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Nintendo Trademarks Prompt Speculation

Posted by Zonk on from the what-are-they-up-to? dept.

An article being run by GamesIndustry.biz discusses a pair of recent Nintendo Trademarks. These trademarks would seem to indicate new product lines for the Big N, but exactly what the products would be remains up in the air. From the article: "On 7th December 2004, Nintendo registered 'Nintendo V-Pocket' by itself, while Nintendo and Pokémon series developer Game Freak jointly registered "PCGP" on the same day, according to reports."

13 of 25 comments (clear)

  1. Boy did I misread that! by moldar · · Score: 3, Funny
    Am I the only one that thought the title meant that Nintendo's new trademark was "Prompt Speculation?"

    I was trying to figure out what kind of game that would be!

    1. Re:Boy did I misread that! by numbski · · Score: 3, Funny

      I did too, except that would have been more like "Apple patents prompt speculation.", then suing the pants off of news sites every time someone speculates what they are up to too quickly.

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    2. Re:Boy did I misread that! by MyDixieWrecked · · Score: 3, Interesting

      yeah, me too. I think I missed FP because of my extended pondering...

      It would be an interesting thing if this V-Pocket was a pocket video-player. Something to compete against the iPod/PSP/etc stuffs.

      Maybe it's a VoIP appliance for the DS?

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    3. Re:Boy did I misread that! by Rob+T+Firefly · · Score: 1, Funny

      It would be a super happy joy time game of being a strong honorable businessman investing in the super-fast Tokyo stock market.

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    4. Re:Boy did I misread that! by KDR_11k · · Score: 1

      Many believe that V-Pocket is a name for the Play-Yan, an SD-card based mediaplayer for the GBA. So, yes, it's very likely a video/music player.

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    5. Re:Boy did I misread that! by Herbmaster · · Score: 1

      I'll do you one worse. I read "Prompt Speculation" as "Prompt Selection" and "trademarks" got brain-garbled into "patents", seeing as this is slashdot. I figured Nintendo had pattented the ability to select things at a prompt, and I thought of the 1 player / 2 player selection prompt from the original Super Mario Bros. Hm, I wonder if there's prior art.

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  2. V = 5 by ravyne · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Further speculation for the fan-boys: V- Roman numeral 5 1- Gameboy/Gameboy Pocket 2- Gameboy Color 3- Gameboy Advance 4- Nintendo DS 5- 5th gen Nintendo handheld w/ video capabilities. or... the alternate theory where Gameboy pocket is slot #2 and the DS falls into another catagory since Nintendo says its not a successor to the Gameboy line. Anyhow, Dance my fanboy monkeys! DANCE!

    1. Re:V = 5 by laard · · Score: 1

      If you're gonna count the gameboy, gameboy pocket, and gameboy color as separate generations, shouldn't you put gameboy advance SP between gameboy advance and Nintendo DS?

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    2. Re:V = 5 by Guppy06 · · Score: 1

      True Nintendo fanboys would point out you missed the Virtual Boy.

  3. Intense speculation by tod_miller · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Of course, the big N must have something up thier sleeve, they are acting fact on the threat of the PSP, which is using exactly the same 'later to market' tactics as the playstation.. everyone waited for the newer device, which caught the inside hub of innovation.

    The PSP will be very nice. I am not a gamer per se, but I will so be pwning one of these devices with some seriously sexy home brew apps.

    Unrelated, I admit, but check out the funniest engadget comment (The last one, long), I read it just now, and I think it is good to see 'weblogs inc' which really is pushing down signal/noise IMHO, getting some of thier own trolling.

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  4. Nintendo abusing the hype machine by SetupWeasel · · Score: 1

    Sony has made it a business practice to release details and specs about upcoming projects that have barely reached the drawing board.

    Nintendo sits back and says nothing.

    Sooner or later even IGN gets tired of hyping the latest theoretical specs for the PSP or the PS3, and they get bored, because they have nothing new to hype.

    Nintendo still says nothing (except maybe a codename... if you're lucky), but throws a couple of meaningless legal filings into the hype vacuum. There are no promises to break or face to lose. Yet everyone starts talking about them, fueled by an over-eager media trying to get hits and ad revenue.

    Is the PR game really this easy to play?

    1. Re:Nintendo abusing the hype machine by Ian_Bailey · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Well, Nintendo doesn't even throw this into the hype vaccuum. They are patenting ideas they have for names in advance of releasing them, so they can protect these names when the product is actually released.

      I don't know if you've heard these "trademark filing" stories before, but they are frequently junk names either discarded at the last minute or purposely filed to surpise competitors/the media.

      The fact that people are continously checking these trademark filing for "Nintendo" or "Sony" probably says more about the gaming media (and masses) more than the companies.

  5. More likely... by Demon-Xanth · · Score: 1

    "Pokemon Championship Grand Prix".

    Think a Mario Kart raking in the cash that Pokemon fans are spitting out.

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