The calm and fierce winds of 24 hours and 7 days

Nintendo first surprised the world with the introduction of Wii Remotes in E3 2006 and was able to completely overshadow Playstation 3 during the show. Since then, countless gamers have been dazzled by the innovative control system that holds endless promises of how video games can be played.

Similar to iPods, the Wii Remotes are also pieced together from technologies that have existed for sometime. As opposed to traditional motion-sensitive controllers (such as the MS Freestyle Pro), each Wii Remote is able to accurately determine its spatial direction and instantaneous acceleration by combining both directional infrared and accelerometer technology.

The Wii console itself is also a beauty. Successful consoles in the past have always placed a heavy emphasis on visuals. Both Sony and Microsoft believed that the ultimate gaming experience is not possible unless the gamer can immerse his or her emotion into the realism of the game, and powerful graphics engine is a rudimentary catalyst to achieve such a vision. However, Nintendo thinks otherwise. Instead of furnishing the Wii console with the latest processors and selling each unit at a loss, the emphasis is on having fun with the controllers. Together with the current trend of a smaller, quieter, and more efficient computing experience that Intel has pushed so hard for, Nintendo was able to ride this fashion wave with the Wii consoles - A cute little white box.

For the first time, Nintendo has finally found the right answer to prevent game pirating without purchasing the Wii itself. Instead of relying on expensive propriety media, it is far smarter to create a platform that cannot be pirated at all - innovation in hardware. Without the Wii Remotes, it is meaningless to devise a Wii emulator on PC.

Wii had an exceptional success this holiday season. A quick glance on eBay revealed that the lack of solid games on the Playstation 3 platform resulted in low second-hand profits (~10% higher than the $600 MSRP), while Wii was able to sell for much more (~40% higher than the $250 MSRP). In terms of in-store availability, Playstation 3 actually had a much tighter supply.

As a quasi-disruptive product, Wii has uncovered a new horizon for gamers and developers to explore. Until major releases arrive on the Playstation 3 platform, Wii will continue to shine, luring gamers of all origins.