Thoughts on Wii
Everyone’s talking about the Nintendo Wii. If anything, Nintendo sure has generated a lot of discussion about it’s upcoming console name be it bad or good discussion. With so much buzz I figured I’d like to drop my two cents into the mix.
Personally, I think the name, Wii, is a horrible name for a console. Sure, Nintendo has explained that you can pronounce it as “we” which gives a sense of community and togetherness Nintendo wants to bring to the console with it’s online component. However, seeing that Microsoft has already used this idea by naming its console the XBox 360 it just makes Nintendo look like it’s trying to ride the 360’s wave of success.
To all of this, add the fact that “Wii” sets itself up for all kinds of potty humor. Forums are filled with jokes about the name. Yes, the potty humor is pretty immature. However, do you really want to name a product something that can be subject to potty humor? Certainly, potty humor jokes about the name cannot actually be helping.
To top it off, the Wii supposedly isn’t coming out for a while. Sony has already announced the PS3 to come out around August-September timeframe and at a price of about $600-700. With consoles costing this much, they are very likely to cause people to only own one of them simply because of the cost. There will be people who will own all three consoles and I may but my only holdout is the Nintendo Wii and what it has to offer. I have my XBox360 but I’ll definitely be looking to get a PS3. There will be XBox360 fanboys who will only own an XBox and PS3 fanboys who will only own a PS3. And, there will be Nintendo fanboys that will buy the Wii no matter what. But seriously, doesn’t Nintendo need to grow outside of its fanboy group? Don’t they need to try to grow new fans out of the XBox and PS base? Do they really think that naming the console the Nintendo Wii that it will grab these new fans?
I suppose we’ll see but I’m guessing the name will not help.
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April 30th, 2006 at 5:30 pm
Yo,
Dude I would get a Revolution Wii because you could play Turbo Grafx 16 games and other unique titles. Have you ever played some of the shooters on the Turbo Grafx CD? There are more classic games that are fun to play, and something to master. Plus there will be awesome, new games that use the revolutionary controller.
Where Xbox 360 and PS3 will mostly have overlapping titles, released for both systems. Just my thooughts.
April 30th, 2006 at 6:08 pm
Well, that’s partially true for the XBox360 as well. In about a month or so, they will be releasing Street Fighter II for the XBox Live Arcade. Also, in mid-summer, a large number of original coin-op arcade games are supposed to be released to XBox Live Arcade.
I’m not completely closed on getting the Wii. I’m just saying that I’m in a wait and watch state. Being able to play old Nintendo games will be a plus. However, I can already play old arcade games, Sega Genesis games, etc through GameTap and XBox Live Arcade. I’m just hoping that besides the name and strange controller, Nintendo brings out something unique that will make me want to actually buy the Wii to replace my dusty GameCube.