That.

Although to be fair, i would say it's 70% Motion Controls, 30% Wii Fit

Motion controls are a major factor, but not necessarily for the reasons that people think ...

Since the days of the Atari the preferred way for (pretty much) anyone to play a videogame was to play with someone else in the same room. Even a fairly mediocre game can become a shining gem when playing with 3 good friends in the same room; and one of the common arguments against the "Greatness" of the original Halo was a game like Barbie’s Horse Adventures would be a blast in a 16 player lan.

The problem Nintendo faced with the N64 and Gamecube was that, even though they had 4 controller ports, inexpensive controllers, and most households had enough people to support 3 or 4 player gaming, outside of the core gamers in a household few people would actively participate in a gaming session. Don’t get me wrong, Nintendo was doing better than most companies because you could get your girlfriend or sister to play Mario-Kart or Mario Party, but certain family members (Grandparents and Mothers in particular) showed very little interest in Gaming.

The motion controls on the Wii were specifically designed to open up gaming by making games less intimidating to non-core gamers. It wasn’t the act of flailing your arms around wildly that made the Wii successful, it was that your 60 year old mother/grandmother would play against your 4 year old nephew in Wii Sports.

Beyond that even the marketing of the Wii was to take videogames away from being the activity that a geeky-kid does in a dark basement and make it the activity where groups of people are playing together and having fun.

I know that gaming has had a lot of revisions to its history down the years, but even I can't believe that we're revising things to the point that we're now saying that Wii Fit played a massive part in the Wii being a success when it wasn't released worldwide until mid 2008....

The Wii was already a phenomenon at that point.

At first it was bcuz of the motion (wii sports) 
but the truth is motion controls its far from been the future of video games
thats why I hate it so bad that Nintendo cant let me play smg2 with a gc controller when the game uses barely any motion besides for some mini game where it makes them more frustrating (bird race)than its supposed to be.

most of the best Nintendo games on the wii can or could be played with a normal controller

examples :Brawl,galaxy 1 and 2,super mario bros wii ,wario land shake it,mario kart
punch out,twilight princess,sin and punishment

and up and coming games like metroid other m and xenoblade

thats why I wish nintendo would make an option to use the classic pro on all of those games

Bcuz when I play wii sports,its fun and I know that this is the way to play it
but when Im playin games mario galaxy and twilight princess.I know those games are made to be played with a real controller and not 2 piece of controller separated

just my thoughts on motion controls

Nintendo fans exist?

anyway:

80% motions: selling point

15% affordability: motions >>> all

5% fans: gc & n64 had a very small install base

You can't seperate the two parts because without software the motion controls are useless and without the controls the games aren't nearly as compelling. It would be as difficult as trying to seperate Tim from awesome because awesome as a concept is nothing without Tim and vice versa.

The N64’s user-base was really not that small ...

Consider that the N64 sold (roughly) as many systems as the XBox 360 has, was virtually indestructible (meaning almost no replacements), and the console market was much smaller then.

My God, still after so many years so many of you don't get it?

Is wasn't the motion controls in and of themselves, and this is why Move is destined to FAIL.

It certainly wasn't the price, the GC was always cheapest and ended up last.

By the same token the Nintendo franchises and fanboys couldn't make GC a success either.

If those things had anything to do with it (they helped in the beginning sure) then the GC not the PS2 would have dominated last gen.

The Wii succeeded because it showed non-gamers, ex-gamers and casual gamers that they too could enjoy Wii games without having to learn complicated controls.   That's still the main reason why Wii sells and look at the games it's sells - Wii Fit, NSMBW, Mario Kart, Just Dance, WSR (now packed-in), Wii Play.   Those games are forever in the top 10 or top 30.  Since they launched.   Why?  People anyone, regardless of age, sex, or game experience can pick up those games and have fun without learning gaming controls or sensibilities.  

Zelda was not a huge success - 7m.  Neither was SMG or even Brawl in comparison to the 'Wii' titles.   With the exception of Wii Music, Nintendo has been very smart in the use of Wii in games.    If a 50 yr old woman sees Wii in the title, then she knows she can play that game and have fun.  If she doesn't then it'll be too complicated, require too much co-ordination or too much of a learning curve or just be a half-assed 'Game Party' type crap game.

Motion isn't the secret, making games accessible and fun to everyone is. Motion just facilitated that.  And based on the PS4 adds, Sony clearly hasn't learned a thing from Wii.     What MS does with Natal remains to be seen, but I suspect they are closer to finding the Wii formula.   However Natal has to work, which is debatable currently, and MS relies toooo heavily on 3rd parties who by and large, still don't 'get' it either and therefore can't help Natal to succeed in the market that's Nintendo's forged for themselves.  And Rare?  Please.  Rare makes great quality games but not accessible ones.

Motion controls is what makes the Wii different and got special atention. That special attention is why the Wii are breaking records and making Nintendo money. The software is great as well.

all of it?

just kidding! wii just has the appeal and core gamers, but the war would be even if they didn't have motion controles.