There is something to be said for this. I think a lot of the Wii's success is simply the fact that they have the most games. More games = more sales, because you are bringing in more potential buyers and more reasons to buy the console. The console with the most games tends to get the most sales, simple as that. Not that it's the only reason, but is a big one that people tend to overlook. This is the main reason PS2 dominated, it had a ridiculous amount of games.

Motion Controls mean jack shit if it doesn't have software to implement it in innovative ways. What's that line Iwata and Reggie always talk about..Tip of my tongue, something about software selling hardware..I don't know.

Ninty's success isn't solely from motion controls, but rather, that motion control games are going to be casuals invariably, and that Ninty's culture inspire's a cutsey kind of game, which works great with casuals.  I wouldn't classify mario or metriod as casuals but then again there are a whole slew of em in the Wii's game library,  more than the other two will have for years, and probably the PS4 and 720 as well.  lulz

The cheap thing also works well with the casual strategy b/c I could imagine paying more than $300 for a casual-machine so everything in nintendo's strategy from game selection, to motion-control , pricing, and emphasis on first-party games where Ninty has a lot more control in order to require this cutsey-poo style of game.  

So, it's not just the motion control  thing, but rather that a lot of things that Nintendo has done right are working together.         

Rofl

As someone else said earlier: how long is a piece of string?

Any opinion given here is entirely subjective and really only reflects either the individual's opinion or his/her personal experience.

In my case, I bought the Wii for my wife because she thought the motion controls were cute.  She lost interest after about two weeks.

It's not a console that my son or I use so it has been lying idle for a long time now. I freely admit though that it is very good at what it does...it is just not for me.

I would say its major success was due to a combination of marketing and motion controls. It attracted not only committed gamers who loved the Nintendo brand and game catalogue, it convinced many people who had never played computer games to jump in and try it. That is a good thing in my opinion and, consequently, I welcome its huge success.

As I said in the beginning though, that is just my opinion and no more.

The motion cotrols with the games that used them well was key.  PS3 has motion cotrols but most the games that used it didn't use it well and none were launch titles.  If flower had been a launch title more people would see what the ps3 motion control can do.

It's also that they used a simplified controller to atract more people.  The wii mote is shape like a tv remote.  Fewer buttons makeing it more accesible to people.  Then making games people in that expanded audience like. 

Like some people trying to say wii sports only sells because it's bundled with the wii.  Yes some people who bought the wii don't want it but there are also many who bough a wii because of wii sports.

I agree with this.

Xbox has a slight advantage due to having a lower priced SKU and having a good idea how to market Natal.

Sony I think suffers from not understanding the market. While they apply their core strengths and values (i.e. building high end products) they may not know how to marktet it properly.

Good or bad it'll be interesting.

The only problem with this is that there is no way to know whether a game is accessible before playing it. However the games and console is a huge success.It's the same argument I have over games that are fun. Noone knows whether the game is fun until they play it.

Is the assessibility spread through word of mouth? through marketing?

Another thing is that the Wii doesn't have as many sales as the PS2. If it expanded the market and on top of it attracted a lot of current gamers plus Nintendo fans, should it not have sold much better and faster? It's not even half.

I understand that the PS2 has sold for longer and has been at a cheaper price point for longer and that may be the answer. There's something missing.

One thought I had of Super Mario Bros is that it's clear where the difficulty in the game lies. You need to know how to jump and dodge things. It's hard but it's clear what you need to do to improve. In  some games the challenge is unclear which can be really frustrating. This is what adds to the accessibility of SMBWii.

very succesful, otherwise the competetion wouln't be releasing their own motion sensing controllers

The mere fact that Wii is in the title is what people look for to know if it's accessible.  And sales show this.  All 'Wii' titled games have sold double digits (save Wii Music which was the most successful failure ever).  

There are lots of other 'accessible' Wii games, mostly Wii Sports knock-offs which have some success (Mario&Sonic at the Olympics being the forerunner here) but none sell close to 'Wii' titles games.

Word of mouth helps, as seen in Carnival Games (being the first Wii Sports clone helped immensely) but mostly, casual gamers buy Wii titles and seldom stray although any widely know brand - Monopoly, Lego, Star Wars, Guitar Hero, Call of Duty can find success of Wii, if it's big enough to be known outside of gaming circles.