While the Wii U will finally bring HD gaming to a Nintendo and sports some neat onboard tech, there’s one big problem: it has a stupid name.
It really does. Wii U? Bwah? The moniker is bound to cause confusion among customers. Try explaining to your grandmother the different between a Wii and a Wii U and watch her eyes glaze over. The consoles are distinct enough. Their names, however, are not. Hence, the problem.
So much confusion is already being caused between the DS and 3DS that Nintendo is slapping bold red stickers on the game boxes to differentiate them.
No wonder there are rumours on website CVG that Nintendo is thinking of changing the console’s name.
Everyone wants Nintendo to succeed — this is the company that brought us Mario and Zelda. And to do that, a high-powered console with killer games and a memorable name will help Nintendo do just that. But that name…
Nintendo can do better. No, you can do better. Hit up the comments’ section with the new Wii U name that you think is best. Who knows, maybe Nintendo will read your suggestion, steal it, and use it to rename their console?
Eh, probably not.
Remember, anything is better than what Nintendo is calling it right now. Anything.
(I kind of wonder why they don’t just call it the “Nintendo U”, but that’s just me.)
Image: Chris Pizzello/AP.
Martin
Saturday, January 28, 2012 at 7:54 AMWell Pu is the obvious. Wii and Pu.
wheres_
Saturday, January 28, 2012 at 8:38 PMWiiHD
Wii II
Nintendo 6
Nintendo
Ultra Nintendo
Just to balance out the sarcasm.
Martin
Saturday, January 28, 2012 at 7:55 AMPu
AerintheADEQUATE
Saturday, January 28, 2012 at 8:00 AM“NintendU”
pronounced “nintendoo”
then if they want to, they can sort of riff on the old Sega commercials that claimed “Genesis DOES, what Nintendon’t”…
It’s crazy enough to be terrific.
Marek
Saturday, January 28, 2012 at 8:44 AMAnything without ‘Wii’ in it would be best, so people don’t think of it as just a different version of the Wii. The same thing happened with the 3DS, a lot of people thought it was another iteration of the DS, like the DSi.
4len
Saturday, January 28, 2012 at 8:58 AMThe ‘Wii’ as a name sucked as it is, however, at this point it really cannot be omitted from the name. With the apparent and extensive backwards compatability for both games and controllers etc, it’s as much a Wii still as the Xbox 360 is still an XBOX. So taking WII out of the name wouldn’t really work.
Shit… even Wii 2 would make more bloody sense. The whole crap about, ‘It’s not about US like we pushed on for 6 years, this one is about YOU (U).. AND still US….’ it’s so bloody dumb. It’s still a gaming console you don’t to be gimmicky about it with that crap.
360/ PS3 are providing an AMAZING amount of service to connect people to every avenue possible and they still aren’t resorting to how powerful their names are indicating how important U and WII are to the company :P
AerintheADEQUATE
Saturday, January 28, 2012 at 9:00 AMI thought the same thing when they first said “Wii U”, but then I realized… “Xbox 360″… “Playstation 3″… so really the most confusing thing about the “Wii U” and “3DS” is the lack of sequential number increases. Just say “Wii 2″ and that’s all they’d need to do it seems :-P
Their problem arises from trying to attribute meaning to the names of their consoles instead of just ‘++’ing the names… which confuses the hell out of people.
lazythinkin"
Saturday, January 28, 2012 at 8:49 AMIt should be obvious, to make it sell like crazy just put an “i” on the front. Everyone would instantly side on the i-Wii-pod thingy woudn’t they?
TheLastQuestion
Saturday, January 28, 2012 at 9:04 AMThe Wii U is the perfect name. It sounds a bit silly (but so did Wii when it was first announced). It’s a mission statement. The Wii was all about bringing casual gamers together. The Wii U still does that, but also caters for YOU – the hardcore gamer, without losing its casual appeal.
4len
Saturday, January 28, 2012 at 11:23 AMWOW! I did not know that Reggie Fils-Aime posts on Kotaku…
Sorry, no disrespect intended but your post is pretty much copy and paste why Nintendo says you should like the Wii U…
Yeah, it really DIDN’T cater to the core gamer, or hell, any PRIOR Nintendo gamer, they went HEY, let’s make it easier for everyone to play together. And that’s sweet, they achieved their goal. But now it’s like, oh but NOW it’s for U too! Get it? How smart, if we change the name to include U, then U will want to buy it.
Personally, it seems like a stupid childish way of trying to get back interest from the crowd they lost. Why not just grow up and name it something more applicable and less gimmicky, it’ll do it’s oiwn work to intrigue the ‘core gamer’ by providing core gaming expectations. Good graphics, intuitive controls and decent online play.
Just my .02 of course…. Nintedno couldn’t give a F&#K what I think XD
Stevorooni
Saturday, January 28, 2012 at 9:08 AMI don’t think they’ll remove the Wii part because of the backwards compatibility with the peripherals, but if they might add something more than a U to the name.
Game Wii
Super Wii
MaWiio
Wii Revolution
Wii 2 – The Secret of the Ooze
Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
Technomancy
Sunday, January 29, 2012 at 1:26 AMWii 2 – Electric boogaloo
Roh
Monday, January 30, 2012 at 9:52 AMWii 2 – Wii Harder.
metalisticpain
Saturday, January 28, 2012 at 9:23 AMI was kinda pumped when it was rumored to just be called “Nintendo”. I would like something similar.
Your Nintendo U idea is really good I think! Its still about U the consumer.
Picky
Saturday, January 28, 2012 at 9:35 AMMy vote goes to super wii, now you’re playing with super power. That or the W ii (wii 2)
masha2932
Saturday, January 28, 2012 at 9:51 AMSuper NIntendo Wii.
Benny
Monday, January 30, 2012 at 9:54 AM+1. Or SNES Returns.
Mr.NIK
Saturday, January 28, 2012 at 10:07 AMYuu
They wanted it to be about you so, why not just call it the Nintendo Yuu
N0NEoftheAB0VE
Saturday, January 28, 2012 at 10:13 AMI think Wii 2 is good – I mean Playstation 2 worked didn’t it
Dean456
Saturday, January 28, 2012 at 10:33 AMI did like it when there were rumors it was going back to just the ‘Nintendo’ or ‘Nintendo Revolution’ I would prefer to go back to calling my nintendo a nintendo and not a Wii
Maybe:
-Nintendo GamePad/ Nintendo G-Pad (like GameCube but with the tablet control)
-Nintendo Touch
-Nintendo Infinite (endless possibilities)
or if you have to keep the Wii name
-WiiDS? it plays off the current success of the 3DS by sounding similar and the sales point of the console is the ‘Dual Screens’ much like the DS was.
Allan
Saturday, January 28, 2012 at 11:03 AMWii On U
Bearjam
Saturday, January 28, 2012 at 11:06 AMWiii
Corey
Saturday, January 28, 2012 at 11:29 AMNintendo Next
Nintendo Generation
Nintendo HD
Nintendo Infinitum
Kid
Saturday, January 28, 2012 at 11:36 AMHow about Game Cuboid?
dovathetop
Saturday, January 28, 2012 at 11:47 AMThey can’t call it Wii 2 for the same reason that Xbox 2 was never used: because it had to compete with a machine that had a 3 on its box. Sad marketing reality.
Patrick
Saturday, January 28, 2012 at 12:52 PMWith that logic maybe it should be called the ‘Nintendo 6′.
NotheMama
Saturday, January 28, 2012 at 12:00 PMNintendo 720 lol
Technomancy
Sunday, January 29, 2012 at 1:29 AMcoming this fall, PlayStation 1480
Rilian
Saturday, January 28, 2012 at 12:04 PMI recall the name Nintendo Viu from another forum. Playing on the second sceen gives you another view of the game.
Mr Waffle
Saturday, January 28, 2012 at 12:06 PMThe “let’s just sandwich an iPad in the middle of a controller and make people wave it around in front of the tv like an utter goose, we’re nintendo so people will buy anything ridiculous we make”.
Or iWii for short.
BR!4N
Saturday, January 28, 2012 at 12:06 PMUltra Nintendo Entertainment System (UNES)
Crispus
Saturday, January 28, 2012 at 12:52 PMUltra Nintendo Entertainment System….or U-NES!!!
Gettit?
Crispus
Saturday, January 28, 2012 at 12:53 PMdammit, i didnt read post above^
Crispus
Saturday, January 28, 2012 at 12:54 PMWhat are the odds?
Crispus
Sunday, January 29, 2012 at 1:04 PMMe so silly billy!
Daryl
Saturday, January 28, 2012 at 1:51 PMyeah this naming business isn’t exactly easy, best I could come up with is Nintendo Entertainment Wii; just think… it’s NEW!
Robbo
Saturday, January 28, 2012 at 2:09 PMWho give a **** what it’s called? As long as I can play fun games and share that experience with my friends they can call it whatever they want. “Wii U” is hardly the worst name they could come up with.