7 Beloved Video Game Consoles That Were Almost Completely Different
3. Nintendo Only Released The Wii Because Microsoft And Sony Rejected It
The Wii was a huge success for Nintendo, but what you may not realize is that not only didn't Nintendo develop the Wii's motion control technology themselves, they weren't even the second company it was pitched to.
Tom Quinn was an amateur pilot who patented a system to translate motion controls into on-screen graphics. His initial pitch was to the Xbox team at Microsoft, who literally laughed him out of the building and treated him so rudely that the company later called him to officially apologize.
He next tried Sony, who would only license the patent if the controllers could be produced for an impossible fifty cents or less (because why bother with revolutionary technology if it costs more than an off-brand cola?).
Quinn finally took his pitch to Nintendo, and after a tumultuous meeting that saw executives loudly argue with each other in Japanese in front of him (Quinn was not fluent and had no idea what they were saying), Nintendo agreed to purchase the patents. If Microsoft hadn't been so rude and Sony so cheap, Nintendo would likely have never regained their foothold in the industry.