its quite easy to disprove this, just look at the boost to the hardware when major titles were released, SMG boost, Smash boost, its not hard to see that its not just the controller that will move machines

also you should know by now that the 360 and the ps3 will never be in the same price range as the wii, the wii can always drop faster and more then those two, and whats more they can do it and still make a profit for big Nin

wiimote=not peripheral ...so your OP=fail

Couldn't it be that the Wii's success comes with the target group and the social aspects?

I mean - most of those "hardcore gamers" play alone or online in AGAINST each other. Wii games though include a competition too but its mainly about playing together.

I know a lot of people who bought themselves a Wii but almost never play alone. They just start playing when inviting some friends and having fun doing crazy and new games.

I would compare this to the Eye-Toy, Singstar, Buzz games:

you got easy controls (even for non-gamers) - new ideas - and something worth playing with others - so you don't feel like a geek that has no friends at all. You don't want to be the one told "get a life" or stuff like that.

There is only one Wii game with a significant peripheral so far: Wii Fit. This peripheral was released over a year into the Wii's lifespan, yet even before its release the Wii was far ahead of its competitors in sales. Given this, I think it's safe to say that this "Wii is driven by peripherals" argument is absurd.

If anything, the Wii may be the only console whose sales can actually be attached to games. So far, even the most-hyped games on the 360 and PS3 have failed to leave lasting marks on the console sales, at least not in any measurable way. Hardware numbers spike for a week or two -three in the best cases- when a hyped game is released. But then they crash back down to the same levels as before the game came out, leaving it impossible to measure what is due to the game and what is not.

I think Wii sales are driven primarily by Wii Sports and the hardcore Nintendo fans who bought the Wii and showed it to all of their non-gaming friends and family who then immediately wanted one.

Nintendo basically used a Trojan Horse to get their system into households. As anyone knows, getting them to buy the system is the hard part. Selling them games after that is much easier.

But there are still plenty of reasons to own the system, whether you're a hardcore gamer or a casual gamer.

Another stupid thread about Wii's Doom.

How many of these do we really need? It's obvious that games sell on the Wii because of the new peripherals, as these games are designed to work with it.

Who the hell buys a console to collect the peripherals? What a dumb thread.

And then a lot of Wii haters join in to say: "Wii has no games, no 3rd party support, all games suck except for SSBB and SMG."

Wii has a lot of games already that are worth playing, Wii's 3rd party support is getting bigger as time passes by.

This is a sad last attempt to downplay the Wii hoping it will reverse the console race. No sorry, it's already over. What we will be seeing on the Wii from now on are even greater games.

And peripherals are used for what.... games?

Exactly, then they mount the beautiful Wii remote on the wall as art, because the only reason they wanted the system was for the PERIPHERAL!

This is a shallow, one-dimensional argument that is neither well thought out, or remotely true. People buy the Wii for many things, but it really comes down to the perfect combination of Controls, GREAT GAMES (without these, the peripherals are useless), the social aspects of group gaming, etc, all of which can be summed up in one word... FUN!!

What's funny is, what has probably fueled the sales of the system so far is the bundling of Wii sports (a game, by the way), which hooked people in by the EXPERIENCE of playing GAMES differently. Yes, the peripherals play a part, but it is simply asinine and shallow to even suggest that they are the ONLY thing driving sales. It is much deeper than that.

The Wiimote is part of the console, and obviously the Wii wouldnt had sold as much without it, but its like saying that the PS2 sold well because it played DVDs and came with a Dual Shock

Wii sales are driven by the undying souls of ninty gamers that are no longer with us. Everyone knows this. Any other reasoning is just bad logic... I'm looking at you OP.