If Wii Sports never existed I can't see the Wii selling at all. The other major game for the system is available for the Gamecube so it's hard to imagine a lot of people would have bought one. I'd guess that Nintendo would have made Zelda exclusive to the Wii if Wii Sports didn't exist.

RolStoppable said: I think it's no understatement to say that Wii sports is the most important game of the 7th generation. It will be remembered along killer-apps like Super Mario Bros. and Tetris.

Yup, I totally concur. It's amazing how people can write Wii Sports off because it doesn't match Gears or Halo (in their opinion) but it is well on it's way to being the next Tetris in terms of shifting consoles.

No doubt Wii Sports has a huge amount to do with the Wii's broad appeal. It's still the best pick-up-and-play game on the system, with surprising depth if you keep at it, and I have no doubt MANY people bought the Wii initially to play Wii Sports. It demonstrates exactly why motion control is exciting and doesn't seem intimidating, weird or too "gamer culture"-oriented for the heretofore non-gamer. I think one of Nintendo's biggest challenges ahead is coming up with followups to Wii Sports; most of the established franchises don't really resonate with the public the way the simple appeal of this one game does. It really is the killer app for the Wii.

i agree that Wii wouldn't be the same if there were no Wii Sports. Wii would only get existing Nintendo fans and with Wii Sports the Wii have made new Nintendo fans. it's a win-win situation. but if it wasn't a pack-in game like it is in Japan, do you think Wii Sports would sell more copies than Twilight Princess like Japan? would it enjoy the same level of popularity/publicity whatever. would the wii's sell at the rate it is now if Wii Sports wasn't free? what about Wii Play? what if it wasn't bundled with the remote, would it affect it's sales? Japanese don't mind their sports games being cutesy, but Americans like sports games to look like the real thing. how would the cultural difference affect sales of wii sports? maybe that was what i was trying to get at in the other thread, but i'm glad to have inspired this one though. =)

Cipherr said: Vengi said: I think Wii sports is the greatest Ad in the history of gaming. I think the Wii wouldn't of sold quite as well at least not at first, no other game captures the casual crowd as well as Wii sports Agreed. Wii Sports started the massive mainstream press attention Nintendo got. Bucketloads of free publicity. Bucketloads.

I think that the comment about Wii being just two GC duct taped together would hold much more water without Wii Sports.  Wii Sports was just a great tech demo that demonstrated the paradigm shift that is the wiimote.  It demonstrated how natural actions translate into gameplay.  without it, only the Zelda crowd would go for it.  Seeing as Zelda only sold just over a million, I'd estimate < 3 million for the first 6 months.