Perrin Kaplan Comments on Nintendo Wii

[DCK]

I was speaking to a dutch friend, who was telling me in Holland that wee means the same thing. However, he pointed out that Holland have a clothes company called "We" and the population have become accepting of the name, not associating it with urine.

 

Still out of the millions of names Nintendo could choose, it is the most risky and will alienate members of the public, losing sales for a silly, avoidable reason.

As far as my knowledge of Dutch goes, wee is not associated with peeing. The 'We' (could be assocatied to 'who' in Dutch) had no trouble integrating, as most people do pronounce it in English style, like every English word.

 

I seriously doubt this is going to integrate well, and I don't want a name to be integrated so much. This name is terrible, period.

 

I'll be honest, I haven't a clue, very strange and surreal behaviour from such a large company.

I couldn't agree more. I'm hoping that Perrin Kaplan was drunk as hell and just made this up to have a laugh.

 

They have to change this name. Philosophy is allright with a name, but not if everyone is going to laugh at it.

[Teppo Holmqvist]

If thats the case this is awesome marketing, the name is out there, by E3 wii will be out there (apparently its been on radio1 for a start, so thats got the word out in the UK), then at E3 - this is why. Everyone now turns from laughter to "wow".

 

It is quite normal marketing tactic. Wii is quickly spreading around the net and though most people don't like the name, it is universal name that is easy to remember. By the time of E3, whole childish "it is wee" complaining has mostly disappeared from the net and new topic will take its place. But the "damage" is already done. Everybody remembers new name and it will reach subconscious level on gamer's psyche. You could even go so far as to say this is "perfect mindfuck" that every marketing guy is seeking.

[ShadowV7]

So funny if this ended up as a huge pre E3 joke Even though it's not ,it's good that they are saying the reason's in the name so people will adapt to it before E3.Good plan.

[Pizza]

But isnt the whole point that the console (no, I can't bear to name it) should reach out to new potential gamers? These people won't have heard of it before, and their first reaction will be the same as the first reaction everywhere:

1. Wii? What the hell is that?

2. Oh, it's pronounced Wee. Haha, wee!

3. I'm not going into a shop and saying that I want a wee.

 

And the key thing is that people will have this reaction when they might consider whether or not to buy it. Nintendo needn't care what we think- we're all gamers and fans so we'll buy it anyway. But they are risking putting off any potential buyers who speak english.

 

And it's not fair to say that people are just being immature. If your marketing relies on customers being perfectly mature, you have overlooked a massive chunk of the population.

 

Justifying it with philosophical bulls*** is pretty weak too. You shouldn't have to explain your name. Call it the Nintendo Together or Nintendo All if you want, at least everyone will get that first time.

 

Plus of course, this is nothing like Amazon, iPod, Virgin etc. Amazon is just a name, it's not like rainforests are illegal or anything. iPod is a gadget, and they can get away with names like AW-1000, and apple use iMac iBook etc. Again it doesn't sound stupid. Virgin is the only slightly dodgy one, but since we were introduced to it through a radio station (where you can say whatever you want in a cool way, inbetween the ad breaks) nobody cared when they saw a virgin train.

 

Personally it makes no difference- I'll buy a revolution anyway. But if nintendo ruins it's marketing, sales drop, third party support drops, and I won't be able to play Red Steel 2. And that makes me mad.

/rant