Nintendo’s Official Wii U Facebook Page Gets A Curious Name Change

Here’s an odd e-mail that those of us who “like” Nintendo’s official Wii U Facebook page received today. Are you thinking what I first thought when I got that? They couldn’t be thinking about…they wouldn’t change the name… no way, right? (Spoiler: No way is probably right!)

Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime told Kotaku just a couple of weeks ago that “[t]he challenges we’re facing with Wii U are not issues of the name,” brushing off my suggestion that Nintendo’s new console might be faring better if it had been called the Wii 2.

On September 20, the same day that Nintendo’s Wii U Facebook page is changing its name to “Nintendo Console Gaming,” the 32GB Wii U will drop $US50 in price to $US299.99. And on that same day Nintendo will start selling a special Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD bundle in a box that looks like this…

When I met with Nintendo recently, they had that box there. I held it in my own two hands. I’m pretty sure it still said “Wii U” on it.

I’ve asked Nintendo what’s going on with that Facebook name change. If they say anything about it, I’ll let you know.

Hmmm.

Update: We’ve heard that those who “like” the official Nintendo 3DS page got an e-mail today indicating that that page will change to read as “Nintendo Handheld Gaming.” That’s handy, because then Nintendo won’t have to create an Official 2DS Facebook page!

Update 2: The best theory about this so far is that Nintendo is trying to combine their Facebook pages, which, given that the official Wii Facebook page has six times the likes of the Wii U one, would be a smart social media move by Nintendo. If this is what’s happening — and if it works — suddenly a LOT more people will be hearing about the Wii U regularly on Facebook.

To contact the author of this post, write to stephentotilo@kotaku.com or find him on Twitter @stephentotilo.