I'd say it's only because of the games they include with various hardware

And Mcdonalds has 99 billion served. Cheap, tasty food sells well as well as cheap short-term fun games sell well.

When your demographic is every age group it's hard not to sell as well as Wii is doing. In fact, gimmicks sell better than anything(see: tomogachi, beanie babies etc..)

Wii = biggest gimick in gaming history and they'll reap the profits for it.

PS2 had 42 million of mostly quality software where the Wii's 50 is mostly gimmick layered upon gimmick.

Mcdonalds is crap, Wii is crap, end of story.

Gimmick? No. McDonalds is a horrible example because it's food isn't bad tasting; it's just bad for you. And as for the Wii's sales, plenty of people buy the Wii because of a friendly recommendation of how much the family enjoyed it or how much a Nintendo fan enjoyed the first party titles. Keep in mind, this is software sales. That means if someone was buying the Wii b/c of it's motion sensing controls, they would stick with Wii sports.

I personally enjoyed the Wii far more than any of the other consoles, and I know plenty who agree. Also, McDonalds isn't ALWAYS crap.

bruceleethree

i agree that you could call the wii a gimmick, i agree that it's main target isn't as much hardcore gaming as the other two's (however i could say the same for the ps3 since if you haven't heard anything about it before, you wouldn't call it a gaming machine, you'd say it's a multi-media player device that can also play games)
BUT, gimmick or not, in the record it just broke, it doesn't say
"Nintendo Wii - 50 Million (but it's a gimmick)", it just says
"Nintendo Wii - 50 Million"
what i'm trying to say is that in the end, the only thing that matters is the result

The Wii gets a lot of good sales because of it being a gimmick. But a gimmick isn't always a bad thing, and through this the Wii is still an excellent console IMO. Wii is crap? Bullshit. It's got plently of good games that use the motion sensing controls, and even the games that don't use the controls can still turn out well (SSBB for example). I personally prefer the Wii over any console to date. I'd also argue that the other consoles are slightly gimmicks as well, although not as much as the Wii. Halo 3 was the reason many people bought the 360, but it turns out it wasn't worth the hype. Ps3 pulls in sales (however little they may be) off of it's blu-ray player, which sucks because the quality isn't half as good as a stand alone unit, and it's "amazing graphics" which are hardly any better than the 360 (although this may change in time).

And McDonalds isn't a gimmick, so that's not really a valid example.

just like how you can not go to mcdonalds you can just not buy the wii, no one's forcing you to do any of the two...but enough with mcdonalds, that's a fast food restaurant chain, not a console for crying out loud...

@x_revenge 2 comments up.

In other words, the end justifies the means.

@Mikstaslaya: you couldn't be more wrong about so many things.

Sure the Wii isn't a total joke (only a slight one) but to claim that the 360's biggest selling point was Halo 3; come on. To also claim that the PS3's biggest selling point is the blu-ray; come on.

The Wii is like the whore of the consoles; it'll go home with anyone. This doesn't apply to 360 and PS3. Not everyone will get along with the latter 2. Each console has its drawbacks, but some have more than others. I just wonder how long Nintendo can market the whole "look at me move my arm and hit this virtual tennis ball" before people go "you know what this is just the same crap. Kinda like 3D movies and how they stopped them because they had nothing more to "throw" to the audience.

WOW!!!!! That is fantastic for the Wii...it goes to show that you don't need all that power and pizazz for selling games...

the wii is a gimmick because its a gamecube with a different controller. and its shinier.

the lays like them the shiny.

I think Nintendo has already established that everything they make has outsold everyone and their mother within X months (sales figures for the DS are mind blowing). We've seen 10000 or so articles, news and consumer reports telling us as much.

Is there a reason, then, for 'tendo fanboys to remain so vicious? Congratulations, your favorite console appeals to the masses.

Good point, but I dont think fanboys have a good reason to be vicious in the first place; wouldn't expect a lot of articles on such a subject to change anything.

Except for Mario Galaxy, Zelda and Metroid, the wii's games are pathetic and a desperate attempt to get the money from the public.

Wii is something you buy and play for two weeks until you realize how boring it is without serious games.