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Nintendo Revolution Renamed 'Wii'
Posted by
Zonk
on Thu Apr 27, 2006 11:24 AM
from the weeeeeeeeeeee dept.
from the weeeeeeeeeeee dept.
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 ..."
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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"
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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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Nintendo Revolution Renamed 'Wii'
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WTF8 (Score:5, Funny)
(http://ignosaurus.imeem.com/)
To quote Irwin Mahatma Fletcher: I R pissed.
Re:Why wii? Confusion with Wifi? (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://fbjon.deviantart.com/gallery/ | Last Journal: Saturday May 21 2005, @09:56AM)
Re:Why wii? Confusion with Wifi? (Score:4, Funny)
(http://www.hylobatidae.org/minerva/)
Why-aye, pet! Nintendo's a canny bastard fer choosing a name like that. Te can always tell when a Geordie's left the toon and got a job somewhere proper, aye!
Re:Why wii? Confusion with Wifi? (Score:5, Funny)
(http://cpgblogger.blogspot.com/)
Re:Why wii? Confusion with Wifi? (Score:5, Funny)
(http://www.federated.com/~jim)
Yes, I know it's too late in the thread for anyone to read this, but it needed saying.
N Wii (Score:5, Funny)
(http://slashdot.org/ | Last Journal: Saturday February 05 2005, @03:50AM)
Re:N Wii (Score:5, Insightful)
Ennui (ennui): Listlessness and dissatisfaction resulting from lack of interest; boredom: "The servants relieved their ennui with gambling and gossip about their masters" (John Barth).
Hmmmmmm.
Re:WTF8 (Score:5, Funny)
Re:WTF8 (Score:5, Funny)
Re:April 1st was 26 days ago (Score:4, Insightful)
(Last Journal: Tuesday February 20 2007, @08:36AM)
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)
(http://www.nosoup.net/)
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.
Re:April 1st was 26 days ago (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://whineymacfanboy.googlepages.com/ | Last Journal: Thursday April 12 2007, @09:28AM)
????
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)
(http://www.chriseineke.com/ | Last Journal: Friday January 06 2006, @04:23PM)
Gonads and strife... SHUT UP! (Score:5, Funny)
(http://myatomic.com/ | Last Journal: Sunday November 19 2006, @12:31AM)
Is it pronounced Yo mutha fucka weeee! [albinoblacksheep.com] or Wheee! (nyeh nyeh nyeh) [youtube.com]?
First Pun! (Score:5, Funny)
(http://picknit.com/ | Last Journal: Saturday July 29 2006, @03:58PM)
As overheard at the retail counter+prank calls... (Score:5, Funny)
(Last Journal: Tuesday August 28, @07:41PM)
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)
(http://www.ministry-of-fun.com/)
The same fucktards that want to make pirating games difficult without breaking the game or your system.
Re:First Pun! (Score:5, Funny)
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)
(http://zerothink.blogspot.com/)
Re:Oh Good Lord (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.jonaskaplan.com/ | Last Journal: Friday April 09 2004, @03:10AM)
Seems to me one of the problems with this name is that it's not immediately clear how to pronounce it from the way it is written.
Re:Oh Good Lord (Score:5, Funny)
(http://www.cowlark.com/ | Last Journal: Friday March 18 2005, @05:12AM)
I can visualise the Penny Arcade strip already...
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2005/05/27 [penny-arcade.com]
Let them know what you think! (Score:5, Informative)
Give them some negetive feedback, maybe, just maybe, we wont be able to get revolution back, but Maybe they will try to get another.. less absolutely horid name.
(hell, we got farscape back on the air)
Terrible (Score:5, Interesting)
(Last Journal: Friday June 20 2003, @02:15PM)
Maybe it's just mii though...
Re:Terrible (Score:5, Insightful)
(Last Journal: Monday November 12, @02:31PM)
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...
Re:Oh no. (Score:5, Insightful)
(Last Journal: Saturday October 27, @04:36PM)
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)
(Last Journal: Monday November 07 2005, @10:05AM)
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?
Re:So does someone in marketing need to be shot? (Score:4, Informative)
(http://qmt.ath.cx/)