Nintendo's Highest-Selling Game Ever Almost Never Existed
Nintendo has sold hundreds of millions of video games across its four-plus decades in the industry. No game has sold more than Wii Sports.
At nearly 83 million copies sold, this pack-in title came free with the purchase of the Wii console that came out in 2006. It could and should be argued that people were buying the Wii just so they could try this cute little tech demo that transformed the video game industry in the middle of the decade.
Ironically, some of Nintendo's biggest minds were against the idea of putting Wii Sports for free in the Wii's box.
Former Nintendo of America COO and president Reggie Fils-Aime chatted with professor Joost Van Druenen last week and talked to him about the disapproval that Nintendo visionary Shigeru Miyamoto had for giving Wii Sports away for free with the purchase of the Wii.
"I'm in a small meeting with Mr. Iwata and Shigeru Miyamoto... and we are talking about how to best launch the system (Wii) and I said I really think we should pack in Wii Sports.
I kid you not. The look that Mr. Miyamoto gave me... Mr. Miyamoto gives me this death stare. Then he says Reggie-san, 'we don't give away content for free'. This is where my historical experience with the company's content came in.
I instantly retorted, 'But Mr. Miyamoto, when I bought my SNES, Super Mario came free with that system. So it has been done, but strategically and with thought as a way to drive the business forward.'"
Fils-Aime may not have been the brains behind Nintendo's biggest characters like Miyamoto was, but he certainly seems to have understood the business side of gaming in a way that others didn't.
The Wii was a console that needed to be demonstrated to consumers. It changed the way video games were played in the 2000s. No longer confined to just button-pressing, the Wii wanted gamers to swing its controller and immerse themselves in its worlds with motion controls.
Wii Sports became the most well-known game of the era, and the one that showed casual audiences how fun gaming could be. It may have been free, but it ended up being the most valuable product in Nintendo's history.