E3 06: Revolution renamed Wii

  • By Staff, GameSpot
  • Posted Apr 27, 2006 9:14 am PT

[UPDATE 6] Nintendo announces the console formerly known as the Revolution has a new--and surprising--moniker. Analysts' reactions are mixed.

In a surprise announcement this morning, Nintendo revealed the new name of its forthcoming game system: Wii. "As in 'we'," the official statement adds. For the official announcement, visit the Revolution...err...Wii Web site.

Nintendo Wii

Behold! The Revolution renamed!

After a brief Flash introduction, the site explains Nintendo's move. "While the code-name 'Revolution' expressed our direction, Wii represents the answer. Wii will break down that wall that separates game players from everybody else. Wii will put people more in touch with their games...and each other."

The site goes on to say that Wii should be easy to remember for people around the world, no matter their language, and that it will avoid abbreviation. The "ii" spelling is intended to represent "both the unique controllers and the image of people gathering to play." It may also be worth noting that "ii" means "good" in Japanese.

Nintendo sums up the name change with the following comments. "So that's Wii. But now Nintendo needs you. Because, it's really not about you or me. It's about Wii. And together, Wii will change everything."

Game-industry analysts were swift with their responses. "Looks like a good solid name for Nintendo," said an optimistic Michael Gartenberg, vice president and research director of Jupiter Research. "The key is making sure they follow up with a strong launch campaign to evangelize the new brand and help drive the message forward."

Michael Goodman, senior analyst of media and entertainment strategies at The Yankee Group, believes the name change is a mistake. "I thought Revolution had much more meaning," he told GameSpot. "It was an apt description for the console. It was a revolutionary design ... the controller is pretty revolutionary. Wii just doesn’t do it for me. How do we even pronounce this? WEEE? I'm not sure this is technically a word. What is a WEE, W-I-I?"

But it's more than the name that bothers Goodman, who went on to state that Nintendo has made it tougher than it had to for itself with the new name: "You're building everything from scratch in terms of awareness and in terms of building a brand. Verses Xbox 360--you're taking the core Xbox brand and leveraging it to a new product. With PlayStation 3, it still has all those great attributes of the PlayStation."

Wedbush Morgan Securities' Michael Pachter was more mixed in his assessment. "My initial reaction, of course, is that the name is dumb," he bluntly stated. "However, upon reflection, I thought that the name Game Boy was dumb, REALLY thought that the name Xbox was dumb, and can't even recall my reaction to PlayStation. Let's face it, devices with cool names like Dreamcast and Gizmondo fail, and the lame names seem to do well."

Colin Sebastian, Lazard Capital Markets' senior research analyst for Internet and interactive entertainment, displayed Vulcan-like logic responding to the Wii revelation. "The success of the console will have much more to do with the quality of the games and the gameplay," he said. "Nintendo probably believes they've found a name that can stick with consumers. Revolution was catchy, but given similarities with the Xbox 360 name, perhaps Nintendo felt they had to make a change."

One industry analyst who spoke in the condition of anonymity said flat out the choice was wrong, for a number of reasons. "It's a sound that doesn't exist in Japanese, so Japanese people will struggle to pronounce it."

Acknowledging that Nintendo has had code names for their consoles before--Dolphin became the GameCube, for instance. But this time, the analyst said, "Nintendo let the code name gain a little too much currency: people were used to it, and it was widely accepted as the console's name."

"Now they have a stupid-sounding manufactured name that probably wouldn't have tested well with English speakers if they'd bothered doing any market research," the analyst said. "And they're going to try to use it to replace an evocative, well-accepted name that people have been using for well over a year. Bad, stupid move."

However, Nintendo is confident that, after the initial shock wears off, people will take to the Wii name. "The other systems have an extension of their current names--ours is a new leap to something different," Nintendo of America vice president Perrin Kaplan told CNN/Money. A rep for the company echoed similar sentiments, assuring GameSpot that "the name will grow on you."

4180 Comments

  • athenian29

    Posted Jun 15, 2008 5:18 pm PT

    Actually, rusty_13, you were the first person to comment in '08.

  • axelviiii

    Posted Feb 16, 2008 1:16 am PT

    FOURTY TWON.

  • rusty_13

    Posted Feb 6, 2008 8:29 am PT

    people commenting on this on 2008 lol

  • Taylor_Riel

    Posted Sep 19, 2007 5:39 pm PT

    The End.

  • coolasj19

    Posted Jul 13, 2007 5:10 am PT

    what if someone in a third world country doesnt know it??

  • TehFuneral

    Posted Jun 2, 2007 11:37 am PT

    lol, this news was announced before i even joined GS and everybody knows it...

  • coolasj19

    Posted May 31, 2007 10:10 am PT

    still last i just accidentaly licked on it and thought id post

  • coolasj19

    Posted Apr 3, 2007 2:33 pm PT

    still people havent got used to it i have no sa y nintedo's wii
    im last ahahahahahahahah

  • gigabrowser12

    Posted Feb 18, 2007 6:39 am PT

    Old story old story!

  • flatline711

    Posted Jan 29, 2007 5:53 pm PT

    zomg the Wii!? when did this happen

  • coolasj19

    Posted Jan 5, 2007 3:19 pm PT

    ill constantly check to make sure im last hahahahah

  • coolasj19

    Posted Jan 5, 2007 3:17 pm PT

    im last !! muhahahahah

  • tdf64

    Posted Jan 2, 2007 5:19 pm PT

    i think its a good idea, so the next system nintendo makes can be the revolution

  • Markman219

    Posted Dec 26, 2006 9:38 am PT

    nope, now im last. im one of the people that hated the name "Wii" and now i own one (I got mine on the launch day!).

  • squid360

    Posted Dec 16, 2006 3:44 pm PT

    me is last!

  • Mastertikiman

    Posted Dec 8, 2006 6:04 am PT

    heh, i wonder how many of these people now own a wii after blasting the new name.

  • zeldafanaticz

    Posted Dec 2, 2006 12:38 am PT

    pfft... now IM the last...

  • ChucklesMginty

    Posted Nov 26, 2006 12:19 pm PT

    mwuahahha I'll be the last person ever to comment on this. So does that mean no one will bother to moderate my language in this comment. you mutha*******

  • ps2boy11

    Posted Oct 15, 2006 10:47 pm PT

    me gusto wii

  • Howzer123

    Posted Aug 25, 2006 9:28 am PT

    hehe, wee

  • TryMe01

    Posted Jul 28, 2006 9:48 pm PT

    man, people are still commenting on this article. People, DEAL!

  • choffy

    Posted Jul 20, 2006 9:46 pm PT

    Well the name isn't all half bad. The other two consoles aren't big "WOW!"'s in the naming category. Wtf is an Xbox? Sure the original had an "X" design on the top but the 360 has no "X" on it at all. And all Sony is doing is showing off their counting skills (1.....2 ...... 3...... 4......). And the announcement was made 3 months ago and I've warmed up to it. At first I was shocked, concerened and even a little sad. But like Nintendo said, "The name will grow on you," and it has

  • bob_da_killah

    Posted Jul 10, 2006 8:56 pm PT

    everyone probally knew this already but by wii they mean we as in for everyone
    just thought the people that didnt know should

  • jman141

    Posted Jun 12, 2006 8:54 am PT

    Nintendo is getting worse and worse. I mean come on, wii that's the dumbest name ever. Stick with REV!!

  • cole33

    Posted Jun 10, 2006 10:11 pm PT

    i like it, its fits Nintendo

  • lukasz01234

    Posted May 25, 2006 5:39 pm PT

    wii is such a wacky name i mean how would you come up with such a name.That name is crazy stuid. he he. i mean it.

  • Jason697

    Posted May 24, 2006 8:38 pm PT

    (I was listening to If You want Blood You've Got It(AC/DC song) while posting this) Wee on the streets, wee on the rocks, wee in the gutter......

  • joelacevedo

    Posted May 22, 2006 5:30 am PT

    Actually... I like the name, I like it very much....

  • Yoshua-X

    Posted May 22, 2006 4:36 am PT

    Interesting! It's not that bad if you think about it.

  • 3leMenT

    Posted May 21, 2006 11:53 pm PT

    when you here some one say "WE" do you go "ahahhaha im 8" you just said pee, god just grow up its a name, have use herd the show Avatar Air Bender, well Bender in england means "f@gg0t" so who cares

  • skeetoids

    Posted May 19, 2006 1:45 am PT

    Wii is a bad name. Wii is phonetically the same as wee and wee where I come from means pee-pees basically. The thought of buying a console that shares it's semantic with urine does not appeal!!!

  • Lanik

    Posted May 16, 2006 1:19 pm PT

    If you don't like the name wii then don't buy it. It's just a name it doesn't matter what it is called. I'm going to buy one so I can play SSBB.

  • iball

    Posted May 16, 2006 9:55 am PT

    Yet again Nintendo caters to the younglings, & fux0r5 their mature players, when will they learn? It's a puzzle really, if we all go out and buy a rev/wii nintendo will go on thinking it was a good idea, but if we don't nintendo won't be around to continue making their great games. Grrrrrr, me hate puzzles. ;-)

  • Dungeon_Ace

    Posted May 16, 2006 12:00 am PT

    First off, the Nintendo Wii is a weird name indeed, but in its defense it is unique. I'll say that I've been a follower of Nintendo since preschool, but I don't plan on calling it a 'Wii'. Now, I'm not saying start a rally against Nintendo to get the name changed back. If the name 'Revolution' was as proactively accepted as was previously stated, then just call it a 'Nintendo Revolution'. If the theories on the name 'Revolution' are true, then people would know what you are talking about. Call it a Wii or call it a Revolution, it doesn't really matter since all we all really plan on doing with it is beating Pikachu with some good ol' Master Sword in Super Smash Bros: Brawl anyway.

  • Gamemasterjon

    Posted May 14, 2006 9:41 pm PT

    Why wii?!?!?!

  • coaten

    Posted May 14, 2006 2:37 pm PT

    i like nintendo, they try to be different. i respect that... They could of picked a worse name than Wii the only one i like better the revolution. you are right shasty963 it created lots of publisity at E3 for sure! i hated the name at first but i kinda like it now and it is easy to remember.

  • coaten

    Posted May 14, 2006 2:31 pm PT

    Wii is not all that bad. I liked revolution better but i am still going to buy it and call it the Wii.

  • Cloud310

    Posted May 14, 2006 2:27 pm PT

    nintendo is always striving to be different.

  • Maslowo

    Posted May 14, 2006 2:12 pm PT

    Haha, Nintendo will be going the way of the Sega .Real stupid, not that anyone really cares about Nintendo anymore. & If your going to change a name pick something decent, I mean Wii, come on lets get reallistic if you want some customers.

  • bengino

    Posted May 12, 2006 6:42 pm PT

    this can only be described by saying this...

    what a stupid name.... and what a stupid motto

  • shasty963

    Posted May 12, 2006 9:24 am PT

    Well, if u think about it, wii has created a lot more publicity at E3 than sony's or micro's consoles. Arent we talking about it now? I think its a good move. Still prefer the rev, though.

  • wizardmasterZ

    Posted May 10, 2006 11:37 pm PT

    the name grew on me, imused to it, and actually kinda prefer it over revolution, kinda a cliche name it is, wii seems to be out there and its easy to remember

  • burnout05

    Posted May 10, 2006 1:45 pm PT

    I like it

  • god_yggdrasil

    Posted May 10, 2006 1:42 pm PT

    wii?!!!!! wtf? that is more retarded than "nintendo go." cmon nintendo, get ur heads straight. keep it as the revolution!!!!! if it comes out and stays as the name wii i'm still gonna go around and refer to it as the revo when im talking about it.

  • anyjabroni

    Posted May 9, 2006 8:38 am PT

    It's almost like nintendo WANTS to be destroyed, I bet sony and microsoft are lovin' this!

  • kavadias1981

    Posted May 9, 2006 8:19 am PT

    its been a while since i heard the name..... now i'm used to it. well i'll be darned, Perrin Kaplan was right!

  • gaellienia

    Posted May 9, 2006 7:02 am PT

    I have two little words for Nintendo that could help them in the future:
    MARKETING RESEARCH.

  • RKBgamer

    Posted May 9, 2006 6:08 am PT

    Wii??? Is Nintendo abandoning all hope for older gamers or something. They're not going to make it if they keep igoring us and coming up with such stupid names. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

  • mangaman3000

    Posted May 9, 2006 5:21 am PT

    I feel nintendo have made a wii mistake

  • yuginodo

    Posted May 9, 2006 4:40 am PT

    Richard Simmons is going to get it because he'll say "I like Little boys! Comon let's dance!" Kust kidding. That's from Yugayoh on Newgrounds
    P.S.Wii don't like the name Wii

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