According to this article on Gamasutra and this page on the Nintendo domain (revolution.nintendo.com), the official name for the Nintendo Revolution is the Nintendo Wii. It’s pronounced “wee” as in “wee wee” as in “urine”. Here is a screen-grab from the flash animation on their site:
Is this for serious? What were they thinking? Okay, here is an attempt at what they were thinking:
Hmmm, the iPod is pretty popular. Actually, all Apple’s products seems pretty popular recently. We’ve already taken hints from their design and that has payed off with the DS Lite. Maybe we should take hints on their naming schemes. Let’s see… “iPod, iBook, iTunes”… I see a common theme. Maybe if we double the number of “i”s and increase the ratio of “i”s compared to other letters (iPod is the most successful after all), we come up with… “Wii”!.
That’s perfect! It embodies fun! It illicits feelings of enjoying amusements parks; the sounds you make when going down a water slide, and the warm feeling when you are a little child.
(Yeah… like a little child… in the yellow wading pool if you know what I mean ;))
Update: Anyone else notice the similarity to the iiNet logo in using two lower case “i”s to represent people?
Update: Keeping with poor taste, and very, very poor puns: “Wii. Now you’re in the game.” (Too obtuse?)
I don’t like the name either. I hope it is one of those that grows on you, but my first impression is disappointment.
I wonder if there will be much of a backlash against the console. I hope it doesn’t take any of the gloss from what was a highly anticipated return to the roots of gaming.
I’m warming (very slowly) to it.
The first step was thinking of it as “Weh Aye Aye Cap’n”. 🙂
Yeah…. not too impressed either, though my first impressions probably weren’t *very* negative. I just kept thinking of “oui” as in French for ‘yes’.
I don’t mind the name (it’s short and cute), but I think it would be better suited to a smaller handheld kind of console. The fact that it sounds the same as “wee” is unfortunate but not a big deal.
Hmmm… Come to think about it, I can’t really see myself saying “Hey guys, do you want to come over and play on my Wii?”
The name has started to grow on my now, but in keeping with poor humour, is Nintendo pissing into the wind with this? (har har)
Sigh… sorry about that.