What was Nintendo thinking?

[chris_v1]

I know that to gamers who currently have a Nintendo won't care about the name but those who don't will care. They won't even look into something with a name that is THAT childish.

Honestly, anyone who would refuse to purchase a system just because of the name IMO aren't doing their research or are hopeless fanboys. Nintendo's marketing department is doing an amazing job on this. They've successfully taken all the publicity for themselves at e3.

 

[WhirlwindMonk]

Honestly, anyone who would refuse to purchase a system just because of the name IMO aren't doing their research or are hopeless fanboys.

You haven't listened to a lot of modern gamers have you? All these people who own only a 360, halo, and halo 2 and claim halo and halo 2 are the best games ever even though those are the only games they've ever played. *sigh* I don't understand...

 

[Felron]

Are you kidding me?
This was a stroke of genius on Nintendo's part. The internet is blazing with this. Look at any forum or chatroom, and I guarantee someone will be talking about it. It's just very, very good advertising.
And yeah, it'll take a bit of getting used to, but think about it. How skeptical were you when you first heard Xbox, N64, or Playstation. Didn't think it would catch on, huh?

I think you brought up a really good point, and I feel I understand why they chose the name "Wii".

We is familiar, but cryptic. It's well defined as "us", but quite ambiguous due to it's broad meaning and simple pronunciation. I really think Nintendo is going to use we's ambiguous personality, to give it another definition. As it's such a popular word, if advertising is executed efficently, people are always going to have "Wii" come to their mind when someone says "We", so you're basically moving from creating a word to define (for example, people actually have to say iPod intentionally for the iPod to come to mind), to defining a already well-established word used commonly in manly languages. It's so freakin'...Smart.

Plus, the Beatles song still works.
Oh you say you want a revolution,
Well, you know,
Wii all want to change the word.

 

[Breetai]

I think it would be sheer genius if it is a hoax and I would like to think that is true and I would have to take my hat off to the people at Nintendo.

It is a truely awful, woeful, hideous name and they aren't going to capture any gamers that don't have a Nintendo system. They'll laugh at it - as is happening.


The only thing it does well is get peoples attention.

I know that to gamers who currently have a Nintendo won't care about the name but those who don't will care. They won't even look into something with a name that is THAT childish.

Why do you say this? The name sounds totally normal to me. It makes a heck of a lot more sense to use a generic word that some English word. Wii makes complete sense in Japanese, and it's kind of cool in English I think.

Heck, maybe people will start saying "Let's play Ninendo games!", instead of "Let's play Gamecube/N64/etc. games". It just might bring the name 'Nintendo' back into the realm of being a generic name for games, instead of just a trademark.

 

[Breetai]

Some are claiming that the name is a hoax. While I don't think it is, I still don't really care WHAT they call it. I don't buy a console for the little logo on the front, I buy it for the games. And if the Revolution/Wii has the NES, SNES, N64, Gamecube, Genesis, and Turbografx libraries available to it, plus Metroid Prime 3, Zelda, and other new titles from classic Nintendo franchises, then I'll certainly be picking it up.

The article suggesting that the name Wii is a hoax is here:

http://www.snarkhunting.com/2006/04/nintendo-wii-brilliant/#comments

Interesting article. It's third point is extremely valid.

 

[steverock]

Well, I'm sensing that I'm in the minority over the name choice

The name "Wii" (especially that spelling of it) just sounds childish to me. That's my main reason for hating it.

Revolution was a much better name and it summed up what they were trying to do with the console (the controller, the complete Nintendo library, etc) but "Wii" means nothing obvious.

 

[jhollas]

Well, I'm sensing that I'm in the minority over the name choice

The name "Wii" (especially that spelling of it) just sounds childish to me. That's my main reason for hating it.

Revolution was a much better name and it summed up what they were trying to do with the console (the controller, the complete Nintendo library, etc) but "Wii" means nothing obvious.

Revolution was a good name at the time, but Nintendo have now already established what they want to do.
The fact is that, having revealed most of the console's capabilities, it's no longer "Revolutionary" until people actually get their hands on it.

 

[Dracil]

They were thinking, "Hey, look at how much free press we'll get amongst gamers by a single name change!"

 

[willard3]

Well, supposedly the "haven't registered a trademark yet" point is a dead giveaway. Wonder how this will pan out.

Edit: I checked Nintendo's site, and the name is apparently trademarked.

 

[Breetai]

Well, supposedly the "haven't registered a trademark yet" point is a dead giveaway. Wonder how this will pan out.

Edit: I checked Nintendo's site, and the name is apparently trademarked.

Apparently. Having 'TM' next to a name just means that there is a 'TM' next to the name. It doesn't necessarily mean that it is actually trademarked. As well, they may have just trademarked it around the same time as the press conference, in order to make their scam look more legit.

Who knows!?!

 

[chris_v1]

You haven't listened to a lot of modern gamers have you? All these people who own only a 360, halo, and halo 2 and claim halo and halo 2 are the best games ever even though those are the only games they've ever played. *sigh* I don't understand...

I don't consider those gamers. Most people I've talked to about video games actually understand that there's much better things in life than their Halobox and GTA.