Revolution to under-Go name change?

What we heard: The days leading up to Satoru Iwata's keynote address at the 2006 Game Developers Conference saw many a game forum abuzz with speculation. The rumor du jour was that the Nintendo president would use the event to announce a new name for his company's next console, known best by its code name, "Revolution."

Obviously, that didn't happen. Those rumors are still alive and well on the Internet, however, thanks to an Engadget post. The post shows what looks an awful lot like a surreptitious photo taken during a presentation slide show. The slide that was snapped shows a logo with the words "Nintendo GO" written underneath it.

There are several reasons to think the slide is a fake. First is that as Nintendo has hyped up the cutting-edge aspects of its next-gen console (motion sensors, virtual console, and so on), the Revolution name has stuck. Some Nintendans have even taken it as a rallying cry against rivals Sony and Microsoft. Second, Nintendo has a history of making a platform's code name its final title. Though the N64 had the secret moniker "Project Reality" and the GameCube went by the handle of "Dolphin," the DS was code-named the "Nitro" and later…the "DS." Lastly, there have been a whole host of professional-looking fakes--remember the Nintendo On video that rocked E3 last year?

That said, there are several reasons to think that the slide is legit. Besides the professionalism of its design, there's the fact that "go" is Japanese for "five." The Revolution just happens to be Nintendo's fifth console, succeeding the NES, SNES, N64, and GameCube, and it was reportedly code-named "N5" internally for a time.

Second, the game's logo is very reminiscent of both the blocky N64 logo and the cubic GameCube logo. Since the next-gen console will play games from all Nintendo consoles, it's possible that the company is trying to instill a sense of legacy via iconography--just the sort of thing logo designers get paid thousands to do.

Finally, and most convincingly, the fragments of Japanese in the slide aren't the usual bits of gibberish thrown up by Western pranksters making fakes. They appear to be from a presentation discussing the marketing of the brand name "Go" in relation to a new Nintendo technological product. Verbatim, they say, "Brand should reflect…able to obtain…until now, the road…'GO' and brand…until now…chance to experience the choice…including the level of…newest information in the technology…"

Given that, unlike its rivals, Nintendo is solely a game company, there's no question that the slides are talking about a new gaming product. The mention of "choice" also means that the name is designed to underline the difference between competing products. But is it a console? A download service? There's no clue in the slide.

But even if the slide is legit, and it's talking about the Revolution, there's no guarantee that Nintendo's next-gen console will be named Go. After all, the slide could be from a meeting pitching possible names for the device. Go could have been just one of several options--an option that Nintendo may have very well decided not to take.

Bogus or not bogus?: We'll see at E3.