was the driving force behind the Wii, and it was something that we were kind of able to actually accomplish. Looking at the photos of families playing together, it makes me happy to think that the population of people that play games increased because of the Wii.
He’s not wrong on that front, over 100 million people bought the Wii, and there were many games featuring characters Shigeru Miyamoto created on it that sold incredibly well. In many ways, the Switch is the “true successor” to the Wii, as it helped change the game once again by making console gaming something everyone can do no matter where they are.
