Nintendo May Retire Game Boy Name 93
GameDaily is reporting on commentary from Nintendo of America's George Harrison, who essentially says the company will no longer be using the Game Boy brand. While at one point the DS was the 'third pillar' along with the Game Boy and the GameCube/Wii, the handheld has in recent years more than proven its worth. "This year in our marketing you really won't see much push against Game Boy itself, so it will kind of seek its own level. It's hard to say in the future if we will ever bring back the Game Boy trademark. It was a big risk for us to actually pass on it and call the new product the Nintendo DS, but it was part of Mr. Iwata's philosophy that if we're going to make a radical difference and try to reach a new audience, then we have to change the name ... We had to make a break even though we had one of the greatest trademarks in the history of the industry."
with this (Score:3, Insightful)
you sure? (Score:5, Funny)
are you sure the batteries just didn't run out?
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That is because you are crazy. [youtube.com]
Re:with this (Score:5, Funny)
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I was thinking Pocket Dude... but Game Man works.
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Embrace change, for without it you wouldn't be able to slice up time into periods such as "childhood" or anything else.
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A change is nice once in a while (Score:5, Insightful)
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However, it's Nintendo. Mostly likely the name "Gameboy" is being dropped because it's perceived to limit the console's appeal to girls and adults. They'll choose some new name doesn't include the word boy, I expect they're going to try to follow up on the Wii's runaway su
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nearlygod
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Granted, Sony hasn't made consoles for as long as Nintendo, so who knows.
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Make that 8 Nintendo consoles/add-ons with Gameboy in the name.
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can't remember the source tho
Re:A change is nice once in a while (Score:5, Insightful)
Personally, I wouldn't want to see the name associated with the DS anyway (as some have suggested and/or hinted that Nintendo would do). The DS really did take things in a new direction, and I've always associated the Game Boy with children and early-teens. The original DS's childish appearance (and possibly the child-associated legacy of Nintendo's name) slightly turned me off the thing. It wasn't until the Lite came out that I saw the ligh... um, sense
Nintendo have stated that they don't intend using it again anyway. [modojo.com]
(*) That's "adult" as in games adults of all ages would play- Kawashima, Big Brain, 42 All Time Classics (AKA Clubhouse games). Not as in "lots of soft porn to get 14 year olds' attention".
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When I bought my DS while overseas in Japan, my japanese friends were impressed with my "Gameboy DS". I've seen my fair share of mothers referring to their child's DS as their "Gameboy", and also a number of store clerks called it the "New Gameboy" when it first appeared on shelves.
Maybe the next iteration will leave behind the name, but much like how many parents called the Sega Genesis the "Ninte
Why do they need to make a statement out of it? (Score:1)
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How do I know this? A game news site's story. I can't find the one right now, since we just had a ton of pointless 'news' stories about E3, 95% of which were duplicates, even on the same site.
GB finally laid to rest (Score:3, Insightful)
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Gonna be sad to see the GB name go but it's not like the idea behind Gameboy games is gone. Cheap, fun, portable, reliable - all principles the Gameboy pionered and the DS continues.
Yeah, but you can definitely understand why they're dropping it. The DS could actually be quite a capable "smart-device" if Nintendo wanted to market it that way. After all, it already has wi-fi built in, plus chat, mail, etc. I don't know if they have it or not, but if the DS includes an address book and a few other things (calendar, graphing calculator, memo pad), it would actually make a killer replacement for a PDA. The only problem getting exec types to use it with the "GameBoy" moniker on it.
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The DS does not have the "GameBoy" moniker on it. It's called the Nintendo DS. When it was released, Nintendo specifically said it was not part of the Game Boy product line. It's not a Game Boy. No one calls it a Game Boy, well, except you apparently.
I'm well aware of the fact that it doesn't have the "GameBoy" moniker on it. What I'm referring to is any future releases of DS type consoles with more PDA capabilities. What I was saying is they should avoid using the "GameBoy" moniker on those if they wish to sell them to a more mature crowd. No one was confused by what I was trying to say, well, except you apparently.
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Many of those PDA-like functions can be accomplished through the use of DS homebrew. There's NDSMail [bronto-online.de] for email (though the lack of SSL limits its usabil
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Its does not matter anymore (Score:3, Interesting)
It will still be sad for those of us who have been gameboy fans from the greyscale years to the GBA. I am curious about Iwata's comments when the DS launched that the DS was not a replacement for the Gameboy and that a new gameboy would come eventually, has that tech been scrapped or just rolled into the next version of the DS. Concidering the DS has backwards compatability his comments never made sense to me anyway, but he went out of his way at the time to say that the GBA was a separate product line. Perhaps it was simply so the GBASP would continue to sell?
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My guess is that the DS was originally conce
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Then a few months ago, I met some guys that organized nintendo-themed meetings. They lent me a DS, and I tried a few games for a few minutes.. and I was in love.
Now I got my own DS Lite, and man, those are the best 200 bucks I've spent (yes it's that expensive here, sadly).
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Who would have thought that Nintendo would have won the mobile game and home gaming wars with the two least powerful options. (The DS vs PSP, and Wii vs Xbox, PS3) I mean, we have all been saying that most people don't really need the powerful processors produced today, except for the latest games, and now it seems they don't even need them for that!
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You're not thinking like Nintendo (Score:2)
Nintendo begs to differ. Just because you may have given up on getting grandma to play one doesn't mean they have. And, scarily, after seeing my mother get hooked on Wii bowling I think they might have a decent chance at pulling it off.
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I'm
let's protest! (Score:2, Funny)
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"greatest trademarks"? (Score:1)
You know, as successful as the Game Boy was, I can't suspect it would have been taken more seriously by a wider segment of the target audience had it been called something a little less silly-sounding than "Game Boy". Does this only come off as juvenile and silly in English-speaking markets, or does it seem that way in other markets, too? Or perhaps it's just me? Nintendo seems to me to be pretty
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And Sony did the same thing, Workstation -> Playstation.
It was a decent name.
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You know, as successful as the Game Boy was, I can't suspect it would have been taken more seriously by a wider segment of the target audience had it been called something a little less silly-sounding than "Game Boy".
Thing is, after a while you don't notice silly names. You don't notice the name at all, in fact. Does anyone stop and think "The Beatles- what a lame pun and cheesy parody of 'The Crickets'"? No. The Beatles are the band.
That having been said, it's possible the name "Game Boy" helped shunt the console towards the child/early-adolescent market before people had got used to its name, and when time had passed, it was already associated with those users.
I don't know if "Game Boy" is strictly speaking Wasei [wikipedia.org]
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-uso.
good (Score:2)
Probably returning with the next generation... (Score:2)
Since DS isn't a name that seems likely to be passed to the next generation Nintendo handheld device (which will most likely have some sort of other new feature differentiating it), I'd give it at least a 50/50 that Nintendo will bring the Game Boy moniker for the next generation handheld. I don't think most people at the moment even realize the Nintendo DS isn't named the Nintendo Game Boy DS. The brand is there in one's mind even if Nintendo isn't actually using it.
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I know perfectly well it's not called the Game Boy DS, and I've called it that. Wired too deep into my brain now, I think...
Then again, I've heard the PSP called a Game Boy too. Ouch.
Re:There comes a time... (Score:5, Funny)
To be honest.. (Score:2)
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Fortunately, Nintendo have got better at naming games systems since those days. Yep. Nobody can accuse Nintendo of coming up with crap names these days. Not at all.
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Use the GB name (Score:1)
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What's stopping them from using "GameBoy" on their next handheld? They don't have to call it the DS 2, do they?
They expanded the audience with the DS; the Game Boy name, aside from any lingering cheesiness, is still something people associate with a kids' console.
I'm one of the people who bought a DS- due to the interesting games- who would never have bought a Game Boy. Personally, having the Game Boy name associated with a console would probably put me off; prejudiced maybe, but unfortunately true.
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They should have just kept the name as 'Atari DS'. Change is bad.
Game Boy DS (Score:2)
And people bashing the "Game Boy" name... are you guys serious? It's the only non-ridiculous name Nintendo has come up with ever!
NES, SNES = don't count as "names" IMO. same goes for Famicom (family computer).
Virtual Boy -- not a bad name but a TERRIBLE idea so whatever.
N64
G
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N64 was a marketing success (Score:1)
I am not an analyst, but as far as I know the N64 was a very strong brand, especially the "N" logo. (You know, the nifty 3D thing made up of four Ns.)
"Game Boy" makes no sense to me as the device is not a boy, the player is. And today, it's "the player was." Because sexism (intentional or perceived) just doesn't sell anymore. (Although I remember a few boxes with "Boy" crossed out and "Girl" written in, for the "girliest" games.)
PlayStation (or 2, or 3) wasn't much more inherently marketable, if more re
Gameboy is nice (Score:2)
I think for the casual gamer, Nintendo has an awesome product, and salute them for taking the risk of creating a new franchise. One of the biggest problem I see in any industry is trying to support new products on the back of old success rather than trying to create a self supporting new product.
Weird... (Score:1)
Re:Weird... (Score:5, Interesting)
However, quickly (especially after the DS light, but even at launch or almost), normal games that would normally have found themselves on gameboy ended up on the DS, and the DS ate up all the gameboy's market, on top of its own incredible one. Thus Nintendo changed their mind about keeping the gameboy around (they talked about it quite a while ago actually). In other words, the first company to "defeat" the GB, has been Nintendo. Kind of amusing.
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I'm surprised nobody EVER corrected you. You must have friends that want you to look dumb in front of others.