Hi there! So, love it or hate it, the Wii is one of
the most successful consoles of all time. With its sleek form factor and simple-to-understand
controllers, this console was enjoyed by millions around the world, of all ages and demographics. Buttt, it wasn’t always going to be that
way. Nintendo went through a lot of prototypes
before they settled on this final design, some of which were pretty terrible. Here’s a taster: cheddar cheese. So, let us journey back to when this revolutionary
console was just being created, and look at the pre-Wiis, if you like. First off, a quick history. It was the late 80’s, and inventor Tom Quinn
was up in the skies, darting amongst the clouds, when he was hit with an idea. Was the complex panel of lights and levers
really the best way to control this thing, or was there a better way? Quinn envisioned some sort of motion controller,
which would allow pilots to control their planes much more effectively. He wrote up an application for a patent, covering
any real world actions which translated to an action on-screen. It took 10 whole years for it to be approved,
but in 1999, he was finally awarded his patent. However, the aircraft industry had moved on
a lot since the 80s. Quinn thought about whether there was a better
place for his motion control technology to be used. Ah, games consoles! This could revolutionise games as we knew
them. And so, 2 years later, Quinn began searching
for a games company to partner with. Microsoft had just launched their Xbox console
earlier that year, so Quinn arranged to meet with Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer. Ballmer was really enthusiastic about this
motion control concept, but when the Xbox team themselves saw it, they were less than
impressed. In fact, they were outride rude, so much so
that a microsoft executive approached Quinn afterwards to apologise. So, Xbox was out. What about the largest company in gaming at
the time, Sony, with their hugely successful Playstation 2? And so, Quinn flew out to Japan to meet with
Ken Kutaragi, the father of playstation. Well, as soon as Quinn started speaking, Kutaragi
closed his eyes. Once Quinn finished his presentation, Kutaragi
responded, “Can you produce this for 50 cents?” Quinn laughed, explaining that that would
be impossible. And that was the end of that. So, with Xbox and Playstation out, all that
was left was Nintendo. At the time, the company was in a bit of a
sorry state. Their consoles had been on a constant sales
decline since the NES, and their newly released GameCube didn’t seem to be doing much to
help. Nevertheless, Quinn flew out to Kyoto, where
Nintendo were headquartered, and presented his idea to Nintendo chairman, Atsushi Asada,
along with about 8 other executives and engineers. About 20 mins into his pitch, Asada stopped
Quinn, and asked to speak with the other executives. They all started debating, and were getting
more and more heated in their arguing. Suddenly, Asada barked something and the executives
all instantly shut up. Then, he turned back to Quinn, telling him
that Nintendo would license his patents, plus buy a part of his company. Now, around this time, the GameCube had just
been released, and Nintendo were starting work on their new console, codenamed the Revolution. In charge of its development was one Genyo
Takeda, a longtime hardware developer at the company. At first, Takeda and his team simply set out
to make this console flashier, faster and more powerful than there last. However, about a year in, he came to the realisation
that this simply wasn’t going to work out. The gamecube, their current console, had also
pursued this enhanced power, but it had flopped big time, selling the least units of all their
consoles bar the virtual boy, which we don’t talk about. Shigeru Miyamoto, who was also working on
the project, put it this way: “Too many powerful consoles can't coexist. It's like having only ferocious dinosaurs. They might fight and hasten their own extinction.” And so, Takeda decided to completely revise
Nintendo’s strategy for the Revolution. Rather than pursuing the same old crowd of
serious gamers, Nintendo would target their console to people who didn’t usually play
games. Plus, instead of targeting children, Nintendo
would aim to make the console attractive to their parents. This meant a few things. Firstly, the console would need to be quiet
and consume a low amount of power. Nintendo wanted the console to be able to
be kept on 24/7, which meant that it couldn’t have any loud fans whirring through the night. Plus, the price. This would have to be brought way way down. Shigeru Miyamoto originally wanted to sell
the console for only $100 dollars, but it was eventually decided to adopt the more realistic
target of $211. Lastly, this console would have to fit easily
into people’s homes. In fact, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata met
with Junji Takamoto, the guy in charge of the console’s internals, to discuss this
matter. Iwata piled up two or three DVDs on the table,
and told Takamoto, “I'd like to make it about this size!” Takamoto was stumped. Nevertheless, he accepted Iwata challenge. Now, all three of these factors - the low
power consumption, the low price, and the small form factor - meant that Nintendo had
to cut a few corners with the console. According to Miyamoto, “We had to compromise
on graphics and give up on a powerful chip.” Many employees at Nintendo wanted the console
to output HD graphics, but that too had to be cut. But if their console was to be inferior to
their competitors’, then what would draw customers to the Revolution? Takada looked to the DS, which was just nearing
the end of development, for inspiration. Initially, he thought maybe this new console’s
controller could have some sort of touch panel within it, or perhaps a computer mouse. However, compared to the simplicity of the
DS’s touch screen, these ideas just didn’t hold up. However, Nintendo had an ace up their sleeve
- the motion control patents! This would be the perfect time to put them
to use. And so, Nintendo set to work, designing a
controller based around this motion control technology. In charge of the design of this controller
was Kenichiro Ashida, a hardware designer who’d been working at Nintendo since the
days of the SNES, and who was very close to Shigeru Miyamoto. From the beginning, Ashida and Miyamoto knew
they wanted this controller to be as approachable as possible - if people saw it, they should
think “I want to pick that up and try it”. However, it took a while for them to fully
realise this idea. At first, they tried out a design they called
the Gunbai, which is the name of this fan which the referee of sumo wrestling fights
has to hold. Now, this design had a similar form factor
to a traditional controller, but with a pointer added to the center to allow elements to be
clicked on screen. But, when they tested this, it somehow didn’t
feel right. After some examination, Miyamoto realised
the problem: they were designing their controller using traditional controllers as a starting
point, when what they really wanted to do was create something unique. He exclaimed, “We shall start from the rod!” And so, the team started designing prototypes
based around a simple, rod like form factor. As inspiration, Miyamoto brought in his mobile
phone to meetings, plus the remote from his car navigation system! These spurred on a flurry of remote-like prototypes
- like this one, which really does look like a remote control, and this one, which looks
a GameCube controller with the side parts chopped off. But from here, things just got weirder, eventually
culminating in this! A circular controller with a large star button
in the center, with 3 small buttons surrounding it. It was coloured bright orange, and quickly
earned the nickname “Cheddar Cheese” within Nintendo. However, when the developers from Zelda and
Mario were shown this controller, they complained that there’s no way any traditional games
like theirs could ever be played using it. And so, Nintendo went back to the drawing
board, eventually switching back to the rod design that they had started with! As soon as Iwata picked up this controller
and tried out the pointer functionality, he knew that it was the one! However, it was by no means perfect. Nintendo had already decided that this new
console would be compatible with Gamecube games, plus it would have a virtual console
feature letting the user play games from older systems, too. There was no way that this vastly simplified
controller-remote hybrid would allow people to play these games. Then, the team had an idea. What if there was a port at the bottom of
the controller which allowed other controllers to be plugged in as well? Yes, this was perfect! Before long, they had designed what they called
the “Classic Controller”, a more traditionally laid out controller allowing for older games
to be played more easily. However, this plugging in extra controllers
concept would later culminate in one major idea. The nunchuck. You see, a young developer had been talking
to Genya Takeda, when they suggested the idea of a seperate controller featuring an analogue
stick which could be held in the player’s free hand. Takeka knew this idea would allow for many
more types of gameplay, so he approached Ashida, asking, “Can you try to make something like
this?” And so, Ashida began by making prototype out
of clay, until he settled on the final form of the controller. “Nunchuck” was originally just the codename
for this device, but it quickly caught on, to the extent that nIntendo decided to adopt
it as the official title of the peripheral. And with all of these factors decided, on
the 19th of november 2006, the Wii was released. It was instantly clear that it was going to
be a hit. Flying off the shelves would be an understatement,
in fact. Countless headlines told of queues trailing
out of stores and all around the block. So great was this demand, in fact, that it
became impossible to find the thing But, with sales eventually reaching over 100 million,
this console became Nintendo’s best selling home console of all time. And that was certainly a feat. Hi there! Thanks for watching to the end. I hope you didn’t mind me veering off a
little from just the prototypes, there - I figured I should give a little context to
their creation. What’s your favourite game controller? Something weird like the wiimote, or something
a little more traditional? Let me know in the comments. Finally, subscribe for more videos like this
every week, plus share this video with your friends to help this channel grow. And I’ll see you next week.
Pro-tip: Just watch the last four minutes for actually interesting content.