"Wii" is the new name for Revolution (no really).
Honestly WTF are Nintendo doing? The name just sounds ridiculous and would be so arkward to talk about in converstion - cue lots of wee and urine jokes
I mean at first it sounds funny, but you dont get companies calling their products "you" or "us".
I think Nintendo have gone too far with this one....
Fucking retarded move their Nofriendo. I foresee a lot of urine jokes in the future. I mean Nintendo were really struggling with their kiddy image in the West. This doesnt help anything.
Roundtable #160: Wii
Nintendo reveals the name of the new console. IGN Editors reveal their opinions.
by IGN Staff
April 27, 2006 - David Clayman, IGN Insider: This morning Nintendo announced the official name of their next generation console that was previously called The Revolution. They released this statement:
Introducing... Wii.
As in "we."
While the code-name Revolution expressed our direction, Wii represents the answer. Wii will break down that wall that seperates videogame players from everybody else. Wii will put people more in touch with their games... and each other. But you're probably asking: What does the name mean?
Wii sounds like "we," which emphasizes the console is for everyone. Wii can easily be remembered by people around the world, no matter what language they speak. No confusion. No need to abbreviate. Just Wii.
Wii has a distinctive "ii" spelling that symbolizes both the unique controllers and the image of people playing it. And Wii, as a name and a console, brings something revolutionary to the world of videogames that sets it apart from the crowd.
So that's Wii. But now Nintendo needs you. Because it's really not about you or me. It's about Wii. And together, Wii will change everything.
We quickly polled our editors to gauge their response to the name. Unfortunately this text does not compare to the three solid hours of people running circles around the office screaming "Weeeeeee!"
Stephen Ng, IGN FAQs: Pee. One positive -- it will make our keyword system easier to use, internally anyway.
David Adams, IGN News: Wii seriously object.
Wii are a little terrified.
Wii don't know what ... oh... oh god...
Nintendo, I'm afraid you've been had. The new name for the Revolution (which shall always remain "Revolution" in my heart) is such an egregious example of convoluted, over-priced marketing work that I imagine Big N executives must have been kept in a brightly-colored, hermetically-sealed playroom and fed narcotic-laced smoothies for weeks while Evil Marketing Firm sold them on this name.
The official press release gives the game away: note the straining effort to justify why, in a single fey syllable, Nintendo now evokes smallness and urine: "Wii sounds like 'we,' which emphasizes the console is for everyone ... Wii has a distinctive 'ii' spelling that symbolizes both the unique controllers and the image of people playing it."
Uh. Yes. That is -- wait. All sense and reason tell me otherwise, but ... we're paying these guys an awful lot of money and ... maybe, yes, I'm squinting and -- oh, I haven't slept in a long time -- yes, that's it ... it's the sound of us. No, it's the sound of fun! Children. Flowers. I want ice cream. Send out the press release!
Fellow gamers, no need to convolute and buy into this. In comparison, a little purple box looks like a Doberman pincer of virile gaming domination.
Thank you, Marketing Firm, for once again demonstrating how easy it is to destroy any sense of finesse or soul. Wii are reprogrammed now. Wii understand. Wii thank you.
Chris Roper, IGN PlayStation: Nintendo is ******* retarded. That is all.
Mark Ryan Sallee, IGN Guides: I got into my car, and I hit the gas, and I was like "WIIIIIIIIIII," and then I hit a bump and my tires rubbed, and I was like "WIIIIIIIIIII," then I got my oil changed and they said "It'll be thirty dollars," and I was like "WIIIIIIIIIII," then I got into work and sat down at my computer and listened to a Queen song, and I was like "WIIIIIIIIIII," then I heard that Nintendo Revolution is now the Nintendo Wii, and I was like... "Oh."
Dan Adams, IGN PC: It's just like visualizing a waterfall or a running faucet. I need to pee.
Gerry Block, IGN Gear: When I've had a long day at work, there's nothing I enjoy more than coming home to play with my Wii. Sitting on the couch, relaxing, and working my Wii with both hands is just great. Sometimes I get so into it I just waste the whole night until my wrists get so tired I can barely jerk my Wii-mote.
It's even better when my girlfriend comes over and plays with my Wii too. She's pretty good at games, but she'll never be able to match my skill at playing with my Wii. Once she even brought a friend over and they both played with my Wii, it was great!
My Wii is pretty much my favorite thing in the world. If I ever lost my Wii, I think I would probably just kill myself. It's smart to be really careful with your Wii if you let a lot of strangers play with it. I'm pretty jealous of Bozon and Matt now, they're going to get paid to play with their Wiis all day long!
Juan Castro, IGN Playstation Team: At this point, I'm not sure it matters if Nintendo's new system has a cool name or not. They want to attract infants and the senile, not the PS3 crowd. At any rate, "Wii" is no more cracked-out than the "Revolution" concept itself.
Really, a wicked-cool name wouldn't have made any sense. And in a way, "Wii" actually works. It's a total, funkified gamble. Just like everything Nintendo is doing nowadays.
Erik Harte, IGN Video: Seriously, any last shred of cool that Nintendo had was just thrown out the window. I mean, the whole style, look, and feel of the Revolution, with it's Mac-like color schemes, simplicity, and glowing blue light was very cool. But man, watch the Wii commercial. Not cool at all. Dammit Nintendo. You're shooting yourself in the foot.
Daemon Hatfield, IGN News: ...and just when i was starting to believe in Nintendo again...
Hilary Goldstein, IGN Comics: I died and went to comedy Heaven. Oh wait, you ******** are here. Dammit.
Look, I like the hopping letter "i" -- it reminds me of the old Pixar lamp. I like the whole Mac-like look of the logo. I like the concept of a three-letter console name that you don't have to abbreviate. But Wii? Why Wii? It's an ugly-looking "word." It's an ugly-sounding word.
I'm sure we'll all be used to it by the end of the year (I don't roll my eyes anymore when someone says "Banjo-Kazooie" -- although I really should), but this name just sounds so forced. I guarantee you the marketing firm had this on its sheet:
- Something short like iPod.
- Something with an "i" like iPod.
- Something that says "for everyone" -- you know, "mass market," like iPod.
What confuses me a bit is that it's not called Wiiii. See, if the letters are supposed to look like the controller, isn't one of Nintendo's keys for success four-player Mario Kart and Smash Bros.? So there should be four remotes. Or is each "i" one half of the controller (one in the left hand and one in the right)? If so, it really should be Wiiiiiiii. Unless Wii supports 16-player online matches. Then it'd be Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii.
I think in this case, marketing forgot that you can have a cool and mysterious ad campaign without applying that whole concept to the product name. Everyone knows the Budweiser "frog" commercials. But Budweiser is not called Frog Beer. PlayStation isn't called URnotE. Dreamcast isn't called Swirl.
Mark Nix, IGN Data: Nintendo needs to open up its E3 2006 press conference the same way PeeWee Herman opened up the MTV awards that one year ...
As ridiculous as it is hitting us now, however, I can feel the name growing on me in some small way already. Wii is at once a terrible name for a videogame console and a catchy name for a gaming sensation. How any of us will go into a store and ask for a game for the "Wheeeeeeeeeeeeee!!", I have no idea, but the casual gamers turned off by this generation's complex and expensive Xbox and PlayStation game systems will hopefully find the charm in a console that literally screams fun. Meanwhile, the dedicated fan boys have already coined a new pronounciation (the term "Wise" or "Wiise", as in "'w' and two 'i's", has been coined), and some are still die-hard to stick Revolution stickers over the Wii logo when it hits stores. Wii is simple like iPod. Wii is cute like Aibo. Wii is ... well, it's no name for a game system, but it's all Nintendo, and to many, Nintendo is gaming.
Of course, no matter how much it catches on, the jokes will never die.
Erik Brudvig, IGN Guides: Wii is a pretty funny name, but its not like Nintendo is the only company in the history of games to have a goofy name for their console.
In all seriousness, I really hope Nintendo licenses the song "We Love You" by the Rolling Stones for their commercials.
We don't care if you only love "we"
We don't care if you only love "we"
We love you. We love you, and we hope
that you will love "we" too
Andy Eddy, IGN Community Manager: On the immediate basis, it's a weird, dumb, goofy, strange, idiotic-sounding and -looking name.
But, I figure in a year or so, no one will really care. We got used to Odyssey, Intellivision, NES, TurboGrafx-16 (well, not really), SNES, 32x (well, not really #2), PlayStation, Xbox and other weird system and software names before, haven't we?
Besides, any time someone questions whether Nintendo will survive its latest blunder, I repeat:
If you want to play Mario, Zelda, Donkey Kong, Pokemon, Kirby and all of Nintendo's other big-name brands, you're going to have to buy Nintendo hardware.
And it'll be no different with, uh, Wii...
(That said, though, I think everyone was getting used to Revolution.)
Matt Casamasina, IGN Wii: Well, one thing is for sure: I'm going to be able to make some seriously sweet headlines with this bad boy. Bylines, too. Just check it out:
Nintendo Fans Unable to Swallow Wii
Community gags on the official new title for the formerly codenamed Revolution.
Yes! Tell me that isn't awesome?
At any rate, I'm not nearly as upset about this title as some. Claims that Nintendo has ditched any chance of success or thrown all coolness to the wind are, in my opinion, highly exaggerated. The name Google doesn't exactly scream "cool," either, but then again, everybody uses it. The product popularizes the name and not the other way around.
Wii, or Revolution, or whatever you want to call it, has not lost its potential. It's still a slick looking machine and its innovative controller could still be kick ass. As long as there are great, innovative games, I don't care if Nintendo calls the damned thing Anus Blaster 2000. I'm going to buy it and I'm going to like it.
Mark Bozon, IGN Wii: When this news hit, I'm sure I was one of the most upset and disgruntled of the IGN employees. I love Nintendo. Always have, and always will. Wii, however, is seriously pushing that love to new boundaries.
There are so many reasons to be frustrated with the name. It's seriously driving me crazy, as anyone in the LA office can confirm.
-Why is it spelled Wii? Did you need the iPod look that bad?
-Why not Revolution? It said everything it needed to, and it's bad-ass.
-How is this simple for people? I can picture parents already. "I need the Why-Eye for my kid please…"
-How in the hell does this make my Grandma want to play? If this is a console for everyone, maybe everyone should be able to recognize the name, rather than nobody.
Now I've taken a ton of crap for my over-the-top reaction to this so-called "revolutionary" name, but in the end it really doesn't matter that much. The Revolution is an amazing machine, the Virtual Console will rock, and I'm curious to see just what Nintendo has in store for it's fans. While the name Wii won't be stealing any image-conscious consumers from the 360 and PS3 stables, it won't change how amazing Metroid Prime 3 and Super Smash Bros. will be. Revolution is a cool system, it's got some amazing potential and I'm still excited about it.
Seriously though… why Wii?
I for one will continue to refer to the console as Revolution. When publishing on the site I'll have to use Wii, of course, but that's where it ends. I hate the name.
Seeing commercials to the song "We Will Rock You" will be pretty sweet though. That's where it ends.
It just doesnt sound right for a console at all. "Check out my new Wii!"
Wrong on so many levels.
Look at it. Its the most trite, wrong, stupid name in the history of ever. Its so wrong it could compete in the Olympics if wrongosity was ever a sport
If you change your mind, I'm the first in line
Honey I'm still free
Take a chance on Wii
If you need me, let me know, gonna be around
If you've got no place to go, if you're feeling down
If you're all alone when the pretty birds have flown
Honey I'm still free
Take a chance on Wii
I'm expecting some nice french jokes as well (Wii = Oui (yes)).
-What are you playing ?
-Wii.
-Oui what ?
-Wii.
-I didn't ask WHETHER you were playing or not. I asked WHAT you're playing.
-I'm playing Wii.
I used to be "the man who loves the movies you hate".
Now I'm just "that weird french guy with a cat avatar who comes to BnB once a year for no reason and then disappears again".
Man, first it's HKL and now it's Nintendo people here are moaning about, lol.
You'll get used to Wii just as those who moaned about the title "GameCube" got used to it. I remember that there were a lot of websites and people who criticised the name "GameCube" due to some idiotic reasons. As the IGN article above says, "Wii" is a word easily remebered internationally and it's not their fault that you guys are so perverted. Seriously, though... as they said, they were looking for a name that would be easy for people from around the world. Most people on this planet DO NOT speak English.
thelostdragon wrote: Seriously, though... as they said, they were looking for a name that would be easy for people from around the world. Most people on this planet DO NOT speak English.
Ah... I was wondering why Playstation 2 and the Sega Megadrive never took of...
Anyway, about the Wii thingy: I dont think it's a particularly (sp?) good name, but I wont lose any sleep over it. I feel they should have stuck with Revolution, or go back to 'Dolphin', which was one of the rumoured names for the Cube.
"what colour is your Wii???"
"My wee? Yellow ofcourse. Why?"
"Mine's purple! Looks awesome"
"That doesnt sound good"
"No it's great. Come back to my please and I'll show ya!"
"You sick fuck!"
I was there, the big BNB blackout of november, 2008. We lost many that day...
"Wii" just doesnt say "games console" to me. Revolution doesnt necessarily either, but at least it sounded cool. Wii just says WTF
Maybe the reason is because they want to make the console something thats never been seen/used before in gaming, and so even the name is new, I mean its not even a common English word, or made up of any words - like game boy or dream cast or play station.
Just a thought.
Bigshot President of Marketing: OK, people. It's time to name this year's console so we can get all the promotion material created for E3. Hit me with your best shot!
Marketing Peon 1: Well sir, we really think Revolution is an excellent name. Our core audience already identifies with the name and it promotes the idea of progress into Next-Gen gaming.
Bigshot: Fuck that. Revolution has too many syllables and no pothead teenager is going to remember that. We need something short with 1 syllable, like iPod. You're fired! Next idea, now!
Peon 2: Uuugh, iPod has 2 syllables, sir. We really think Revolution is the way to go.
Bigshot: i is not a syllable. It's a letter, asshole. You're Fired! Think outside the box people or get the fuck out of this meeting.
-mass exodus from the meeting leaving only the confused, French exchange student interning at Nintendo-
Bigshot: So Frenchie, do you have an actual idea for me?
Frenchie: Oui
Bigshot: Holy Shit, that's catchy! But we will spell it in American and add an extra i to the end. That will make our console twice as good as the iPod! I'm a fucking genius.
thelostdragon wrote:Most people on this planet DO NOT speak English.
English-speaking markets are important. The largest GAMING market is the West and a good chunk of them speak English. North America being the heart of games industry, thus E3 - the largest and most important industry trade show. The games industry in Japan is in decline, hence all the mergers in recent years. Eg Square and Enix, Sega and Sammy, Bandai and Namco.
Ofcourse not. How many people speak japanese or play all those anime-based games: only japanese.
contrary to popular belief, not EVERY japanese kid has 7 consoles and 5 handhelds
the western market (USA, canada, Europe) is WAY bigger then the japanese market.
I was there, the big BNB blackout of november, 2008. We lost many that day...
Yes, I did
Some consoles sell better in other terrotries of course, eg I think the DS has sold way more than the PSP in Japan, maybe overall (not sure).
