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Nintendo May Retire Game Boy Name
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."
a part of my childhood just died.
Bite my shiny metal ass.
Every once in a while, it's nice to develop a totally new idea that doesn't leverage the same brand for eternity. It shows a willingness to innovate IMO.
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Why don't they just quietly stop advertising for the Game Boy product, stop it's production.
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.
Two years ago the Gameboy had a name recognition that the DS could only dream about. Fast Forward to now and the DS is projected to sell over 100 million in 2007 alone. It took 3 years for Nintendo to get to 75 million with the GBA&GBASP. Everyone who could possibly be interested in a handheld gaming system knows what a DS is.
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?
Let's call our DSs "GameBoys" in protest! (I do anyway by mistake, but now I have an excuse)
Your tongues can't repel flavor of that magnitude!
> We had to make a break even though we had one of the greatest trademarks in the history of the industry."
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 bad at coming up with trademark names, though I think the NES was a better trademark than Famicom, which sounded ridiculous.
i always thought the game boy name was corny
a part of my childhood just died.
are you sure the batteries just didn't run out?
Big apple, new Yorik, undig it, something's unrotting in Edenmark.
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.
..while I have loved the Game Boy and most of its successors since the original, I always thought the "Game Boy" name itself was -- how to put this diplomatically -- complete and total crap. I loved the machine and always had one shoved in a pocket throughout the early 1990s, but mine usually had a sticker or Dymo label or something stuck on over the name.
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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?
holy shit. peter moore resigned and he might be heading up EA sports. What the christ.
So it's very possible George Harrison was asked about the future of the Game Boy line, and GameDaily BIZ decided his answer was newsworthy in itself.
TFA says the transcript of the whole thing will be up later.
For today I have become a Game Man!
They spent decades building a successful and recognizable brand and they're just going to toss it in the trash.
Will they get rid of Mario and Zelda next? After all, they have Wii Sports and Brain Age now.
That's what a huge number of people I know refer to the Nitendo DS as. It was a VERY successful name. After all, the Game Boy Advance line has sold how many units at this point?
... hah yeah right. One of the least marketable names ever.
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
Gamecube -- certainly no better than Gameboy. It was referred to as the "GCN" for extra confusion.
And last but not least, the Wii.
Gameboy isn't that bad if you think about it.
Anyway, they'll probably bring back the Gameboy name for the next generation of handhelds. Though you never know, maybe it'll be called the Pii.
I like basketball!!1!
Yeah, the next gen portable console will be the small... or "wee" Wi! Nintendo will call it the WeeWi!
"Mom! Danny's playing with his WeeWi! I wanna watch!"
Makin' money, makin' friends, makin' whoopee and wearin' Depends
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.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
The most surprising part to me... is that the DS is NOT named the Gameboy DS. Until this very minute, I had no idea the DS wasn't a "Gameboy". I just always used the term "Gameboy DS" in common dialogue with people. To me, the Gameboy brand name is much stronger than anything else they want to call it... and any handheld by Nintendo will be a "Gameboy". I guess I'm a marketing director's worst nightmare.
(Score:5, Insightful)
- You know your Game Boy's reached adolescence when you don't have to play with it- it plays with itself non-stop.
- Ah, that explains what was wrong with the sound. For some reason it had developed a very impressive bass, but a few minutes later it went high-pitched and squeaky. After alternating the two for a while, it settled onto the deeper sound, but now it makes very little noise and won't respond at all.
- Eewww, I thought the white ooze coming out was glue or something.
Okay, the first one was good, the other two were crap, and it'll only get worse, so I'll stop there. I'll be here all week, please tip your waitress, etc etc"Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
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 recognizable than GCN (and AGB for the Game Boy Advance). PSP isn't so bad once you've already got PlayStation/PS2 established.
And let's not forget Xbox, and the real killer, Xbox 360.
Actually, the only really marketable console names I can think of/find are those made by Sega. Oh, here's a cool one...Phantom...oh, wait...
When it comes right down to it, very few consoles are named well. Or computers (even the ones not sold as a commodity). Or actually a lot of technology products.
"Everyone who could possibly be interested in a handheld gaming system knows what a DS is."
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.
Help poke pirates in the eyepatch, arr.
make it Game Kid or Game Person...
signature is pants
How about "Game Gender and Age Non-Specific-Homosapien"
Kind has a ring to it doesn't it? plus it take in to account the newly created Gamers that nintendo has been trying to target. It's win-win!