My theory on why Nintendo chose "WII"

[sims]

Nintendo has no desire to capture foreign markets. The focus for Nintendo is Japan. It explains alot of the reasons why Nintendo has been acting pretty weird lately. Weaker system, no hi-def, few third party exclusives, of course one of the topwig at Nintendo figure it's not going to do well in the USA market.

Xbox360 already has no chance in Japan, and Playstation3 looks like its going to reign another generation in the USA. Instead of competing in a losing battle with MS and SONY in USA, Nintendo decided to focus on one market where they still have an advantage, Japan. At least there they might tie or share the market with Sony.

The name might not make much sense to us Westerns but maybe it does in Japanese. Just as how the Xbox was aimed at the American market( it's name really show it) , WII will be aimed at the Japanese market and its name clearly show it.

[ShadowDancer]

Your theory for the name is pretty flawed considering no Japanese connection was tied to in developing the name at first.

From the big N:

"Wii sounds like 'we,' which emphasizes that the console is for everyone. Wii can easily be remembered by people around the world, no matter what language they speak. No confusion. No need to abbreviate. Just Wii."

Nintendo has repeatedly said that they're not trying to make a PC basically which Sony and Microsoft have done with operating systems in their "consoles" and what not... all they want is to make a console. This is why Nintendo's system is so inferior to them and they're betting on the controller plus the ability to play older retro games on the system as selling points.

And does it surprise you that there's barely any third party support? Have you been keeping up with Nintendo ever since the SNES? Third party support for their systems have been average to below average so it isn't anything new that there's no exclusive third party support.

I think you're also wrong in Nintendo just aiming for the Japanese market. It would be stupid in doing so because they have such a loyal following here and their brand name is recognize by the newer generation of gamers as well as the older Super Mario gamers. What they're trying to do with this system is bring NEW gamers into the market by having their controller being almost the center piece of it.

[Ultrninja]

i'm still gonna call it nintendo

[D.D.]

Originally Posted by Ultrninja

i'm still gonna call it nintendo

"Ultrninja"....

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[hushypushy]

your logic is also flawed in the fact that the Japanese can't pronounce "wii". it's not a real sound. the closest they can come is ウィ which sounds more like the french "oui", not the english "we". so i dont really think they'd make a system for a country that has (sort of) a tough time saying its name.

plus, shadowdancer pointed out their "official" explanation. "wii" is based on the english word "we". you think they'd base it off a japanese word if it was for japan, like how Famicom (Famikom) is short for Family Computer.

[BOBBIBOBBIBOBBI]

Originally Posted by hushypushy

ウィ

Now is that Phonetical word or is it an actual word in their language?

[ceramiclion]

I thinks sims is right, So what if Japanese pronouce Oui instead of Wii they will go out and buy it. This is totally aimed at japanese and hardcore fans only.

[hushypushy]

alright, it is a weaker system. are you trying to say that the Japanese easily cash in on the weakest system? im not sure what you're getting at. one of them has to weakest, right? they cant all be the most powerful.

as for no hi-def, who knows. it's not out yet, and nintendo may yet pull something out of their sleeve. and anyway, nintendo has always been late to the game (anyone remember how N64 still had cartridges?)

for few third party things, well, good. Nintendo's first party stuff is still amazing. just look at the third party crap that came out for Gamecube....not really that exciting?

i think nintendo is trying to show off what they can do on their own, or at least, with a close community.

and if they really were going for all Japan audience, why would they really bother marketing so much to the US and other countries?

[Cid Highwind]

@sims: Nice theory, next time you might wanna look up some actual info on their marketing strategies first before writing down whatever you think.

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[CKemu]

Why call it the 'Wii', everyone everywhere I go from comic strip sites, dev forums, even art forums have atleast 1 thread with many posts discussing the name change, you simply can't buy publicity like that, they just got themselves mass intrest in their console right before E3.

New name before E3 means by the time it comes around everyone has stopped with the stupid jokes and everyone can focus on the console and it's gaming power.

It's a bold move, and one that frankly after you make the first few round of jokes you have to be impressed by, after the xbox bringing the world of PC's to the console world, with shoddy games needing patches, BSODs, lockups, hardware failures and boring PCesque games for a PC in a different shapped box, it's a breath of fresh air.

IMO the Wii is going to be just like the GC, N64, SNES etc before hand, a world wide affair, and one people will love despite what at first seems like a daft name. As hushy said it's easier to pronounce in English than Japanese, and their cheesy little poem demonstrates they will be making it a global group hug of gamers, I have a suspicion that this could be another DS..

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[Carmofin]

I like the name, but my favorite theory is the one saying its all just a brilliant marketing hoax i read that theres not a single trademark on the name Wii, which would be kinda strange...
Anyhow, i like Wii because it has no immature "game" or "ultra" or "play" words in it, with revolution they got over the right message, but as a name for the console its just not good. after all, they are targeting a completely new group of people, they arent targeting immature gaming kids that talk about games on message boards, but normal people, that have never even considered to pick up video games. well, by e3 everyone will shut up about the name anyhow, i guess.

[Vanit]

Originally Posted by hushypushy

the closest they can come is ウィ which sounds more like the french "oui", not the english "we".

oui is Al-Bhed .

As for Wii; I think the mere idea of conversing about the word is a foolish waste of time devised by the heads of nintendo.

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[cyclonmaster]

Nintendo Wii. They try to be stupid with this revolution

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[Project Epsilon]

from an interview with NOA exec George Harrison news article

Harrison admits that the Revolution is targeted at the Japanese market first and foremost, where the video game industry has been in a steady decline for years

Nintendo is competing with sony and ms, they just act like they're not so if they don't move as many units, it doesn't look like they are loosing. They did this right after the GC launched and the others were selling more, and they were like, "well, we're not going against them, so in our console race, we're number one!" then when the dropped the price of the cube and it started to fly off the shelves, guess who starts comparing their sales numbers with sony and microsoft... you know... even though they're not going against them and stuff...

but as long as the wii, rev, whatever, does what they say it will do... then whats in a name.

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[hushypushy]

actually i agree with CK; it's free publicity. "omg did you hear about the wii??"

they shoulda just come out straight to us and called it the ****

[Coolsvilleman]

wii is unique, i'll give it that but it has no tangible basis like N64 or GC which were short from nintendo 64 and game cube which made sense for a gaming console. wii though dosen't seem to stand for anything though which I think is not very good for marketing, even though it does stand out.

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[ShadowDancer]

Originally Posted by Coolsvilleman

wii is unique, i'll give it that but it has no tangible basis like N64 or GC which were short from nintendo 64 and game cube which made sense for a gaming console. wii though dosen't seem to stand for anything though which I think is not very good for marketing, even though it does stand out.

How can it not be very good marketing if you said it does stand out? That's what they want it to do.

Names like Pepsi, Coca-Cola, and whatever stupid name you can use when putting letters together don't mean anything but they do stand out.

And do people here even call the Nintendo 64 and the Gamecube by GC and N64 outside the internet world? I know when I'm talking, I call the Gamecube... Gamecube not GC. I call the Dreamcast... Dreamcast not DC. I call the Super Nintendo... Super Nintendo.. SNES is just too much damn of a tongue twister as it is. Lazy people = acronyms especially in the English language when everything is abbreviated. Nintendo said Wii doesn't need to be abbreviated so more kudo points for them

"Wii sounds like 'we,' which emphasizes that the console is for everyone. Wii can easily be remembered by people around the world, no matter what language they speak. No confusion. No need to abbreviate. Just Wii."

[hushypushy]

yeah, that is pretty smooth. one syllable ftw!

[Paratech]

I've referred to my Gamecube as "the cube" or my "'Cube"

[Solid_Snake]

I still Refer to the PC since it can do more than them!! :P

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