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Nintendo Revolution Renamed 'Wii'

Posted by Zonk on Thu Apr 27, 2006 11:24 AM
from the weeeeeeeeeeee dept.
Businesses Nintendo Entertainment Games
Retroneous writes "The Nintendo Revolution has had its name changed to the Nintendo Wii." Confirmation on the official Revolution site. Update: 04/27 16:32 GMT by Z : More information available from a Gamasutra article: "New details on the disc format have also been revealed: 'Instead of a tray, a single, innovative, self-loading media bay will play both 12-centimeter optical discs used for the new system as well as Nintendo GameCube discs. Owners will have the option of equipping a small, self-contained attachment to play movies and other DVD content.'"
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[+] Both Sides of Wii 560 comments
Yesterday Nintendo released the official name for their next console. Formerly the Revolution, and now simply called Wii, reaction has been strong among gaming fans. A Brian Crecente article in the Rocky Mountain News looks at why Wii is bad, from a marketing perspective. Chris Kohler, over at Game|Life, looks at why Wii is good because of its iconoclastic nature. And, always happy to help with the irreverent, Games.net examines why Wii is weird. From that article: "We don't think Nintendo Wii is a truly terrible console name, but it's an uncharacteristically risky choice, even for Nintendo. We admire its simplicity and its playfulness (the two i's represent multiplayer action, you see). But on the flip side, parents will have a hard time pronouncing it ("Nintendo...why?") and hardcore gamers will slam it ..."
[+] Developers React To 'Wii' 499 comments
Gamasutra has reactions from game developers to the announcement of the Revolution's new commercial name, 'Wii'. From the article: "It doesn't change my personal opinions of the console in the slightest. It changes my opinion of the Nintendo marketing department considerably. Did they even bother to research this? Why do they do these things? What was wrong with 'Revolution'? It's bad enough that the Japanese have a drink called "Sweat," but at least they don't try to export it to the English-speaking world with that name. Am I supposed to be happy about having to go down to the game store to purchase the 'Nintendo Wee'? For God's sake, where was Miyamoto? I can't believe he would have let this get by. - Ernest Adams"
[+] Two Weeks with the Wii 458 comments
In the 80s, kids of my generation cut their teeth on Super Mario Bros.. They went through high school with Mario Kart, and bonded with college friends playing Super Smash Bros. By 1999, though, the N64 had long since proven that Nintendo's dominance in American videogaming was over. The GameCube that followed was largely a disappointment. Nintendo failed to interest third party developers, and frustrated fans with long-delayed chapters of the Mario, Zelda, and Metroid franchises. Coming into this no-longer-next generation of consoles, Nintendo announced they were aiming for a Revolution, and then confused everyone by renaming it Wii. Their actions left a lot of people wondering if the company still had what it took to compete with committed powerhouses like Microsoft and Sony. The launch lineup is kind of tepid, and the controls really do take some getting used to. We've already established that they're not aiming to compete in the graphics race. So what is the console really like? Why is it selling so quickly? What does it have to offer? I've had two weeks to find out. Read on, so that you can get a feel for the system you'll definitely be playing (if not owning) at some point in the future.
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  • WTF8 (Score:5, Funny)

    by iGN97 (83927) on Thursday April 27 2006, @11:29AM (#15213201) Homepage
    "Because, it's really not about you or me. It's about Wii."

    To quote Irwin Mahatma Fletcher: I R pissed.

  • First Pun! (Score:5, Funny)

    by fm6 (162816) on Thursday April 27 2006, @11:30AM (#15213222) Homepage Journal
    Wii not?!
    • Something tells me this is going to get ugly. Just off the top of my head:

      1) Shopper: "Hi. I see these are on sale. I would like to take a Wii."
      2) Son, you've been playing with your Wii all day on that tiny monitor -- give it a rest or you'll go blind.
      3) Headline: Wii usage linked to possible repetitive stress injury?

      BTW, Is a cluster of these called a Wii-Wii?

      Surely there are more jokes to be had... your turn, Slashdotters.

      • Re:First Pun! (Score:5, Insightful)

        by SetupWeasel (54062) on Thursday April 27 2006, @12:43PM (#15214090) Homepage
        what fucktard thought that custom optical discs would be a good idea?

        The same fucktards that want to make pirating games difficult without breaking the game or your system.

        • Re:First Pun! (Score:5, Funny)

          by thatguywhoiam (524290) on Thursday April 27 2006, @03:50PM (#15215810)
          what fucktard thought that custom optical discs would be a good idea?

          The same fucktards that want to make pirating games difficult without breaking the game or your system.

          The important thing here is: we agree that they are fucktards.

  • Oh Good Lord (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Synesthesiatic (679680) on Thursday April 27 2006, @11:31AM (#15213234) Homepage
    Wii Nintendo, Wii? Gotta say that's a very bad name. It doesn't make me think of video games at all, and opens itself to too many easy jokes (Wii Bother?). Maybe it sounds clever in Japanese, but I think the Revolution was a much better name for the console. But what do I know, I don't have a marketing degree or anything.

  • Terrible (Score:5, Interesting)

    by ender- (42944) <{doubletwist} {at} {fearthepenguin.net}> on Thursday April 27 2006, @11:32AM (#15213253) Homepage Journal
    Man that's just terrible. The name "Revolution" had a powerful feel behind it, which I think would have been useful in its marketing against the Xbox360 and the PS3. "Wii" sounds diminutive and powerless. I hope they reconsider. Somehow, saying 'Hey I'm going to go out and buy a Wii [we]' just doesn't have the ring of 'I'm going out to buy a Revolution!'.

    Maybe it's just mii though...

    • Re:Terrible (Score:5, Insightful)

      by squiggleslash (241428) on Thursday April 27 2006, @02:40PM (#15215215) Homepage Journal
      Yeah, Revolution sounds awesome. I mean, they were really taking that name to the max. We're looking at PowerGaming here, with a console that could only have been topped by the future Revolution: Xtreme.

      Revolution was a cheesy name. It made sense from a code-word point of view, but as marketing goes, it was a word that brought to mind hype and pretty much nothing else. Microsoft had PowerPoint, to describe a presentation package. IBM was having difficulty with RISC in the 1980s and trying to get the message across that less is more: it finally decided to call its new architecture POWER. Apple couldn't figure out how to make a speed upgrade to the Airport 802.11 product look more interesting than... well, a speed bump. So it called it the Airport Extreme. Revolution was part of that genre. And just like all these names look ridiculous today, it'd have looked ridiculous too.

      Is Wii better? Well, as people aren't generally referring to the Piss-Three or the Sex-box 360, I have to assume those who posted today thinking Wii is only going to be associated with Urine are probably wide of the mark.

      It's not a bad word. It conveys fun ("Wheee!"), it also subtly highlights the new console's 802.11 features (WiFi), and the ads, using the anthromorphicized(sp) "i"s, look like they have potential. I think it's objectively better than "Revolution". Better names might exist, but this is a good one, and what it replaced was awful.

      Still, I know people complaining that a certain operating system currently named after a wide view of the world should instead have been named after a cow, as it was originally. Some people are wierd...

  • The question now is... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Hannah E. Davis (870669) on Thursday April 27 2006, @11:36AM (#15213307) Journal
    ... can we, as gamers, keep the name "Revolution" in use? I mean, Nintendo can officially change the name of the system, but they can't force people to actually call it that. I'd feel embarrassed asking for a Nintendo "Wii", but I have no problem buying a "Revolution"... so certainly hope that stores continue to recognize the previous name.

    • Re:The question now is... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by RyoShin (610051) <[moc.liamg] [ta] [orakut]> on Thursday April 27 2006, @11:42AM (#15213381) Homepage Journal
      This might be the best way to go.

      If we can keep the "Revolution" moniker alive and well in gaming circles and sites, and only refer to the "Wii" name when talking about the name itself, we might be able to convince Nintendo that this was a stupid fucking idea.

      Of course, names can be changed before actual release.

      Ultra 64, anyone?

      This still pisses me off, though. Even "Nintendo GO" was better than this.

  • This goes a long way... (Score:5, Funny)

    by gEvil (beta) (945888) on Thursday April 27 2006, @11:36AM (#15213310)
    This goes a long way to putting to rest all that crap about Nintendos only being made for kids...

  • Weeeeee! (Score:5, Funny)

    by spaztik (917859) on Thursday April 27 2006, @11:37AM (#15213321)
    The first thing I though of upon hearing this name was the Gonads and Strife [funnyjunk.com] flash animation.

  • also announced (Score:5, Funny)

    by rayde (738949) on Thursday April 27 2006, @11:42AM (#15213376) Homepage
    it will be released in 3 sizes to combat the 3 colors of PS3. these sizes are:

    Wii. Not so Wii. and FREAKIN HUGE.

  • "Touching is good...", "Wii-wii..." Oh My (Score:5, Funny)

    by AudioEfex (637163) on Thursday April 27 2006, @11:43AM (#15213385)
    Just like the marketing guy who coined the "Touching is good..." slogan for the NDS, the guy who came up with this and thought it was clever needs to be a bit more in-touch (pun intended) with American culture.

    Just like parents thought twice about buying a product for their child that kept telling you how good it was to "touch", it's going to be hard for self-respecting gamers to ask for a "Wii". And God-help us when the 16-year-old behind the counter at Wal-Mart explains to the nervous parents how the NDS will interface with the Wii, so the product with the catch-phrase "Touching is good" can be used to interface with your..."Wii."

    I love Nintendo, and I think the new console is going to rock - but naming it "Wii" is like naming your kid Richard when your last name is Head; you're just gimping them unnecessarily from the start.

    AE

  • Super, 64, DS (Score:5, Funny)

    by uberjoe (726765) on Thursday April 27 2006, @11:45AM (#15213415)
    So does this mean that all the games are going to be appended with Wii? Super Mario Wii, Zelda Wii, Metroid Wii? Or even worse Madden Wii? This has got to be the worst product name since the Kia Smegma.

  • I feel victimised (Score:5, Funny)

    by mccalli (323026) on Thursday April 27 2006, @11:48AM (#15213446) Homepage
    This year, my Powerbook become a MacBook Pro and now my likely console upgrade has turned into wee.

    Was it something I said?

    Cheers,
    Ian

  • They could call it the Nintendo crap bucket, doesn't matter. I'm still getting one so I can play all those old Nintendo games.

  • Nintendo Wtf? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Kenshin (43036) <kenshin@ l u n a r works.ca> on Thursday April 27 2006, @11:52AM (#15213497) Homepage
    I think "Nintendo Wtf" would have much more universal recognicion than "Nintendo Wii", because "Wtf" is what I think when I see that name.

    WTF?
  • This is actually great news. See, every time Nintendo does something with a console, there is always one really stupid thing about it. With the wii (did I just really write that?) its the name that means that we can simply keep calling it the Revolution and it won't suck.

    Kudos to Nintendo for getting their stupidity out of their sytem early, and in a manner which won't affect the machines performance.

  • All I can say is... (Score:4, Funny)

    by abes (82351) on Thursday April 27 2006, @12:05PM (#15213629) Homepage
    wii are not amused. It's going to cause all sorts of havoc asking for it.

    Me: Can I have a 'wii' please?
    Irish counter guy: A wee bit of what lad?
    Me: No, a wii. 'Wii you've heard of it, right?
    Irish guy: There'll be no sort of that behavior in this store sonny!

  • Hilarious (Score:4, Insightful)

    by realmolo (574068) on Thursday April 27 2006, @12:05PM (#15213632)
    Seriously, that's the dumbest product name EVER.

    I have a feeling that it's not going to last. In Japan, maybe "Wii" doesn't sound ridiculous, but in English-speaking countries, it sounds stupid. I'm sure Nintendo of America is having a nice long talk with Nintendo of Japan right now.

  • What about Japanese? (Score:5, Funny)

    by tktk (540564) on Thursday April 27 2006, @12:14PM (#15213733)
    Can someone fluent in Japanese tell me if Wii means something cool in the Japanese language?

    Please? I don't care if you have to lie.

    • Re:What about Japanese? (Score:5, Informative)

      by Valdrax (32670) on Thursday April 27 2006, @12:57PM (#15214267)
      The short answer is no.

      The longer answer is that Japanese obsoleted the "wi" sound many years ago, and the most common way of making similar sounds in loan words and sound effects is to use the two characters "u-i" instead. As there are no suriving Japanese words that start with "wi," unless there's some ancient meaning that only a classical language scholar would recognize, this is just nothing but a sound effect word, like "Wheee!"

      Oh. I just saw the bit about asking us to lie. Hmmm....

      Yes, "wii" is the way that nobles in the Sendai region used to say "ii" or "good." The use of ancient Sendai dialect evokes images of both the area's Tanabata festival and the legendary samurai Date Masamune. It is the spirit of big, brightly pastel colored floats and badass, one-eyed, moon-helmetted warlords that Nintendo seeks to evoke.

  • Obligatory Monty Python Joke (Score:5, Funny)

    by metal slime (825519) on Thursday April 27 2006, @12:23PM (#15213840)
    We are the systems that say "Wii!" Now I demand you bring me.....a mushroom!

  • Gollum (Score:5, Funny)

    by Stormwatch (703920) <rodrigogiraoNO@SPAMhotmail.com> on Thursday April 27 2006, @12:34PM (#15213991) Homepage
    Wii hates it, wii hates it, wii hates it for ever!

    • Re:April 1st was 26 days ago (Score:4, Insightful)

      by RogueyWon (735973) * on Thursday April 27 2006, @11:43AM (#15213390) Journal
      It's not an April 1st. Right now, the only explanation I can think of which casts Nintendo as anything other than a bunch of utter muppets is that this is the first half of some multi-staga announcement, in which it's revealed, once the initial furore has died down, that "Wii" is either an acronym for something less stupid, or the start of a longer name. For this reason, I'm holding back right now, for fear of being made to look stupid later.

      However, I've commented on Nintendo's decade-old talent for self-destruction before, so it's entirely plausible that this is, in fact, nothing more than a really good example of them shooting themselves square in the foot again.

      • Re:April 1st was 26 days ago (Score:5, Funny)

        by 88NoSoup4U88 (721233) on Thursday April 27 2006, @12:09PM (#15213674) Homepage
        I actually liked their explanation of chosing for Wii : The video [rewiredmind.com] also shows it quite well.

        Admittedly, Wii does sound strange (and alot like 'weeeeeeeeeeeeee' :) ), but it also has something that makes one wonder what this 'wee-thing you just talked about' is.

        Off record: If the Wii's can connect to eachother, would it be a 'wiiwii' ? And would I be in trouble if I told people I'm off playing with my friends and our WiiWii's ?

        *cough* I'm sorry.

      • decade-old talent for self-destruction

        ????

        I fail to see how nintendo can be talented at self-destruction if they've been doing it for a decade.

        I mean, I have no inherent abilities at self-destruction, but give me free reign at Nintendo & I'll run the company into the ground in less then a month.

      • Re:April 1st was 26 days ago (Score:5, Funny)

        by chris_eineke (634570) on Thursday April 27 2006, @12:25PM (#15213870) Homepage Journal
        I can think [..] that this is the first half of some multi-staga announcement
        Of course it is! Next month they're going to call it wii-wii, then pii-pii. Then they're going to call it an accident and rename it back to Revolution, because it takes a revolution to potty-train a gamer.

    • Re:And one Xbox to rule them all.... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by SScorpio (595836) on Thursday April 27 2006, @11:56AM (#15213533)
      The Playstation brand has been keeping Sony afloat for a few years now. Unless they really mess up the PS3 in some way expect it to be a success.

      Nintendo while not number one has been having constent profit, and has had one quarter in company history that was not profitable. This was causing by the extra investments and the USD taking a dive in value. But over 100 years of profit looks good.

      Microsoft while a rich company does not have limitless funding. Shareholders will eventually get upset with all the money being pissed away. While it remains to be seen what happens this generation, I'd be extremely suprised if Microsoft killed off both Sony and Nintendo. Hell it will be surprising if the Xbox360 turns a profit 1/2 through it's life cycle.

    • Re:No way (Score:5, Funny)

      by iapetus (24050) on Thursday April 27 2006, @12:18PM (#15213777) Homepage
      Perhaps the pronunciation will be regionalised. In Japan it will be pronounced 'Wee'. In most of Europe it will be pronounced 'Why'. In the US it will be pronounced 'Why? Dear Lord, Nintendo, why?' Only in Newcastle will it be pronounced 'Why-eye'.

    • Re:Oh no. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Guppy06 (410832) on Thursday April 27 2006, @12:27PM (#15213892) Journal
      I'd buy it even if it were called "OMG PONIES!"

      Seriously though, if your buy/don't buy decision revolves around the name of the console (as opposed to the games, or even just shiney specs), then you're not the target audience. You don't broaden the game-buying audience by being all 1337, you instead make it approachable by people who are currently put off by exactly that kind of attitude.

      If they were trying to be badass and edgy, they'd probably call it "Xbox" or something.

      Why are you looking for validation of your masculinity in your video game purchases to begin with?

      • Re:Okay, WTF (Score:4, Informative)

        by porcupine8 (816071) on Thursday April 27 2006, @02:36PM (#15215197) Journal
        Why the fuck even bother with that? You can get small-as-hell DVD players now for about $40 at your local Target

        Exactly. I've already got a DVD player, as do most people. Whether the $40 piece of crap from Target or some tricked-out multi-disc-loading thing that cost hundreds. So why would I want to pay extra when I buy a game system so it can play the DVDs that I've already got my DVD player for?? I *sort of* understood the allure of built-in DVD players a few years ago, when people were still in the process of switching from VCRs. But now, most people have one, and unless yours happens to conk out at the same time you've decided to buy a game system (or you watched them on your old console), why would you pay extra for one in your new console?

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