Okay, so I have noticed a lot over the past couple of years that the fact that the Nintendo Wii finished at the top of 7th Generation Video Game Console sales has had a polarizing effect on people when discussing that generation. The people who refuse to accept that the Wii won last gen try to find their own ways to ignore or discredit its accomplishment. It gets called a "gimmick", a "fad", a "casual console", a "kiddy console", or a "toy". Anything except for what it actually was, a video game console. Because, at the end of the day, it's primary function was to play video games. Anyways, the "toy" reference when leveled as what's supposed to be an insult is particularly funny to me, because when you get right down to it with that logic, they are all toys. Toys are something that get played with. Do you "play" games on PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One? Yes. Well then, I guess they are all toys too if that's how you want to look at it. You can't have it both ways. "But, Wii had kiddy games! PlayStations and XBoxes have hardcore games!" Did PlayStation have Rug Rats games selling in excess of 3 million plus each? Check. Do they all have LEGO games? Check. Does Sony exclusively own the SingStar franchise? Check. (Yeah, SingStar's not hardcore.) As for hardcore games, the Wii did have some succesful "hardcore" games (by successful I mean sold over a million copies each or sold comparably well to its competition).
Prime example, the Wii version of Call of Duty 3 was the 2nd highest selling version of it's release:
| Pos | Game | Platform | Year | Genre | Publisher | North America | Europe | Japan | Rest of World | Global |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Call of Duty 3 | X360 | 2006 | Shooter | Activision | 1.47 | 0.92 | 0.02 | 0.27 | 2.68 |
| 2 | Call of Duty 3 | Wii | 2006 | Shooter | Activision | 1.17 | 0.84 | 0.00 | 0.23 | 2.23 |
| 3 | Call of Duty 3 | PS3 | 2006 | Shooter | Activision | 0.58 | 0.62 | 0.03 | 0.26 | 1.49 |
| 4 | Call of Duty 3 | PS2 | 2006 | Shooter | Activision | 0.89 | 0.03 | 0.00 | 0.15 | 1.07 |
| 5 | Call of Duty 3 | XB | 2006 | Shooter | Activision | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Total | 4.12 | 2.41 | 0.05 | 0.90 | 7.47 |
Call of Duty: World at War while behind XBox 360 and PS3 versions still sold close to 2 million units, which is not too shabby for a console that supposedly only sells Mario games:
| Call of Duty: World at War | Wii | 2008 | Shooter | Activision | 1.17 | 0.58 | 0.00 | 0.18 | 1.93 |
Despite not getting Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (which is where the series really exploded on Xbox 360 and PS3), there were also a couple of other Call of Duty titles that topped the million mark in sales as well.
The Wii edition of Resident Evil 4 outsold it's Gamecube predecessor and was it's second highest selling iteration:
| 1 | Resident Evil 4 | PS2 | 2005 | Action | Capcom | 2.08 | 0.83 | 0.46 | 0.25 | 3.62 |
| 2 | Resident Evil 4 | Wii | 2007 | Action | Capcom | 1.31 | 0.55 | 0.14 | 0.20 | 2.21 |
| 3 | Resident Evil 4 | GC | 2005 | Action | Capcom | 0.98 | 0.42 | 0.22 | 0.06 | 1.69 |
Madden NFL 07 and 08 both sold on par with their PS3 counterparts:
| Madden NFL 07 | PS3 | 2006 | Sports | Electronic Arts | 0.46 | 0.00 | 0.01 | 0.04 | 0.51 |
| Madden NFL 07 | Wii | 2006 | Sports | Electronic Arts | 0.46 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.04 | 0.49 |
| Madden NFL 08 | PS3 | 2007 | Sports | Electronic Arts | 0.88 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.07 | 0.96 |
| Madden NFL 08 | Wii | 2007 | Sports | Electronic Arts | 0.80 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.07 | 0.87 |
Okay, but what about total software? Where does Wii's legacy stand in that regard? Here is how the Wii stacked up against its competitors:
XBox 360
| VGChartz Tracked Totals | 568.49 | 262.70 | 12.73 | 80.55 | 924.47 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Software Shipment Totals | 571.31 | 263.72 | 12.89 | 102.64 |
950.56 |
Wii
| VGChartz Tracked Totals | 493.79 | 258.31 | 69.24 | 78.71 | 900.05 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Software Shipment Totals | 495.84 | 258.95 | 69.40 | 116.51 | 940.70 |
PS3
| VGChartz Tracked Totals | 365.51 | 312.59 | 75.74 | 135.47 | 889.31 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Software Shipment Totals | 368.92 | 314.88 | 77.12 | 142.53 | 903.45 |
Now, many will argue that Wii's software sales are loaded with bundles, but that only explains away sales to a certain point. If I were to add up every title people claim only sold because of bundles, I'd have to infer that the Wii actually sold 200 million units instead of 101 million! So, even if you take away 100 million units and say "these must have been bundled", you still have over 800 million in software sales. And, how does that total stack up to another console that sold 100 million+ units lifetime?:
PlayStation
| VGChartz Tracked Totals | 336.39 | 213.65 | 139.66 | 40.96 | 730.66 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Software Shipment Totals | 357.97 | 280.90 | 244.10 | 79.04 | 962.01 |
It looks like the Wii software sales stack up pretty favorably to me. My conclusion, is that clearly the Wii moved software. I don't know why people choose to be in denial of it success in hardware sales or software sales. Of course, 1st Party titles were more successful on Wii than 3rd Party offerings. 1st Party titles are and always have been Nintendo's strength. But, to say that anything that wasn't Mario related did not sell on Wii is a broad generalization, and an untrue one at that. What if I were to look at PS3's 9million+ software sellers and refer to it as the Call of Duty/Grand Theft Auto only console?
PlayStation 3
| 1. | Grand Theft Auto V | 2013 | Action | Take-Two Interactive | 6.48 | 8.22 | 0.89 | 3.86 | 19.45 |
| 2. | Call of Duty: Black Ops II | 2012 | Shooter | Activision | 4.84 | 5.52 | 0.60 | 2.46 | 13.42 |
| 3. | Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 | 2011 | Shooter | Activision | 5.47 | 5.65 | 0.49 | 1.60 | 13.21 |
| 4. | Call of Duty: Black Ops | 2010 | Shooter | Activision | 5.87 | 4.31 | 0.48 | 1.80 | 12.45 |
| 5. | Gran Turismo 5 | 2010 | Racing | Sony Computer Entertainment | 2.90 | 4.78 | 0.81 | 2.11 | 10.59 |
| 6. | Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 | 2009 | Shooter | Activision | 4.95 | 3.59 | 0.38 | 1.61 | 10.54 |
| 7. | Grand Theft Auto IV | 2008 | Action | Take-Two Interactive | 4.69 | 3.65 | 0.44 | 1.59 | 10.36 |
| 8. | Call of Duty: Ghosts | 2013 | Shooter | Activision | 3.76 | 3.53 | 0.38 | 1.92 | 9.59 |
Looking at that list through a narrow-minded perspective, that's what I'd be forced to assume. Of course, there are those who wouldn't even mind to say that. Because, it's "cool" to be the console that is dominated by mindlessly shooting things and blowing stuff up. Which is fine. I personally like all types of games, including those. But to write-off Wii's hardware and software sales and claim that it was somehow non-contributing to the video game industry as a whole is revisionist history at its finest. What are your thoughts?
