Could Wii become best selling peice of hardware ever?

[Bodhesatva]

Unfortunately, I think both camps make reasonable points. I'd love to give an "absolutely not" or "absolutely, yes," but I don't think either of those is reasonable at this point in time.

I hope those of you who think the Wii will pass the PS2 can agree that the sales could slow down at some point in the future. I'm not saying it won't sell well -- you all know my opinions on that -- but even if it ended up selling 80 percent as well as it does now, and lasted for 5 more years, it still would not catch the PS2. So saying "it won't catch the PS2" isn't even saying it won't win this generation; it just may not end up dominating the market as much as the PS2 did, and I think that's reasonable.

However, I also hope that the nay-sayers will agree that there is some possibility that the Wii will surpass the PS2. Personally, I think it depends on how many people actually join in -- and enjoy -- this casual revolution and sudden inclusion of more adult gamers. If it's 5 million people, that's great, and will do a lot for the Wii. However, it's going to need ot be 20, 30, 40 million new gamers to really give the PS2 a run for its money, I suspect, and we don't know yet just how many new gamers the Wii will bring in yet. I hope you'll agree that Wii Fit et. al has a chance of really including a lot of people in gaming that had no interest in it before, and if that happens, the Wii has a shot. Furthermore, as other posters have already stated, the Wii is on track to surpass the PS2 at this time. It's early, but that's a very good start. 

Personally, I give the Wii a 50-50 shot of surpassing the PS2. That's not just me being lazy with my fractions; I really feel the odds are juuuuust about split down the middle right now. Regardless, again -- no matter how boring an answer it is to say "maybe," I hope both sides will admit that "maybe" is the right answer right now.