Absolutely not. Not unless you consider all game systems a fad. Its sales peaked in year 4 and year 5 had sales similar to year 2 and 3. It was a very typical console life. I would call a fad something that is big for 1 Christmas and dies afterward. Wii did not do that at all.

I wouldn't consider motion controls a fad either, as the Gamepad uses upgraded versions of it and Wii Remotes are still used, PS4 devoted a significant portion of the reveal to Move and its DS4 has motion sensing, and Kinect played a major late-life role for XBox360 and will likely be a major interface for Nextbox.

The only Wii-related thing I might call a fad is the Wii-series. Since many game series bridge generations, it should be reasonable to expect that a Wii game would have life in the following generation. Games like Guitar Hero have died off, so I call them fads. The test will be be Wii Fit U, Wii Party U and so on. I'm a bit skeptical on Wii Fit U and the others, but we haven't had the test yet to determine if they still have draw. We'll know soon enough.

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Nice post, well put and pretty much sums it up imho.

The "all game sysytems are a fad" arguement is the worst I've seen and holds no water. The guys definition of fad is absolutly ludicris. 1 christmas? Give me a break. Skateboarding was a HUGE fad in the late 90's and lasted multiple years.

No more "ludicrous" than yours.

Skateboarding is still around and is still big. Just not "Extreme Games" or "THPS era" big.

That's his point right there. Thats what makes them a fad, yes they were both super popular but are no longer anywhere near as popular as they once were. And the console argument(im talking Wii also) makes no sense as consoles stopped being produced. Nobody stopped making skateboards, its just that nobody cares as much as they used too. Same thing with motion controls, they are not going anywhere, hell PS4 will be using Move, but they are not nearly the hot item they once were.

My definition has been academically defined LOL!!!! How is that ludicris. As for Skateboarding... Backstreet Boys are still around also, yet they were a huge fad and skateboarding is a shadow of it's former self when Tony Hawk was active. Skate parks were huge and over crowded... now you can get the skate park to yourself almost every day.

I live in a North Texas town and we still have a very active skate park. So anecdotal evidence is anecdotal.

The difference between consoles and skateboards is skateboarding is still around and still bigger than it was before it exploded. Will the Wii still be around in 5 years? No. Is the original Xbox still being made? No. So by your definition the Wii is a fad. But then so is pretty much every console. And every game. It all depends on how much you want to strip it down to a basic definition.

However, the guy I quoted, did a great job of explaining how it isn't a fad when you apply some logic and common sense. Many of its elements are being used in the WiiU. Hell its own peripherals work with the WiiU. Not only Nintendo's own console but Sony and MS now have motion controls. Not a fad. Unless, again, you're stripping it down to an extremely basic definition. In which case PS3 is also a fad. BluRay is a fad. Halo 4 is just a fad. I mean wow those sales sure have tapered off.

Skateboarding Culture

Skateboarding evolved from surfing – that's why the laid back counterculture nature found in the two sports makes sense.

The big difference is that surfing is now accepted by society and skateboarding is still struggling for mainstream acceptance. The youth culture and mindset has a lot to do with this.

This overall lack of acceptance has led to a gradual decline in the popularity of the sport: many skate parks sit empty, unused. Why?

• The sport of skateboarding itself is in a period of decline
• Skateboarders typically refuse to be fenced in - they don't want to be told what to do
• The parks are sometimes poorly designed
• The parks may be inaccessible to the youth who typically ride skateboards – I know of one city's skate park that is on an abandoned Navy Base, far from most neighborhoods

You wish it was anecdotal

Ok let me bring some reality to this thread.

If you consider wii a fad so to are all other successful videogame console, from the wii, PS2 (look at your own analogy for skateboarding being a fad), ps1 , snes, nes and atari and yes personally I consider all video game consoles a fad.
Let me explain it like this.
Look at the music industry for the past 50 years, over these years their has been many different ways to listen to music, from record players, to cassette players, walkman's/disc man's, Ipods, phones etc. All these devices were popular at some point in time (a fad you could say), but their main purpose was to play music, in other words it was nothing more than a form of listening to music each one being out done because of technological advances or whatever.

Now how does this apply to videogames?
Simple really each video game console is just a means to play video games at that point in time. The consoles are nothing more than a means to play video games nothing more (just like music players), they will be popular for a period time and as advances in technology are made a new form of playing video games will take over (ie a next gen) and as this takes place the older form will naturally become less popular, as has happened every gen.

So yes all popular consoles can be called fads, which I agree with.
Also you don't need to have an English major to see that calling only the success of the wii a fad can be considered a negative.