Nintendo Might Drop The Wii Name?

Posted Jun 20, 2006 at 3:17AM EST by QJ Staff

Listed in: Wii Tags: gaming community, poll

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There's a somewhat disturbing rumor floating around the interweb that good Ol' Ninty might be considering ditching the brand spanking new moniker "Wii". To that we say a great big, "EXCUSE ME!?" Now calm down everyone, this one's almost certainly just a rumor and will never come fruition, especially if the rumored replacement names are to be believed: Nintendo GameZone, Nintendo FutureNation and Nintendo GlobalBOX (you can't make this stuff up). Games for Wii cites the reason for a name change is the fact that a recent poll showed 62% of gamers think the name "Wii" sounds too childish, while 49% said they wouldn't purchase the console judging by its name alone. Of course they don't site a source for the poll.

Games for Wii also cites "Mike, who works at the marketing department of Nintendo" (huh!) as saying:

"We have received over 200,000 e-mails with complaints about the Wii, and the console name has been commonly associated with urine. We have been the target of many jokes, and we strongly believe that it's a bad thing for the company's reputation."

Tomfoolery aside, would it even be a smart idea to switch a products brand name three times in the seven months leading up to launch? Of course not, such a move would only serve to confuse the non gaming public, alienate fans who've come to accept the name, and draw ridicule from competitors and a large portion of the gaming community. Plus it's be a shame to waste all those domains Nintendo's been snapping up over the last month. Nah, Nintendo's smarter than that... but then they did chose the name Wii. Then there's also the fact that in the month since the new name was announced, gamers have had time to let it sink in, and just as Nintendo initially predicted a lot of us have come to accept it and get used to it, or else we just can't think of any more clever urine jokes.

So what's the verdict at this point guys, do you think the name should stay or should Ninty drop the  the moniker like so much pigeon poop before it's too late?

Via Games For Wii

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