Nintendo Wii Games

The Nintendo Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Nintendo Wii competed with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others. As of the first quarter of 2016, the Nintendo Wii led its generation over the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in worldwide sales, with more than 101 million units sold; in December 2009, the console broke the sales record for a single month in the United States.

The Nintendo Wii introduced the Wii Remote controller, which can be used as a handheld pointing device and detects movement in three dimensions. The console runs games supplied on Nintendo Wii optical discs. It also supported the now discontinued WiiConnect24 service, which enabled the Nintendo Wii to receive messages and updates over the Internet while in standby mode. Like other seventh-generation consoles, it supported a service, called "Virtual Console", that downloaded emulated games from past Nintendo consoles and provided support for online video streaming such as BBC iPlayer, and other services provided by Nintendo over the Internet. From June 28, 2013, Internet services were gradually discontinued; since January 31, 2019, only re-download of games, system software updates, and transfer of data between Nintendo Wii and Nintendo Wii U continues to be available, which will be withdrawn at an unspecified future date. Wii Points could no longer be purchased after March 2018, so it can not be used and was permanently lost as of January 31, 2019.

The Nintendo Wii succeeded the Nintendo GameCube; early models are fully backward-compatible with all Nintendo GameCube games and most accessories. Nintendo first spoke of the console at the E3 2004 press conference and later unveiled it at E3 2005. Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata revealed a prototype of the controller at the September 2005 Tokyo Game Show. At E3 2006, the console won the first of several awards. By December 8, 2006, it had completed its launch in the four key markets.

Later models are no longer compatible with Nintendo GameCube. Nintendo released a revised unit in 2011 in Europe, Australia, and North America. The Nintendo Wii Mini, Nintendo's first major console redesign since the New-Style Super NES, was released first in Canada on December 7, 2012. The Nintendo Wii Mini can only play Nintendo Wii optical discs, as it has neither Nintendo GameCube compatibility nor any networking capabilities; this model was not released in Japan, Australia, or New Zealand. The Nintendo Wii's successor, the Nintendo Wii U, was released on November 18, 2012. On October 20, 2013, Nintendo confirmed it had discontinued the production of the Nintendo Wii in Japan and Europe.