Nintendo Wii: Sold like gangbusters.
64bit Processors: The computing standard.
Battlestar Galactica: Considered one of the greatest sci-fi series of all time.
Facebook: Continues to be the world’s leading social media platform by literally BILLIONS of users.
High Definition: HD only got even more HD.
iPhone: Set the standard for mobile smartphone form factor and function to this day 16 years later.
The Wii was extremely popular. For years, it outsold every other console combined by several orders of magnitude.
Netbooks absolutely were overhyped, and the market for them died really quickly. They were barely usable, and by 2010 when tablets really started hitting the market, there wasn’t a space for them anymore.
HDTVs weren’t overhyped, they were just expensive, and in 2008 there wasn’t that much content to take advantage of it. I had a 32" 720p TV that I paid nearly $700 for in 2007. Now, you can gt a 40-something inch 4K tv for a little over $200, and there’s plenty of content to make it worthwhile (though the real-world benefit of 4k on such a small set is debatable).
The first iPhone was so incredibly polarizing at the time. The hype machine leading up to that announcement was unlike any other product launch I can recall. So it was never going to live up to that kind of hype. And while it was limited in features for it’s time, it was clear more was on the horizon. And given how it not only revolutionized the phone market, but also the web as a whole, we know how it all ended up.
The Wii was overhyped though. Most players never bought any other game than Wii sports. I had an unlocked Wii and played all the good titles, and there are not more than ~10 of them. Most Wii games (looking at you, NFS) felt like half-baked mobile ports.
And the Wii U sales showed that. Yeah, the Wii sold to tons of casuals, but hardly any of them upgraded, even though the Wii U was a much more capable system.
The most frequent question I hear to this day when talking with former Wii owners is “What’s the benefit of the Wii U and why would I need to upgrade?” That’s a question I have never heard in relation to any other game console. Or have you ever heard the sentence “What’s so special about a PS3 if I already have a PS2? Why would I need to upgrade?”
And this setup the Wii U to be such a huge commercial flop that Nintendo effectively cancelled their stationary game console line.
I would say it was seriously overhyped, similarly to the Netbooks. It was a fad, it was cool, boatloads of non-techy-people bought them, and none of them bought the successor so it all died quickly.
For the rest I agree though.
The Wii had a ton of great games outside of the Nintendo specific ones. The Conduit 1 and 2, Golden Eye, tons of fighting games, it gave us No More Heroes. The Force Unleashed somewhat had the best edition on the Wii (this is mostly subjective but it’s a strong consensus that the Wii’s version held up). Its main appeal to other consoles I think was how diverse the games could try to be - silly games like Boom Blox and De Blob, and niche ones like Endless Ocean for all the marine biologist kids.
Granted, I grew up with some of these games and I’m not trying to say that the Wii’s extensive library is all stellar. But there are many gems amongst it. The Wii’s popularity drew a lot of attention to games that would just be scrolled past as shovelware on other online stores (Xbox Live mostly). Few of these were outside of the Xbox Arcade or whatever it was, but on the Wii they would be digital and sometimes have physical editions. Also because of how wide its demographic, it had a few surprisingly decent Barbie-esque and Horse care games. I mean, it had so many games made for it that only just stopped getting games in 2020.
The Wii U was an attempt to bridge the gap between the success of their portable line, the DS, and the Wii. Growing up all any kind ever wanted was getting their consoles connected. But then when the Wii U finally came out and was marketed, its main selling point was that you could play your game on the tablet while someone else was using the family TV. I mean really, it was exactly what every 10-14 year old into Nintendo was talking about up until Nintendo actually made it.
Part of it was marketing, I remember a lot of people being surprised that the gamepad wasn’t what was being sold, but a whole console with it.
It’s crazy that it failed honestly but at the same time it’s totally understandable. You can’t try to be both a home console and a “portable one” when what’s portable is connected to the Wii 2. It was the genetic imprint that wanted to be everything the Switch became.
The Wii U was an amazing platform specifically because of the second screen. It lended itself nicely for asymmetric multiplayer (Rayman Legends is so good on the Wii U) and the ability to play without using the TV is also pretty nice.
Yeah marketing was certainly an issue, but the other issue is that the Wii was mostly owned by casuals and casuals don’t need to upgrade ever.
Hence why the Wii received it’s last game (Just Dance 2020) a whole year later than the Wii U received it’s last game (Just Dance 2019).
God, GoldenEye online was so amazing though for a long time. Only reason I got a Wii.
I think the Netbook concept lives on in Chromebooks: Cheap, low power laptops that make sense in scenarios where higher cost laptops don’t fit. Schools, kids, etc.
Some fraction of it was probably eaten by Raspberry Pi’s as well. A 12V barrel plug was like the USB-C of 2008. For pennies, you got a intergrate anywhere Linux machine that could augment a lot of hackery.
In 2008 there was still new stuff being shot in a 4:3 aspect ratio in some places never mind HD, I remember when Top Gear did the polar challenge the year before it was a real showcase for HDTV.