nintendo wii

[halem111]

so basically is the nintendo wii the biggest chinese laundry man joke ever????

 

[sandmannight]

I found it a bit amusing
But nintendo is gonna regret that one.

 

[guruofchem]

I don't know about the Chinese laundry jokes, but the marketing genius who decided to name the console after a human excretory product should be sacked, especially since they ditched a perfectly workable name in the process. This one is right up there with Chevy trying to sell Novas in Spanish speaking countries...

 

[robwright]

Good call on Chevy "no go." Totally forgot about the Nova fiasco.

The strange thing about Wii is that Nintendo never said Revolution was the code anem. In fact, last week after writing the story we still saw "Revolution" all over their US site. Never once did we hear from Nintendo that Revolution wasn't going to be the name on the box. Very, very strange...

 

[nottheking]

I know I'm going to get a lot of nagging for this, but I personally don't find the "Wii" name to be as stupid as many people claim. I personally see it in how the person opts to interpret it; those jokes, to me, merely seem to display a bit of a dirty mind you people largely have.

When I first saw the name, the first thing that came to MY mind was "Wireless," and that the name somehow was derrived from that. After finding out that this, indeed, was not actually the case, it became clear to me that perhaps the name was far more clever than most people thought; on its own, it means almost nothing. However, people will inevitably attach their own meanings to it.

Of course, perhaps it wasn't as good an idea, finding that most people are attaching NEGATIVE meanings to it, and also that Nintendo, for some reason, attempted to provide their own explanation for the name.

This one is right up there with Chevy trying to sell Novas in Spanish speaking countries...

Which, like most urban legends, is patently false. (link)

Even *I* can tell that such a connotation is quite a stretch; as the page notes, the actual phrase is TWO WORDS, and not to mention, that's an odd conjugation; "Va" is conjugated as a present tense, as directed at someone informally; the closest English translation is "You are going." If anything, an interpretation of the name as the (in)famous Spanish phrase would imply that it was the DRIVER that wasn't going anywhere, not the CAR.

Also, note the page's comment that the Mexican government has been seeling a brand of gasoline named "Nova" for years. Note the selling, as it's not "tried to sell."

Also, that's not the only site to note these things; Spanish.about.com also covered this as well, saying pretty much the same things.

I apologize for bursting an UL bubble, but that just happens to perhaps be the one that irks me the most, for some reason. Perhaps because it involves usage of written language.

The strange thing about Wii is that Nintendo never said Revolution was the code anem. In fact, last week after writing the story we still saw "Revolution" all over their US site. Never once did we hear from Nintendo that Revolution wasn't going to be the name on the box. Very, very strange...

Actually, it was pretty much covered everywhere, as "Nintendo's next console, code-named 'Revolution'"...

...Anybody remember "Dolphin," or "Project Reality?" Or more recently, "Xenon?"

 

[captaincharisma]

I don't find anything wrong with it. its just a name like Ipod and RAZR. ment to be edgy. so what if all the geeks hate it ment to be a general gaming system anyway not like a system for the hardcore gamer who lives in there parents basement never to go outside.

 

[sandmannight]

The first time I heard about that NOVA thing I laughed so hard

 

[Aaron McKenna]

Just imagine yourself walking into a shop and saying "I'd like a wii."

 

[crizazykid2]

8O no thanks.