When Nintendo first announced the Wii, it was a bit of a revolutionary device as it offered up motion-controlled gaming, allowing Nintendo to beat Sony and Microsoft to the market with the feature back in 2006. However it seems that the technology was offered to Sony and Microsoft before it made its way to Nintendo.
This is according to a the latest Did You Know Gaming? video in which it was revealed that both Sony and Microsoft actually passed on the technology. In fact Nintendo almost passed on it too, but thankfully they had a change of heart. Basically the technology was developed by Tom Quinn who was an amateur pilot. The idea of the motion controller was to help make planes easier to fly but unfortunately the aerospace industry wasn’t too keen on it, which prompted Quinn to take it to video game companies.
Quinn approached Microsoft where Steve Ballmer supposedly loved it, but the Xbox team did not. He then approached Sony where the company’s then-president Ken Kutaragi was intrigued by it, but only if it could be made for less than 50 cents, which unfortunately it did not. Quinn then approached Nintendo where executives began to argue about its merits but thankfully the company’s chairman Atsushi Asada stepped in and that was it.
While the Wii helped Nintendo gain traction in the market, it seems that the novelty eventually wore off as the Wii U did not sell as well as Nintendo had hoped. In fact the company had to rely on first-party titles such as Mario Kart 8 to boost sales, and recently the Amiibo figurines had a helping hand in boosting the company’s revenue as well.
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