When it comes to retro gaming, many people first think of the NES, Super Nintendo, or Mega Drive. But now even the PlayStation 3 and Wii have been officially pushed into that category. Japan’s long-running gaming show Game Center CX recently held a vote on whether these two consoles qualify as “Retro.” In the first round with about 14,000 participants, 71% said yes. After host Shinya Arino actually played several PS3 and Wii games, the second vote with about 17,000 participants saw support jump to 80%.
Game Center CX has been airing since 2003, primarily challenging classic games from the 1980s and 1990s, and has gradually added platforms like PS2, GameCube, and Game Boy Advance to the show. The show has long held a standard of “roughly 20 years ago” as the retro threshold, so PS3 and Wii – both released in 2006 – hitting their 20th anniversary in 2026 isn’t really sudden. What’s more interesting is that the Wii’s Virtual Console once made “playing old games” a selling point, and now the Wii itself has become someone else’s retro relic.
What might really break players isn’t the “Retro” label itself, but how fast time has flown. The PS3 era still had titles like Demon’s Souls, Metal Gear Solid 4, and The Last of Us, while the Wii dominated globally with Wii Sports, Wii Fit, and New Super Mario Bros. Wii. Many players back then felt these were modern consoles. Now blink and these two machines can sit at the same table as classic consoles from before.
Of course, 20 years isn’t an absolute standard everyone agrees with. PS3-era game design still doesn’t have as massive a gap from today as early 3D games do from 8 and 16-bit titles. Some players even think PS3 and Xbox 360 generations are still too “modern,” though resolution and technical limitations already show their age. But for Game Center CX, the voting results are clear: PS3 and Wii are now officially part of the “Retro Family.” So if you still have a PS3 or Wii, congratulations – you might not be playing an old console anymore, but a retro collector’s item.