Nintendo UK Defends the Wii

GamesIndustry.biz is running a story defending the Wii from across the pond. Nintendo's UK boss David Yarnton has nothing but good words for the new name for the Revolution. From the article: "It's like any new name ... it takes a while to get established. I think that you'll find that in not even six months, in a short period of time, people will accept it; they won't be referring to Revolution or next-generation, it'll just be Wii."

Comments

All I want

[ShadowsHawk]

is to be able to try it out with my own two hands. I really don't care what it's called as long as it works and has great games.

People will get used to it..

[new_breed]

..OVer here in Holland, they started a new channel called 'Yorin'. First, everybody was laughing and calling it 'urine', but that joke soon got old, and now it's just another channel on TV. And I'm sure all these foaming-mouth discussions concerning Wii will die away in time as well.

Re:People will get used to it..

[gEvil (beta)]

Unfortunately, that's just the way it seems that marketing works. After a short while, a name is just a name, and doesn't elicit any reaction. However, if you can create an initial buzz around something by giving it a noticable name, then you've done a good job. It doesn't matter how stupid the name is. Eventually everyone just gets used to it...

yesman

[lambent]

Of course the head of Nintendo UK would say that. What else is he capable of even saying?

"Well, frankly, I do in fact think the name sucks. They got their heads up their asses in marketing."

No way.

Re:yesman

[Meagermanx]

That's what I was thinking, too. A real news headline would be something like "Nintendo UK Speaks Out Against the Name 'Wii'"

Speaking of words....

[Mard]

...this guy sure used a lot of them, and managed to say nothing at all. I can't decide if the article was fluff because of the subject hoping to speak big from a small position, or if the people writing the article wishing they had some scoop, but working with their nothing instead.

We've already begun calling it a "Wii" amongst my very excited friends, none of which could be considered Nintendo fanboys. The name doesn't matter, the Wii will be big, and this next round of Sony vs Nintendo may be the most exciting yet for us consumers. We'll get the best of both worlds: great and innovative gameplay from Nintendo, and stunning graphics with revolutionary technology from Sony. This is the first time that I'll be purchasing both next-gen systems upon release, regardless of what they're called.

Re:Brits like it?

[squiggleslash]

The fact that brits like the name is just one more strike against it. Don't they eat something called spotted dick? And yea, I learn all my international culture from John Goodman flicks.

Well, yeah, Brits do. On the other hand, Americans buy furnature from a chain called "Badcock", and "Gaylord" is considered a reasonable name for a maker of packaging materials.

Normally this would be some nationality bashing thing, but actually I think it proves the point: Wii is fine. Given only one of its meanings is the one people are taking the...erm, wii, out of, and that in practice, you're more likely to hear the phoneme used to describe "A group of us" than "Urine", I'm still baffled about the hysterical reaction to it.

Still, if it does end up being a marketing disaster, it'll not be the first.

Effects of names always wear off

[Peter Cooper]

They're right. I remember hordes of people saying "Vista" was a stupid name for the next Microsoft OS, and I thought it was pretty stupid too, but now it doesn't seem out of the ordinary. What about "Virgin"? Pretty funny the first few times you hear it, but it soon takes on a life of its own.

HAVE YOU NOT BEEN ONLINE???

[246o1]

That joke was not even funny the first time I read it on /. or wherever, and it certainly isn't now, about 187,282 times later. PLEASE STOP, people with good karma posting this crap is going to make me have to start browsing at +3.