Alternate history: Nintendo makes the Wii a generation earlier

[EricHiggin]

Soundwave said:

Don't think people understand that if the Wii sells even 80 million, it probably definitely gets GTA3, MGS2, and a lot of those PS2 games.

3rd parties would not be able to ignore a hardware platform that effectively had better graphics capablity than the PS2 plus a massive userbase and would weasel out of exclusivity contracts and/or not even bother signing them with Sony unless Sony was literally going to reimburse them for millions of copies of lost sales.

Even things like Final Fantasy 12 go the Wii quite possibly. Effectively I think the situation would be virtually all 3rd party games are basically multi-plat and generally look a bit better on the Wii as well. 

I don't think the PS2 hits 140 million either.

I think it would be more like

PS2 - 100 million (about the same as PS1)
Wii - 85 million
XBox - 22 million

Sony's ability to get 3rd party exclusives was largely predicated on having no clear 2nd competitor in the market, if the Wii was even 50% of PS2 sales, a lot of 3rd parties would not be able to ignore a platform that large and the potential loss of sales revenue by not having a version of their top games there as well. 

No GTA San Andreas, MGS2/3, Devil May Cry, Kingdom Hearts as exclusive = no 150 mill for PS2. 

I did personally take into account that Wii would get more 3rd party games. I should've added that, as it was part of why I thought it would sell 80M, coming off of N64's 33M.

I also took into account the casuals and non gamers view of the Wii and it's motion tech. These people thought this was like stolen Area 51 alien tech, that was also being sold for pennies on the dollar, and that was in late 2006. Now just imagine 5 years earlier alongside PS2 in 2000/2001. Everyone's minds would've been absolutely melted, when it comes to the motion tech anyway.

Everyone would've noticed things that gen like how tiny the Wii console was compared to the PS2 and XB. They also would've obviously seen a major difference in the fact that PS2 and XB had rather typical looking controllers vs the Wii-mote and nun-chuck.

The reason why I think PS2 still ends up selling so well is the momentum SNY had due to PS1, which cannot be understated. The other is the DVD player. I know a lot of people who used the PS2 a considerable amount to play DVD movies, and for some of them it was solely for DVD movies, early on anyway when exclusive DVD players were far more expensive.

I also think the Wii in 6th gen definitely increases total overall 6th gen console sales. The Wii had the ability to get extreme casuals and non gamers to pick one up and enter (console) gaming. There's no doubt that you would get some PS2 (and XB) owners also buying a Wii that gen. I think because of this, my sales number breakdown would've been relatively accurate.

*I would also mention, Wii in 2001 for $249 seems way too good to be true from Nin. Even with GCN range hardware, the motion tech would've made it $299 min, probably higher. Which would also help explain why PS2 ends up still doing so well.

Last edited by EricHiggin - on 30 July 2025