ok nintendo has officially lost the plot..

cregser

Doodee: wrote:

SyxPak: wrote:

http://blogs.boards.ie/syxpak/2006/0...king-the-piss/

Fanboys always cry the hardest

lol, "symmetry ... conjoining" "building human bonds of shared kinship" "metaphysical and philosophical connotations of self and being", after all that work the Japanese marketing team put into Wii, it's hard not to imagine the initial phone conversation to the west.

Nintendo: We so proud of new name. We spend million dolla on it. We cawl it Wii
U.S.: What, as in to urinate?
Nintendo: ... ah crap... You americans every word is urinate.

flogen

Thinking about it I think 'wee' as in to urinate is more of a British (and as a result Irish) thing... wee is the polite slang for urine/urinate, the one that kids are thought to say (wee-wee)... in the US that's usually pee, pee-pee etc.; of course they use wee, but (and judging totally by US TV imports), not as much. Let's not forget that the sound 'we' or 'wee' is also French for yes, which is quite a positive word, and as has been pointed out, the Scottish term for small; both of these versions are very well known too...

RobertFoster

flogen wrote:

Thinking about it I think 'wee' as in to urinate is more of a British (and as a result Irish) thing... wee is the polite slang for urine/urinate, the one that kids are thought to say (wee-wee)... in the US that's usually pee, pee-pee etc.; of course they use wee, but (and judging totally by US TV imports), not as much. Let's not forget that the sound 'we' or 'wee' is also French for yes, which is quite a positive word, and as has been pointed out, the Scottish term for small; both of these versions are very well known too...

Joystiq posted something about the meaning of Wii in different languages. Apparently, "wee wee" is a childs term for penis in the US. Also, the French forums don't seem too interested in having a console called the Nintendo Yes.

OptimusMime

rainbow kirby wrote:

*facepalm*
*sigh*
*hiss*
What a ****ing stupid name. Way to shoot yourselves in the foot AGAIN, Nintendo. Seriously, this is getting ****ing ridiculous at this stage. Revolution was a perfectly good name, ULTRA64 was a perfectly good name, Dolphin was a perfectly good name, why bother changing; I mean it has hardly helped the N64 or GC sell more has it? HAS IT?? What next, I bet the next console's dev name will be "Slick" or "Deadly" then the real console name will be The Nintendo "I have a small cock and am gay and hate myself and eceryone knows it"?? Eh? *

Even some of the other codenames (N5 anyone?) were better...

Quoted, then amended for added pith.


/get credit card out to preorder /o\







*You heard it here first!

OptimusMime

Earthhorse wrote:

Sometimes (just sometimes) I think Nintendo top brass (that's the guys in Japan) don't seek input on big decisions from their American and European counterparts.

Understatment of the millenium?

Earthhorse wrote:

Until they start seeing themselves as a global company Nintendo will remain firmly in third/second place.

Dunno about this, they are the largest global games company after all. Not counting companies who produe multimedia machines that also happen to play games, of course.

Also, how long have they been treating Europe with almost complete disdain, yet Europe is still a massive market for them. Even though they make a ****load of profit outside of Japan, it's almost as if they couldn't give a **** about us, this is nothing new, it always has been that way.

Still, the last Japanese games company to depart from their norm and embrace western marketing ways went bust quite soon after. Robbie Williams songs in your pretentious adverts, anybody?

Earthhorse

They're still in second/third place in the console market. I'm not saying they'll go bust or anything. As you say this is nothing new.

But with marketing decisions like that it's hard to see them taking first place in the next round of console boxing.

Ciaran500

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3150098
"Nintendo hasn't registered a trademark for its Nintendo Wii."

There's still hope

Dont be at yourself

Yeah, rumour has it that it's all a big joke on everyone. Which kind of makes sense - I mean, it's hard to think up of a worse name for it, isn't it?

Cake Fiend

Brerrabbit wrote:

in the Japanese language there is no "wee" sound

Yes, there is, it's just not used very often (they even used to have kana symbols for it). It would now normally be written in katakana as 'ウィ'.

Edit: oops, beaten to it

flogen

NekkidBibleMan wrote:

Yeah, rumour has it that it's all a big joke on everyone. Which kind of makes sense - I mean, it's hard to think up of a worse name for it, isn't it?

I'm not bothered about the name, but people are saying it's a marketting disaster, the only bigger disaster (on the issue of the name) that I can imagine is if they come out now and re-rename it, especially after their American VP's have come out and defended it, and literally said "deal with it"... after all of that, to turn around and say "fooled you!!!" would be a mistake IMO... bigger than wee, or even calling it Nintendo Ballbag.

Retr0gamer

I only wish it was called the Nintendo moc-a-moc

Brerrabbit

Sico wrote:

Yes, there is, it's just not used very often (they even used to have kana symbols for it). It would now normally be written in katakana as '??'.

Edit: oops, beaten to it

Please see my earlier retraction. Brerrabbit.com has no more to say about this particular embarrasing incident, Um in fact it was a joke, Yes thats it a joke, not ignorance!.. er fooled you.

In other news does anyone know if the, er, wii will be region free? I tried googling it but no luck

hairball

i vote for nintendo jizzgazm

monument

flogen wrote:

I'm not bothered about the name, but people are saying it's a marketting disaster, the only bigger disaster (on the issue of the name) that I can imagine is if they come out now and re-rename it, especially after their American VP's have come out and defended it, and literally said "deal with it"... after all of that, to turn around and say "fooled you!!!" would be a mistake IMO... bigger than wee, or even calling it Nintendo Ballbag.

No, you're right, calling a console a name that is pronounced the same way as a word for urination will result in no problems whatsoever.

It’s not a big deal…

“so, I’ll just have a wee”
“we don’t have toilets, try KFC next door…”

Carlsberg don’t do wee, but Nintendo do!

Please, tell me, am I being childish, realistic or a bit of both?

Zillah

It also occured to me. Pronouncing "Wii" as "Wee" is quite counter intuitive. Everytime I see it I do a little brain stall and have to remind my self what the word "Wii" sounds like. My brain wants to say "Wai ai" or "Wai ee" or something.

Yeah I hate it.

stormkeeper

Sarky wrote:

What exactly is the fuss? Nobody seems to mind that computers get shortened to Pee See. See? See what I did there? I made it look like PC has something to do with widdle. Anyone find it witty, funny or embarrassing? No? Odd, that. Do you complain that the shortened form of Playstation makes you sound like you're saying "Oh, by the way" completely out of context?

No one seemed to bat an eyelid at calling pence "pee" for short either, but I have to admit, "Wii" is a bit of a messed up name to be honest...

stormkeeper

cregser wrote:

lol, "symmetry ... conjoining" "building human bonds of shared kinship" "metaphysical and philosophical connotations of self and being", after all that work the Japanese marketing team put into Wii, it's hard not to imagine the initial phone conversation to the west.

The Japanese are way too enlightened for the likes of us westerners it seems... if you try watching the likes of Akira, or played any of the FF games and the like, you notice that there's some "metaphysical and philosophical connoctions" mentioned in the games and films... not that it's a bad thing and all, but not all of us would get the meaning of it.

Nintendo: We so proud of new name. We spend million dolla on it. We cawl it Wii
U.S.: What, as in to urinate?
Nintendo: ... ah crap... You americans every word is urinate.

LOL!

Hakumei Naru

Well we all know what "wii" sounds like in english...did Nintendo not think to see what english speaking customers would think of this? Or is this some stupid stunt to make sure their console is remembered forever? Oh it'll be remembered alright, remembered for sounding like the english slang for urination.

So now when you think of Nintendo, you can also think about going for a wizz. Yay. That's like so fantastic. In fact, just thinking about it makes me want to wii.

Then again, "wii" sounds like "oui" in french which means "yes" though I seriously doubt that could have been their reason for naming it so.

The biggest question is not "why call it Wii?" but "why choose Wii over Revolution?!"

flogen

monument wrote:

No, you're right, calling a console a name that is pronounced the same way as a word for urination will result in no problems whatsoever.

It’s not a big deal…

“so, I’ll just have a wee”
“we don’t have toilets, try KFC next door…”

Carlsberg don’t do wee, but Nintendo do!

Please, tell me, am I being childish, realistic or a bit of both?

I never said it won't result in any problems, I said I don't think it's a wind up... I think it would be a bad move for Nintendo to do a u-turn after the comments made etc.

I honestly think most people who have an issue with it will get over it soon enough, maybe that will take until E3 when (I assume) no announcement is made that says the Wii name was a joke, or maybe it won't be until the console actually launches and they're holding their own wii in their hands (couldn't resist).

Who knows, if Nintendo redefines gaming the way it suggests and hopes the sound "wee" will lose its urinary meaning and become a word to describe something much more positive.... it could become the non-political version of the Clause 4 Moment... the Wii moment..

Besides, as has been said, you go into Game and ask for a Wii they'll know what your on about, and even if they do decide to have some fun with you they'll tire of the joke pretty quickly when they're saying it x amount of times a day.

monument

flogen wrote:

I think it would be a bad move for Nintendo to do a u-turn after the comments made etc.

Ok, lets take it as not being a wind up…

While it would be a u-turn, it would be a positive one. Nintendo have a bit of a ‘soft’ image anyway, so getting off their high horse wouldn’t be a big deal… actually listening to their users would be a big deal, but a positive one.

flogen wrote:

maybe that will take until E3 when

...maybe the laughing at their press conference will change from laughing with then to at them.

flogen wrote:

Besides, as has been said, you go into Game and ask for a Wii they'll know what your on about, and even if they do decide to have some fun with you they'll tire of the joke pretty quickly when they're saying it x amount of times a day.

One might think that, but with some people toilet jokes never die.

projectmayhem

monument wrote:

Ok, lets take it as not being a wind up…

While it would be a u-turn, it would be a positive one. Nintendo have a bit of a ‘soft’ image anyway, so getting off their high horse wouldn’t be a big deal… actually listening to their users would be a big deal, but a positive one.



...maybe the laughing at their press conference will change from laughing with then to at them.

two points:

nintendo's image right now is that of a "kiddie console". a company that caters to the pre-pubescant kids with games filled with colour. "wii" isn't going to help them at all, even if the machine is as good as we all hope it is.

second, on their conference at e3, the 1up yours podcast brought up a good point. how embarassing would it be to have everyone laugh in your face, or even worse - go silent? they brought up memories of sony coming out with the PSP (a year after pics were shown) saying "i've got something to show you". queue long silence....

monument

projectmayhem wrote:

second, on their conference at e3, the 1up yours podcast brought up a good point. how embarassing would it be to have everyone laugh in your face, or even worse - go silent? they brought up memories of sony coming out with the PSP (a year after pics were shown) saying "i've got something to show you". queue long silence....

Oh, indeed, that's a good point. I wasn't even thinking of the video side of things.

steviec

Its not too late at all for them to change the name really. The only people who know about it are those that read games sites and gaming blogs, the very same people who are probably still calling it Revolution in their heads and who are smart enough to base their choice on games rather than name anyway. They could very easily come out at E3 and say 'the name for Wii outside of Asia will be....' and while the American VP might feel a little embarassed the whole thing will be long forgotten about by the time console launches.

Although I doubt that will actually happen, Nintendo don't have a record of paying that much attention to the west, particularly when it comes to their image.

Hakumei Naru

steviec wrote:

Its not too late at all for them to change the name really. The only people who know about it are those that read games sites and gaming blogs, the very same people who are probably still calling it Revolution in their heads and who are smart enough to base their choice on games rather than name anyway.

Actually, if they change the name again, word would get around very quickly. At least that's what I think.

steviec wrote:

They could very easily come out at E3 and say 'the name for Wii outside of Asia will be....' and while the American VP might feel a little embarassed the whole thing will be long forgotten about by the time console launches.

That would be odd. It would also cost alot of money to have one product have multiple names.

steviec wrote:

Although I doubt that will actually happen, Nintendo don't have a record of paying that much attention to the west, particularly when it comes to their image.

Yeah...those bastards decided that Europe wouldn't like Final Fantasy which of course left many of us puzzled when Final Fantasy VII was first released. "Where are the other six?"

Ciaran500

Hakumei Naru wrote:

That would be odd. It would also cost alot of money to have one product have multiple names.

I don't think it would. Everything is already redesigned between the Eastern and Western markets. Both the SNES and the Megadrive had different names.

Hakumei Naru

^ I forgot about that. Hopefully "Revolution" will be what we westerners have because "Wii" just makes the console prone to so many bad jokes, thus making it look like a joke no matter how good the hardware is.

flogen

monument wrote:

Ok, lets take it as not being a wind up…

While it would be a u-turn, it would be a positive one. Nintendo have a bit of a ‘soft’ image anyway, so getting off their high horse wouldn’t be a big deal… actually listening to their users would be a big deal, but a positive one.

There's a difference between being seen as a child-orientated company and a soft one; It's not unusual for Nintendo to change a machines name, but they usually do it through codenames IMO; I don't think it's a very good idea or joke to launch a name completely straight faced, and then say it's not real... I wouldn't be pissed off about it, but I'm sure you'd get plenty who are.
Either way, if it was a joke Nintendo will have to play it carefully so Sony and MS don't use it as a stick to beat them with (although they always will).

One might think that, but with some people toilet jokes never die.

True, but most people will get over it when they have to.

I just think it would be a bad move for nintendo to rename the machine again, even if they came out with the single greatest name ever; I think this time next week everyone will be over it, and even if they loathe the name they will have had their barney about it and given up on slagging it off.

projectmayhem

flogen wrote:

True, but most people will get over it when they have to.

i will, forever, go online and talk about how i'm going to "wii all over you" in <insert nintendo revolution game here>

it's a telling sign that none of the major gaming websites have changed their rev links to wii

flogen

projectmayhem wrote:

it's a telling sign that none of the major gaming websites have changed their rev links to wii

Well, IGN have but yeah, other major sites seem to be holding back. Wii.com doesn't seem to be registered either, and while nintendowii.com is (it doesn't seem to work now, it was just redirecting to nintendo.com), gamecube had its own domain without Nintendo before it...

edit: just reading the interview with Perrin Kaplin from Nintendo America, I spotted an interesting... shall we say, politicians responce...:

IGN Wii: Was the name decided on out of Japan or was it a global decision by Nintendo?

Perrin Kaplan: It's a global name. As most things at Nintendo are done, it was not done by any individual. It was really a team effort.

You see? Was it a global decision? It's a global name. In other words 'no, it was not, but it is being used as the worldwide brand for the new console...'

CiaranC

wii.com is registered