bolded can't be proved. short-lived hasn't been defined.  so your "fact" is really your "opinion".

Oh it's a fact? Sources please. You do know how facts work right? Scientific  method and all? 

That is dependent, what you're talking about. For evolution it's VERY short-lived. But you're right, we are talking about a console. For a 6-7-year-cycle this wasn't really short-lived. But, the Wii not only failed to keep it record-sales the whole gen (what would be unlikely), but the sales dropped fast from excellent to mediocre and even bad. Also the Wii failed to get 3rd-party-support. That may have many reasons, but one seems to be, that Wii-gamers bought less games than gamers on the HD-twins.

That gives the stuff the HD-fans said five years ago a bit more credibility.

No, if it was a fad motion gaming would die out. It was virtually confirmed not to be a fad when the Kinect and Move were released. You will continue to see motion control as one of the major control schemes in the next generation - I would be suprised if any of the consoles launched without a significant form of it.

Wii was not a fad, but it sales were largely driven by fads. Wii Sports was a fad. Wii Fit was a fad (I even called it that pre-launch but predicted it'd be one mother of a fad - correctly).

The problem was the third year: Wii Music - FAIL. Animal Crossing: City Folk - FAIL. If done right both of these had the potential to be HUGE with casual gamers. Wii Music had ironically, too much depth and too little. If you didn't take the time to master it, it was a noise maker. If you did, it was still far too limited to truly pay off. If Animal Cross had tied into online and social media properly, it could have feed off Farmville frenzy. But Nintendo played this one just plain lazily or perhaps just stupidly. A huge missed opportunity.

Without a hit in the third year it was up to Wii Sports Resort to save the stalling Wii. But ultimately WSR was more of the same (if better) on a system over-saturated with mini-game/sport collections. And WM+ saw virtually no support: Tiger Woods was awesome, Grand Slam good. Red Steel 2 - Nice proof of concept but an unacceptable, half-assed action/FPS (no multi-player, ridiculous loading times, repetitive gameplay, no online). Beyond that - nothing of note until the far too play Zelda:SS

Forth Year: Wii Party - Really? While a great party game that was hardly going to reignite interest in Wii. Donkey Kong Country Returns - Far too hard for casual players. Metriod:oM - Not even on casuals radar and based by core, Epic Yarn - So sweet, even I - a Kirby fanboy - nearly gagged to death playing it. Nintendo is saved by Just Dance and Zumba Fitness. But now Kinect is Out and HOT. Hype for Wii is dead. Oh and for that Sony thing too.

Fifth Year: Wii Play Motion - Really?? Just... sad. Another Kirby, Zelda: SS (finally). Lingering Just Dance/Zumba popularity only thing powering Wii sales.

So, no, that a fad, but a fad driven machine that Nintendo hit two out of the park on and then proceded to strike out. Which is why Nintendo is hoping to keep core happy with WiiU so fad-hits are bonus, not mandatory. Motion wasn't a fad as it's still alive on all three systems (and all handhelds including iOS/Android) and almost certainly all next-gen systems too.

Fact is simply the wrong word; opinion is the word you are looking for. 

I say it's a fad because I believe it is a short lived craze, a craze that will only last for the lifespan of the wii (another few years at most). The fact that wii game sales are considerably lower then other consoles shows that the audience is very different. Now let's look at kinect sales which are certainlyindicative of a fad: http://www.computerandvideogames.com/327350/kinect-sales-pattern-unhealthy-ubisoft/

Motion controls, right now, are a fad for gamers. The fact they have such high latency proves they are not made for gamers but impulsive shoppers and casual gamers. I would also go as far as to say casual gamers are a fad for the industry because they are not interested in quality gaming and once they buy one console and one motion fad, their appetitte is full and they'll ignore the rest of gaming. 

Sony fans, yes it is!, Nintendo fans, no its not!, Microsoft fans, you both suck...etc.etc.

im tired.......

Again...sigh

I originally wasn't going to bless this thread with my presences... but damn at some of the posts so far.

fad/fad/

That is the definition of a 'fad'.

Wii from its launch through 2009, definitely had intense and widely shared enthusiasm which resulted in record breaking sales. But is the 3+ years of crazy sales one in the same as "short-lived"? What about the following 2+ years its still going on?

Is its natural sales curve any different than similar consoles from the past? A quick tally of previous consoles and you'll see that Wii, overall, is no different than nearly every other successful console.

First few years are steady gains until you hit a platue and start to fall off. Initially the fall off is quicker, especially when the successor is announced (5 to 6 years down the road), and then after that they slow down their downward trend until they are discontinued.

Same thing happened with every other Nintendo console, Genesis, PS1/PS2, etc. Of course the literal numbers are different, but the fact is, the Wii has in no way behaved, generally speaking, different from any other successful game console.

Its the PS360 that have changed the market and behaved differently in that they had far later peaks than what would considered normal. Why? The totally blacklisted Wii in prime 3rd party development. Had Wii been more comparable in terms of raw power and kept ports of big games, they would have trailed off just as early as Wii did.

Whoa, this thread already devolved into arguing about semantics. That was quick.

On topic: NO.