Nintendo's Miyamoto has officially become a space cadet

[Trauma-san]

I love the way this guy thinks.  He's so old school he should already be dead.  He's not even functioning on the same plane all us mere humans are, this guy is miles above us.  Anyways.

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Revolution renamed Wii
[UPDATE 5] Nintendo announces the console formerly known as the Revolution has a new--and surprising--moniker. Analysts' reactions are mixed.

In a surprise announcement this morning, Nintendo revealed the new name of its forthcoming game system: Wii. "As in 'we'," the official statement adds. For the official announcement, visit the Revolution...err...Wii Web site.


After a brief Flash introduction, the site explains Nintendo's move. "While the code-name 'Revolution' expressed our direction, Wii represents the answer. Wii will break down that wall that separates game players from everybody else. Wii will put people more in touch with their games...and each other."

The site goes on to say that Wii should be easy to remember for people around the world, no matter their language, and that it will avoid abbreviation. The "ii" spelling is intended to represent "both the unique controllers and the image of people gathering to play." It may also be worth noting that "ii" means "good" in Japanese.

Nintendo sums up the name change with the following comments. "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."

Game-industry analysts were swift with their responses. "Looks like a good solid name for Nintendo," said an optimistic Michael Gartenberg, vice president and research director of Jupiter Research. "The key is making sure they follow up with a strong launch campaign to evangelize the new brand and help drive the message forward."

Michael Goodman, senior analyst of media and entertainment strategies at The Yankee Group, believes the name change is a mistake. "I thought Revolution had much more meaning," he told GameSpot. "It was an apt description for the console. It was a revolutionary design ... the controller is pretty revolutionary. Wii just doesn't do it for me. How do we even pronounce this? WEEE? I'm not sure this is technically a word. What is a WEE, W-I-I? You're building everything from scratch in terms of awareness and in terms of building a brand. Verses Xbox 360--you're taking the core Xbox brand and leveraging it to a new product. With PlayStation 3, it still has all those great attributes of the PlayStation."

Wedbush Morgan Securities' Michael Pachter was more mixed in his assessment. "My initial reaction, of course, is that the name is dumb," he bluntly stated. "However, upon reflection, I thought that the name Game Boy was dumb, REALLY thought that the name Xbox was dumb, and can't even recall my reaction to PlayStation. Let's face it, devices with cool names like Dreamcast and Gizmondo fail, and the lame names seem to do well."

Colin Sebastian, Lazard Capital Markets' senior research analyst for Internet and interactive entertainment, displayed Vulcan-like logic responding to the Wii revelation. "The success of the console will have much more to do with the quality of the games and the gameplay," he said. "Nintendo probably believes they've found a name that can stick with consumers. Revolution was catchy, but given similarities with the Xbox 360 name, perhaps Nintendo felt they had to make a change."

However, Nintendo is confident that, after the initial shock wears off, people will take to the Wii name. "The other systems have an extension of their current names--ours is a new leap to something different," Nintendo of America vice president Perrin Kaplan told CNN/Money. A rep for the company echoed similar sentiments, assuring GameSpot that "the name will grow on you."

http://revolution.nintendo.com

[Black_Smoke]

so its called "wii" and is pernounced like "we",i duno i liked the name revolution more,but the name doesnt mean shit its all about the system itself and the software

[Woodrow]

Wiitarded name.

I'm still gonna buy it tho.

[Trauma-san]

My personal opinion is that the name will catch on, and the system will be huge.  I'm not always right, though.  Just last month I was wrong about something, it's all documented on another of the threads. 

[Black_Smoke]

so just to get a clearer picture,its pronounced "Nintendo we" but spelt "nintendo wii",correct?

[I Am The Anton]

Do you want to play with my Wii!?

[Javier]

Do you want to play with my Wii!?

Wii Wii

[africas seed]

i duno i liked the name revolution more,but the name doesnt mean shit its all about the system itself and the software

[jeromechickenbone]

Pretty interesting.  But he does have a point - people are lazy, and speak as lazily as possible.  Its not Playstation2, its PS2.  When me and my friends talk about the Xbox 360, we simply refer to it as the 360.  So with Wii, you need no abbrev, and would cross language barriers seamlessly.  Plus I think its a cool concept - Wii or "We" as in everybody together. 

Nintendo has been in the biz the longest, so I def wouldn't bet against them.  I'm getting more and more interested about the new system.

[Trauma-san]

This is the type of things genius is made of, I'm serious.  total disregard for what's conventional or what others are doing, and doing things that at first sound like the absolute most stupid thing in the world.  It's only been a few hours, and the name has already grown on me.  I mean, come on.

"Ipod".  What the fuck is that?

"Google".  What the fuck is that?

"Ebay".  What the fuck is that?

"Xbox" What the fuck is that?

"Nintendo".  What the fuck is that?

"MP3" What the fuck is that?

Get the picture?  Nearly every single one of the hugely successful technological breakthroughs of the modern era have strange-ass names.  I'm not saying the Wii is a technological breakthrough or anything, but an interesting, even strange sounding name isn't always a hinderance, sometimes it's the extra factor that helps blow something up even bigger than it already is.

All the newsboards on the gamesites are all abuzz, everybody thinks the name is stupid.  We'll see in a year when the system has been out a while. 

[Sikotic™]

The name is crap. I can see how they would turn it into a huge ad campaign though.

[Javier]

The name can't hurt the sales, but it can definitely end up being positive for them.  You already have the Nintendo fans and video game freaks ready to buy, so now with the name change it might spark an interest in the curious minds of many people. 

[HD]

Nintendo > All.

[Danté Williams]

Ooh wii!

[MANBEARPIG.]

Wii its ok but I'm probably gonna call it Revolution, just because I got accustomed to it and Im afraid of change a little more than a week till E3 where we leanr final pricing release dates and all that other good shit.