Today, Nintendo started selling its Wii (pronounced ‘We’) gaming platform. Unlike its more expensive siblings, the Wii comes in only one configuration and features a motion-sensitive controller called the Wii Remote designed to be more inviting and comfortable for non-gamers to use, unlike button-heavy controllers. If you’re playing a tennis game, you’ll swing it as a racket. Switch to an adventure game and your controller becomes a sword.
Nintendo is banking that the Wii will appeal to more than the traditional gamers and its significantly lower cost should play in its favour.
Now that all three platforms are out (The Xbox 360 with a year head start and the Sony PlayStation 3 a two day head start), it will be interesting to see which emerges as the clear favourite and which are left to fight for second place.