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SvennoJ on 26 July 2025
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Salnax said:

Was the tech for motion controls up to Wii era standards by 2001? For the sake of the scenario, I'll assume that they were.

Miis would not necessarily have been a part of the GC-Wii ecosystem, since the project that became Miis started as a project for the DS. I expect that a lot of games like Wii Sports would have suffered as a result.

A lot of GameCube era games would likely have looked very different. SSB Melee is so closely tied to the GameCube controller, I can't imagine that turning out as well as IRL.Luigi's Mansion likely would have tried to do something like tying the flashlight to the Wiimote, completely changing the game's perspective. Games like Wind Waker and Star Fox Adventures would have tied combat to Wiimote waggling. Metroid Prime would have been even more mindblowing with pointer controls.

My company started using accelerometers in 2001 (in an attempt to do dead reckoning for GPS navigation when satellites are out of view) The actual accelerometers didn't add much cost, couple dollars, so the tech was cheap enough already. 

The Wii also benefited a lot from Wii Fit and Yoga was gaining popularity in 2000, Wii Fit could have been even more successful (23 million sold). DDR was still very popular, benefiting Wii Fit as an alternative, which in turn could also have pushed Eye Toy Kinetic more (2005) by increasing popularity of lounge fitness.

However TVs weren't quite there yet. 2001 we still have small CRT tubes, would Wii Sports have fared as well when crowding around a 27" CRT? By 2006 large flat screens became popular, perfect for Wii Sports bowling etc. Also aiming with the Wii pointer on a 27" tube is a lot harder than on a 50" flat screen TV. 

One other question is wireless tech. The Wavebird controller came out in 2002 using radio frequencies for communication. Bluetooth wasn't quite ready yet for gaming controllers. Not sure how that would have affected price or multi controller support.



Was the public ready for Wii Sports in 2001? That I don't know, console gaming was most popular with teens and early adults at the time. By 2006 the avg age was 30. The Gamecube was still ridiculed for being a kiddy toy, nicknamed a lunchbox.
https://www.resetera.com/threads/in-retrospect-how-justified-was-the-gamecube-is-kiddy-image.208158/

Also the GC was $200 vs $200 Dreamcast and $300 ps2.
Wii was $250 vs $400 360 and $600 ps3.

The Wii was much better positioned as the cheaper alternative, public was more ready to play console games with their family, TVs were bigger to share the Wii together, and thanks to the ps2's success, consoles had moved more into the living room (DVD/CD player).

The Wii release in 2001 without DVD would still have struggled against PS2. 
https://www.thegamer.com/playstation-2-dvd-player-best/
In 2001 DVD players started outselling VHS players, DVD was the hot new format.


In the end I don't think the Wii would have fared that well in 2001, likely following the same fate as the GameCube. Eye Toy Kinetic bundled with Eye Toy ($50) only sold about 10 million on 160 million PS2s sold. Maybe it broke the ice for Wii Sports but it certainly didn't ignite the get up and move your arms to play like Wii and Wii Fit ($90) did.