Wii R Not Ready...

So, the Nintendo Revolution is now known as the "Wii" (pronounced we) and I'm really not sure what to think about it. On one side, I think it might be ok and feel it isn't much stranger than Dreamcast or Xbox, but on the other side I have a feeling that the new name won't ever become normal-sounding. Nintendo keeps saying that people will get used to it... But I don't think they will. Six years from now when Nintendo reveals the "Nintendo Doohicky", people are still going to feel a little strange when they say, "You wanna come over to my place to play Wii?" It's just too short and similar to a word everyone uses on a normal basis in a somewhat completely different context.



Now, don't get me wrong. I'll still be getting a Wii in my feeble effort to cling to some form of hardware innovation, but I'm going to avoid saying its name as much as possible to people who aren't that familiar with this industry. It's just too embarrassing. Also, the new name seems to do exactly the opposite of what Nintendo has been trying to do... shed a kiddy image. I don't care how sexy a piece of hardware is. If it's called something like Wii then it looses quite a bit of its sex appeal. The same thing would happen if Sony decided to call the PS3 the Sony Wedgie.

I'm sure that in all its greatness and desire for something new, Nintendo feels its has a winner of a name... But I think that strong desire to be different for just the sake of it might have cost them a name that truly spoke to people of all ages and gaming experience. There's a reason that Sony and Microsoft carry forth their perspective console names from generation to generation. They are building brand loyalty in the hardware... not just the games. Nintendo, on the other hand, keeps pushing the emphasis on the company name and not the hardware itself. Which is better? I guess it just matters what you are interested in selling the most of.