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Developers React To 'Wii'
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"
It's a sports-type drink. Perfectly reasonable name for a drink, if you look at the context at which it is sold.
"Jesus saves, but everyone else in a 10 foot radius takes full damage from the fireball."
Given that the Revolution will lauch together with the PS3 after the 360 in what may be considered a crowded market. Crowded? Well yes, if you happen to own either of the handhelds then you might realize that gone are the days of the Gameboy and even the GBA and you know can truly enjoy gaming on these without needing the eyesight of a 10 year old to make out the screen.
That means plenty of competition. Offcourse if you are certain that you could tap a different market then your competition is aiming for then good luck.
But does this market even exist?
I would very much like to know how many gamecube owners own only that console (I thinkt that any person owning more then 1 game platform could be considered harcore).
We all know the DS sells by the bucketload. Hell I overpaid to get a Lite from Lik-sang instead of waiting till the end of the year.
BUT I am a hardcore game. The Revolution intrests me. I used to think that console games were stupid, limited, crippled (PC gamer) and I am right but the GBA thought me that sometimes this can be enjoyable. I no longer always want to play a System Shock or a Baldur's Gate. Well I want too but I can't because there are so few of them and the light bubbly Nintendo games pass the time.
Say the DS sold 10 million units. Just for arguments sake say that an astounding 50% were bought by non-gamers. Girls who loved Nintendogs and Peach Princess (me a sexist pig?). That leaves 50% NON-non-gamers.
Now how many of the non-gamers bought these devices on the advice of gamers?
Who helped these non-gamers setup the wireless access of the DS? Told them in fact that you need a wireless router or access point to use it?
Attempting to reach new markets means running the risk of alienating your existing markets.
What I think may come as a shock to Nintendo is that there is no such thing as a non-gamer who games. Either a person plays games or they do not. The moment you get a non-gamer to game they either turning into a gamer OR a never-again-gamer. The last is harldy a market you want to enlarge.
The name itself is not important. What matters is if this is going to be the entire style of the launch. If all the games are going to be Wii too then I would very much like to congratulate Sony and MS on winning 1st and 2nd prize in this round of the console wars.
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You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Personally, I think Wii is a brilliant name.
Think about it...
It's the sound the execs at Nintendo make when they go down their slides that land into their boardroom chairs.
It's the sound EVERYONE (if you don't, you're not American) makes going down a slide...
We just spell it differently.
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I don't know about the GP, but I'm definitely not a "hardcore gamer". I typically buy 4-5 games a year, and I consider the SNES controller to be pushing the limit of 'too many buttons'.
Now that I've established my credentials as "not a hardcore gamer", let me say: "Wii" is a horrible name for a product targeted at the American English-speaking demographic.
"They redundantly repeated themselves over and over again incessantly without end ad infinitum" -- ibid.
First... the word revolution is nearly impossible to pronounce by the Japanese. That means Nintendo (a Japanese company) would have to deal with that either by forcing Japanese people to pronounce 'Ls' or by significantly changing the name. Of course, that's not unheard of. But the word Wii is pronounceable pretty much by anyone. Second... the word 'Ii' is one way to say yes in Japanese. Third... this stays exactly in line with the "revolution" name by being a revolution unto itself. Game systems (especially recently) have had more aggressive, more game system sound-ish names. Xbox, playstation, genesis, saturn, dreamcast. Wii is totally different. Wii sounds like nothing you've heard of... one of the ideas behind the revolution itself. Fourth... does anyone else remeber way back when what people said about the name "Nintendo." I do. I think it was something to the extent of: "what the hell is that?" Well, here Nintendo goes again. And I for one like it
Not like XBox that means... well... a box... with an X... eeehhh...
Don't expect a bunch of high concept fantasy rpg's and gory blood drenched FPS's on this one
Which is exactly why the first game which was officially presented is a gory blood drenched FPS, made by Ubisoft, a 3rd party developer. The game is called Red Steel.
While some other games introduced include a new Madden game, a game called "Sadness" in black&white and well the standard Nintendo games (mario, zelda, metroid...)
I'd say that's pretty Wii-ked
^_^
If she thought it was a bad name you told her about it wrong. I told my girlfriend that it was named Wii - and quickly added "as in wheeeeee!" --- she thought the name was awesome.
Simply put, the fact that the most exciting and innovative game system in the last 20 years is not targeted at hardcore gamers is a slap in the face to a subculture that takes itself far too seriously. However, since it is the most exciting and innovative system in the last 20 years any hardcore gamer without it has outed himself as something of a fanboy and/or hypocrite. Catch-22, baby!
...and any native speaker of American English could have told the big N that this name was begging for abuse.
Sometimes even the native English speakers don't get it.
When I was in high school, the school district I lived in (Indian Prairie School District in the Chicago suburbs) was building a new high school. When it came time to name it, the name the school board came up with, and were in near-unanimous agreement on, was "Indian Prairie High School." It took one of the board member's kids to start laughing when their parents told them what the name would be for the name to even be questioned. Even then, some of the board members didn't get it, and it had to be explained. ("I. P. High? No, I pee low.")
My point is that sometimes the people in charge of naming things have lost their sense of "fourth grade toilet humor", and even when confronted with the jokes and puns will still not get it. These people need to have someone (like a son or daughter) to run things past before final decisions are made, especially for products that will be used primarily by people under the age of 21, which is Nintendo's primary market.
That being said, even without the obvious puns inherent in "Wii", it sounds far too overmarketed to me. The name of a console shouldn't have ten layers of meaning, as the marketers were trying to accomplish ("You get it? Wii sounds like "we", which means group, and the two "i"s together look like two people gaming together, and the dots are like the controllers, and the "W" stands for upended mountains, or maybe a big saw or something, but the people are next to it having fun, not under it getting crushed, and that means collaboration and team play, and..."). Names should evoke a certain sense of the object they represent, be easy to pronounce and spell, and sound good next to the name of the company. Nothing more.
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But if Nintendo were in the headlines because they named their console "The Nintendo Pedophile" it wouldn't be good publicity. They'd certainly be in the headlines, though.
Now, granted, this name change isn't as bad as that, and it's even beginning to grow on me (I'll never *like* it, but I've come to accept it), but who knows whether it's a good thing or not? A lot of the articles I saw about the name change mentioned the puerile jokes being made on game sites. Now maybe that won't affect anyone's opinion, but I don't think it's obvious that it's a good thing. Society sometimes looks to early adopters and the enthusiasts to make their decisions, and if that crowd is too busy making fun of the name, it could scare some people off the product.
I took hope from a Joystiq column where they asked non-gamers about the name - only one of them associated it with anything like urine, and that was obliquely (she thought it sounded like the name of a chic toilet). So either gamers are collectively less mature, more willing to speak their mind, or good at taking memes and running with them until every last shred of humor has been drained (in Soviet Russia, jokes drain *you* of humor).
Anyway, of course I'm still looking forward to the console, I still plan on buying one, but I hope that Nintendo knows what the hell they're doing.
I yearn for you tragically. A. T. Tappman, Chaplain, U.S. Army.