Gallery: Wiijected: Readers' Sad Pictures of Dusty Nintendo Controllers
01dusty-wii-gus-mastrapa
When's the last time you touched your Wii controller — other than to wipe a layer of dust off it? Although Nintendo's revolutionary motion-control game machine launched in 2006 with lots of compelling software, the days of Wii Sports, [Twilight Princess](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/gamelife/2006/11/zelda_the_reaso/) and Super Mario Galaxy are long over. Nintendo promised Wii would appeal to hard-core gamers who love deeper, more traditional gaming adventures, but these types of games have become fewer and far between. Some publishers have figured out how to sell casual games on the platform (see Ubisoft's smash success Just Dance), but the rest have abandoned Wii in droves. Of particular frustration to Wii owners is Nintendo's decision to keep many interesting Wii games out of the United States. A group of activist fans calling itself [Operation Rainfall made efforts to get Japanese games](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/gamelife/2011/06/xenoblade-the-last-story/) Xenoblade, The Last Story and Pandora's Tower to U.S. shores, but Nintendo is not even interested in this token level of support. With Nintendo's top designers working on games for the 3DS and [upcoming Wii U](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/gamelife/2011/06/nintendo-controller-hands-on/), it's looking less and less likely that gamers will have any reason to turn their Wiis on beyond this year's release of [The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/gamelife/2010/06/zelda-skyward-sword/). After Nintendo's brief Facebook post in which it shot down Operation Rainfall's requests, Wired.com asked Wii owners on Twitter to send in pictures of their dusty, unused game setups, accompanied by their tales of empty-Wii syndrome. See the best of their woeful submissions in the gallery above. __Above:__ "One of my dogs chewed through the cord for the Classic Control Pad," said Wired.com alumnus [Gus Mastrapa](http://www.twitter.com/triphibian). "At least *somebody* had some fun with it."
02dusty-wii-gregory-gay
"I was one of many who rushed out and stood in line for hours on launch day," says reader [Gregory Gay](http://twitter.com/greg4cr) of his now-abandoned Wii, "and I haven't touched my console in months." The last games Gay played were Epic Mickey ("not great") and Kirby's Epic Yarn. "I eventually unplugged the system, since it can remain pretty warm even in the standby mode," Gay said. "The picture is of the first controller I found. It has a nice layer of dust and dirt on it. I think that a hair even fell off of it."
03dusty-wii-ben-jones
Reader Ben Jones says his Wii is shoved away with his old CD burner. "It's in the corner of my house that time forgot," he writes. "The vinyl player upstairs gets more use."
04dusty-wii-daniel-bowman
"I've included a picture of my Wii Remote sitting on top of my entire collection of Wii games," writes reader Daniel Bowman, who bought his white console the day it launched and has only purchased three Wii game discs. He says he would have sold his Wii long ago, but he's downloaded many games from the Virtual Console digital distribution service. Since Wii games are tied to the system rather than a user account, he can't sell the system and keep the games. "Everything I've spent on Virtual Console is now just a sunk cost," Bowman says.
05dusty-wii-chris-taran
"Very few games exist on the Wii that interest me to begin with," writes reader Chris Taran, enclosing a photo of a dust-and-hair-covered Wii Remote. "On the few occasions that I picked up a promising title" like [Fragile Dreams](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fragile_Dreams:_Farewell_Ruins_of_the_Moon), he says, "the controls were such a mess and so frustrating to me that after an hour or so I put down the Wiimote and never looked back."
06dusty-wii-dave-prince
After moving to a new home in January, reader Dave Prince decided to conduct an experiment. He would leave his Wii in its box next to his television until an interesting game was released. "To this day, it sits patiently in its box next to my TV," he says. "Not only has the dearth of quality titles effectively killed off my interest in the Wii," Prince writes, "but without any new releases to move me to unpack it, my interest in the games I already own for it ... has fallen dramatically. Without a feed of new titles sustaining its future, my interest in the Wii's past has atrophied."
07dusty-wii-sm-pit
"I know dusty Wiis and their controllers implies they haven't been used for a while, but 'a while' could only be a few weeks," writes reader "sm pit." "How about a photo that proves they've never been used since Oct. 6, 2008, not by the dust, but by the fact the controllers are still in their original packaging with the receipt to prove it?" This disappointed Wii owner bought two Wii Remotes, two Nunchuks and two Classic Controllers when a store had a buy-one-get-one-free sale. But he hasn't been able to get his friends excited about playing any multiplayer games recently, and the controllers are still in their blister packs.
08dusty-wii-daniel-feit
"My Wii is still hooked up to my TV, although it's been at least nine months since anyone turned it on," says Game|Life contributor Daniel Feit. His Wii isn't particularly dusty, he says, but that's because it's being neglected in a very different way by his toddler. "My son has made a habit of pulling it off the TV stand and, well, standing on it. Notice the dings on the front and the absence of a cover for the memory card and Gamecube controller slots. He broke that off long ago," Feit writes.
09dusty-wii-kyle
Reader Kyle's Wii has "been in this box for four years," he says. "Gets broken out about once a year for Christmas family time."
10dusty-wii-josh-hesterman
Josh Hesterman used to use his Wii for gaming, he says. "But then came Netflix. All of a sudden, I realize I've got a perfectly good streaming device in my hands, and the poor Wii has become a fixture in my kitchen, fueling my [Instant addiction](http://movies.netflix.com/WiHome) while I traipse around prepping for dinner. "How low have you fallen, dear Wii? How low?"
