Have Wii been Punk' d?!

Generally i like to steer clear of speculation and " what if" situations, but after sitting down to discuss the matter earlier today and then doing some quick checks, i' m curious enough to consider questioning the so-called facts.

A couple of thing struck me as being strange, -- they just don' t seem " right" ...

Gangsta posted a link in the thread entitled " The Nintendo Wii" which i started yesterday shortly after the announcement, -- the link was to Gerry' s ' Gear Editor in Chief' blog over at IGN. The latest entry contained a quote from Reggie Fil-Amie and the quote itself reads...

" Chairman Iwata has always believed that women should maintain an air of composure and modesty, and thus we have incorporated breakthrough gender recognition technology in the Wii' s unique controller.

To put it simply, girls will only be able to Wii while sitting. Male players will have the option to sit or stand, though if they choose to sit, Wii difficulty will be automatically set to easy mode."

Now, either Nintendo are basically making fun of the people who are making fun of the name on fiorums like this one or there is something deeper at work here.

Having seen that i went back to Perrin Kaplans statement which was issued yesterday that gave a brief explanation as to why they chose the name over any others they had considered. Now what i picked up on may mean nothing at all but it certainly seems a little out of place. Towards the end it reads...

…By letting the gaming community vent now about the name, they will be less distracted as launch titles for the system are announced and initial reports about what it’s like to play the games begin to come in.

Now, correct me if i' m wrong but if Nintendo knew that announcing that the their console would be called " Wii" and that it wouldn' t be accepted without becoming the butt of 1000' s of jokes, then why call it that?! Surely that' s bad PR and defonately isn' t SOP because with something like this you don' t want to give the public time to get used to it, like Apple does you need to hit them hard and stop them from thinking too much.

Being confused and slightly suspicious i checked whether Nintendo had actually registered the trademarks, or whether any company had. They haven' t. This is something that Nintendo NEVER do. They registered Revolution straight away, just like they do with absolutely everything. But they haven' t done with Wii.

Now when a company wants to keep a name secret, they set up what is essentially a dummy company and register under that name. That' s what i think they have done. I think Nintendo are being very very clever.

I think we have been Punk' d and i think Wii is a perverse illusion created to generate a buzz around their console as we approach E3. I think the real name will be revealed AT E3 and i think it will be something more suited to their console and videogames in general.



This is all speculation and i could be way off the mark. Either way i' d like to get your thoughts on it.

I think thats wishfull thinking. notice all the major sites like Ign, Kikzio and others allmost immedaley update there rev section when it became offical, especially ign since it got a new wii console nav bar at the top, they had to know about it to redign that, Nintendo would not that that either, its a cheap trick to get critizm.

Change is inevitable. Except from a vending machine.

Viva La Revolution! erm, I mean Viva La Wii!

Well IGN are in cahoots with Nintendo anyway, they knew about the controller well before it was unveiled and other sites would have updated as not to be left behind.

Bear in mind that http://revolution.nintendo.com is a functional subdomain of their official site and yet http://wii.nintendo.com is nowhere to be found. It also seems that http://nintendowii.com was registered AFTER the announcement and http://nintendowii.co.uk has been bought by some random member of the public for a fansite.

You don' t find that odd?!

On top of that it' s a bad sign when a company feels the need to starts explaining its brand name.

agree with you actually majik, seems very strange, especially making a joke with regard to your own product.

On nintendo.com, which i visited today, the link is still as " Revolution" then you get some flash animation saying name has changed to Wii, and unless my memory is awful, nothing else, it just loops.

Suspicious...

NiGHTS into Dreamcast

Majikdragon, that is a damn fine example of schizophrenia you got here :)

Well observed.
It would make sense if your suspicions turned out to be true.
Though, it seems like an awful lot of trouble just to make a dummy company and I still think that that kind of " fake" announcement could damage all the previous work Nintendo has put on the Revolution. Unless they announce the return of the Revolution in an awesome way.
If the case is as you suspect, then I will forever admire Nintendo for their incredible and very strange tactical decisions.

edit: Now that I' ve thought about this for a while, it would be pretty fun if this is true since that' d mean Nintendo are pretty much make fun of us gamers. Hahaha, just imagine all those big guys (and gals) at Nintendo sitting in their offices laughing at the world. Cool!

What I also find disturbing is that if Wii is the real name then they should have shown an official logo by now, or rather, at the same time as they announced the name.
And that logo should have been spread as much as possible for best marketing result. But did we ever see something that was clearly the Wii logo? No.
Either Nintendo has lost it or Majik is damn right.

Yeah. The logo' s i posted in the other thread are VERY cool but they' re nowhere to be found officially. It can' t just be the grey " Wii" , can it?!

Like i said though, i could be well off the mark but something just doesn' t site right with me. The cool think is that this real/fake PR stunt has cost almost nothing and yet has generated a massive amount of coverage.

I remember IGN didn' t want to make a separate Revolution section on their site until they got the official name since they had to work with the logo and design (you know how they put a little console on top of the page). But after quite a long time they decided to finally have a Revolution section after all even though Revolution was just a codename.
What surprises me now is that they' ve changed from Revolution to Wii in just a day. Sure it' s not the same thing since this time the section is already up and running but if you look at IGN.com' s Wii section you can see that they' ve already put a Wii logo on it. Strange....
If it' s that easy to make that top picture, then why did they hesitate with Revolution but not with Wii?

They haven' t changed the URL either. It' s still http://revolution.ign.com/

But they may not have had chance yet.

Their previous decisions doesn' t work with this either.
The Nintendo DS was a success and the name was initally a codename but since fans liked it they kept it... right? And Nintendo DS isn' t exactly a catchy name. But now all of a sudden they have to change a perfect name as Revolution to something unique? And they find Wii to be that?
If they want Revolution to become as successful as the NDS then they should just keep doing the same thing as with the DS in every aspect.
I feel crazy reading/writing about this so I' ll stop speculating but I know this:
Wii is a bad name (it sounds and looks bad) and I have seen a lack of logic in all of Nintendos decisions regarding the name.
Let' s just see what happens.

I really think that Wii is, in fact, the final name. First of all, the DS did have a prior code reference. I believe it was the 2/1, or something to that effect.

What I was wondering was if they would have the system be named differently depending on region, as in Europe and North America get Revolution, and Japan gets Wii. Apparently not the case, as IGN has reported that NOA, NOE, and NOJ collectively made the decision. On Gamespot, the front page has a flash video (last I checked) that showcased the logo. Each i representing a person, as well as representing the remote. Quite curious when I saw it. Finally, most code names are not used for the final product. Ultra 64 become Nintendo 64. Dolphin became GameCube etc., so the conclusion seems to be that Wii will have to get used to this.

Personally, I won' t care as long as the titles make me go " Wiiiiiiiiiiiii!" , and let' s face it, if games like Red Steel come out and kick ass, I will be going " Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!" for a long time.

You wa Shock!!!

So, how come they haven' t trademarked it?!

I think wii is already a trademark name but not for nintendo walter industries inc.

Then again all they need to do is add their logo.

Who the hell is...

nintendo walter industries inc

They don' t exist.

Then again all they need to do is add their logo

No they don' t. The name has to be registered on it' s own and it hasn' t been.

Wii is a trademark for a company that makes razors.

So would nintendo be able to use it if they added their own logo but retain the name?.

No.

The name must be registered on it' s own.



Hey look, my 2006th post!

So therefore maybe it is a dummy/tester name.

Maybe.

I' m not convinced though. I mean, there' s enough stuff out of place to question it but it could just be me subconciously wanting to escape having to call my pretty little console " Wii" .



I' m going to sleep but before i go, ...should the name actually be " Wii" , i won' t be calling it " We" i' ll instead refer to it as " W2" .

I hope it is merely a dummy and/or tester name. Wii... erd.

Good night, oh Majikdra60n. Wii pray for your safe return.

Really though, I think the Japanese people could think of even more terrible names than this... I just can' t think of any. Now, I know that the Japanese public abbreviate everything. Does the word " revolution" , when abbreviated in any way, become something offensive or suggestive in the Japanese language? Hmm....

Reborushionu. Gee, sounds like a pain and a half for them. Let' s face it: Engrish is terrible to have to pronounce so many syllables. Perhaps Go was a better name....

You wa Shock!!!

What I also find disturbing is that if Wii is the real name then they should have shown an official logo by now,

That logo you saw after flash animation ended is the official logo - 100% confirmed by Nintendo (and it' s on their site right?) - that' s why everyone' s talking how they want to imitate iPod.

There' s one cool thing about Wii though:

" I' m going to give one little secret," Fils-Aime said. " Only one little secret, and hopefully I won' t lose my job. We' re going to show a racing game at E3 where you use the core controller in a very different way. That will answer all the questions to how you' ll play a racing game."

If said racer was I:D, I would have a seisure, on the spot. I doubt it, though. Still, racing should kick serious ass on Nintendo' s Wii console. *aside to self*Wii could actually sound like screaming car tires.*/aside* What would really get me raving like a madman is if they use the controller as a stick. Manual shifting, to any gear we choose... *drool*.

Wiiiiiiiiiiiiii CRASH!

Wow, can' t wait. I can wait, but I can' t wait!

You wa Shock!!!

Holding the controller horizontally, from left to right and truning it like a steering wheel. Nice.

that' s too obvious I think it' s a different controll scheme - I guess we' ll know soon enough...GOD DAMN IT FUCK SHIT BITCH DICK AAARRGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

I WANT E3 NOW !!!! GOD DAM....

I would share your enthusiasm for E3, but I' m not part of the industry, therefore I can not attend. Therefore, my enthusiasm only goes as far as ' I can not wait for the torrents of footage' .

GTA scheme for walking would be via 2 sticks, but then when you take a car, you put one stick onto the gear stick position of a steering wheel. Just think, effortless drive-bys. Lovely.

You wa Shock!!!

the reason why those sites where not registered before the annocement is quite simple, if they registered those sites, people would have seen the www.nintendowii.com, beforew the actual annocement.

Change is inevitable. Except from a vending machine.

Viva La Revolution! erm, I mean Viva La Wii!

That is probably spot on. I remember other companies having secret announcements blown by registered web pages. Can' t remember who exactly, though.

You wa Shock!!!

Vdig I' m excited and I' m not making money on games but like most of us I am a part of the industry I am a gamer - say it with me " I am a gamer and I am Proud of it Wii!!!"

:)

E3 isn' t only for press and devs - everyone can go, but some shows are closed to public.

I think the entire GTA (after GTA3 -yeah I finished it and thought it was good in a new way) phenomenon is obsolete by the way :)

Mom i want a wee...

hahahahahahhahahahahahahhaa

NINTENDO YOUR STUPID!

Even if you break 2 legs from a crab it still runs!
What you gotta do is find its weak spot and do massive damage at it.

ORIGINAL: Silentbomber

the reason why those sites where not registered before the annocement is quite simple, if they registered those sites, people would have seen the www.nintendowii.com, beforew the actual annocement.

Not only is that still not registered, but " wii" still isn' t trademarked by anybody other than a razor company. It' s not even been filed for registration.

Surely they would have trademarked the name?!

They put a TM next to the logo on the official site and in the flash movie, but they haven' t actually trademarked it. You don' t think that' s odd?

Thanks. That is good for future reference, however, I also live in Toronto, making a trip down there quite costly and/or long (with gasoline prices shooting skyward, I would say it' s both).

The GTA phenomenon is done, but the games themselves are still pleasant, on occasion. It is also cool to do dogfights in San Andreas, something I did not think GTA could EVER pull off. However, if a game is a GTA knockoff, I tend to not like it, since nearly 100% of the time it is an inferior product. Still, it is true that I hardly pick up those titles to play lately.

The title I go back to the most, as a fervent RPG player of the non MMO variety, is Disgaea. Tossing prinnies, power levelling, attempting to merc Prinny Baal... pure RPG fun. When Disgaea 2 comes out in August, it will be the best bang for my buck. Whereas Disgaea cost me $49, I got 238 hours out of it. Hella better than Halo 2!

What Wii needs is a new offshoot of the great Fire Emblem series, as well as a traditional Fire Emblem. It would quench the RPG gamer in me. Then again, I play virtually all types of games.

You wa Shock!!!

Maybe, just maybe, Nintendo thought no one had registered it, therefore they announced it as their final name. If that' s the case, and they can' t trademark it because it is already taken, they may have to rename it again. That, and maybe NOA and NOE realized that and nodded with NOJ, smirking to themselves. Still, I think that is giving far too little credit to the bigwigs at Nintendo.

Edit:
Sorry for the double post!

You wa Shock!!!

NINTENDO YOUR STUPID!

how smart is that? :)

All your base are belong to us!!!

I think Nintendo knows at least as much as you do about trademarks and shit - Perrin Kaplan said they knew this name for the last year, so NO - they did everything just like they should , I' m sure of it.

1UP has an article that started all your conspiracy thinking so you should know that they couldn' t find some patents that they knew were there , and same could be right about TM - online database could be updated later and so on.

Wii would like to announce that the new Nintendo console is called we, er, wii.

*Meanwhile*
" What happen?"
" Someone (N) set up us the bomb."
" Wii get signal."
" Main screen turn on."
" It' s you!"
" Greetings, gentlemen. All your base are belong to us. You are on the way to destruction."
" What you say?!"
" You have no chance to survive make your time. Hahaha."

Wii sounds like it would start another web phenomena.

You wa Shock!!!