YenRug Posted May 24, 2006 Posted May 24, 2006 IGN's Insider has a regular Japan column, they summarise a mag each time, this time it's FAMITSU No. 911; in this issue they publish the results of a poll from another magazine: The magazine has a mini reader survey that was conducted through its Online sister publication, Famitsu.com. Asked for their opinion of the Wii name, 43.7% said that it's a good name, 22.3% said it's bad, and the remaining 34% responded with "neither good nor bad." One of the favorable opinion holders said that the name fits with the concept as shown in Nintendo's trailer. Naysayers said "it's too hard to say," "I was hoping for a name similar to the Nintendo DS," "Revolution has greater impact," and "it feels like it was made with Europe and America in mind." Not stirring up the debate, again, but I'm just surprised by some of the comments seeing as how a lot of us felt that the Wii name had been decided upon for it's ease of use in Japan. We were told how Revolution was almost impossible to pronounce for Japanese speakers, yet here they are saying how Wii is so hard to pronounce and they preferred Revolution. I think the icing on the cake is the comment about how the name is aimed at the Western market, when we generally felt that nothing could be further from that possibility!
mike-zim Posted May 24, 2006 Posted May 24, 2006 that is strange indeed. i would have thought revolution would be easier for us westerners and wii for the orient. oh well.
Konfucius Posted May 24, 2006 Posted May 24, 2006 I'm also very surprised Japanese think the name is design for our market because I also thought it was for theirs When I clicked on the thread, I thought you would post this: Famitsu asked their readers after E³ what their most anticipated games are: 1. Zelda (Wii, Nintendo) 2. Final Fantasy XIII (PS3, Square Enix) 3. Metal Gear Solid 4 (PS3, Konami) 4. Dragon Quest Swords: (Wii, Square Enix) 5. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii, Nintendo) 6. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii, Nintendo) 7. Final Fantasy III (NDS, Square Enix) 8. Monster Hunter 3 (PS3, Capcom) 9. Biohazard-Serie (Wii, Capcom) 10. Halo 3 (Xbox 360) Which hardware are you most looking forward to? Wii - 68,8 % PS3 - 21,0 % Xbox 360 - 7,2 % NDS - 3,0 % What do you think of the price of the PS3? 88,4 % - I think the price is too high. 10,9 % - I think the price is appropiate. 0,7 % - The console is inexpensive. Source: http://www.gamefront.de Really surprised the Wii is so far ahead in the hardware question. I'd like to see Sony's faces now
Hellfire Posted May 24, 2006 Posted May 24, 2006 They say that naysayers said that, not most people, you're clearly focusing on the negative aspects. Wii is obviously easy to say in Japanese.
YenRug Posted May 24, 2006 Author Posted May 24, 2006 I know it was the naysayers, but the comments are still surprising as they're pretty much the mirror of the problems that some of us have with the name, they also disprove some of the reasoning behind dropping Revolution (the fact it was claimed as unpronouncable, whereas some Japanese say they preferred it). As I said, not about stirring up the debate over the name again, barring a miracle it's not going to change, it's just to illustrate some of the misconceptions we all make.
Jamba Posted May 24, 2006 Posted May 24, 2006 Because it's phone directory shaped? Oh btw can someone translate the german please?
Hellfire Posted May 24, 2006 Posted May 24, 2006 Most famitsu readers are Sony fanboys, this comes as no surprise and is in no way representative of the Japanese opinion. I don't know if most of them like it or not, chances are they don't, but the name is doing it's job and it's no misconception that wii is easy to say in japanese.
Sparko Posted May 24, 2006 Posted May 24, 2006 Because it's phone directory shaped? Oh btw can someone translate the german please? 88,4 % - I think the price is high. 10,9 % - The price is appropriate. 0,7 % - The console is inexpensive. There ya go.
Kurtle Squad Posted May 24, 2006 Posted May 24, 2006 Wow...the Japanese were even with the PS3 and Wii before more-or-less...Now it's all Wii!!!
Konfucius Posted May 25, 2006 Posted May 25, 2006 Oh btw can someone translate the german please? My bad, didn't translate it, but I see Sparko helped out already.
solitanze Posted May 25, 2006 Posted May 25, 2006 Hopefully, these compiled statistics turn into actual sales for Nintendo and the higher preference over other systems becomes a reality.
Flaight Posted May 25, 2006 Posted May 25, 2006 Not stirring up the debate, again, but I'm just surprised by some of the comments seeing as how a lot of us felt that the Wii name had been decided upon for it's ease of use in Japan. We were told how Revolution was almost impossible to pronounce for Japanese speakers, yet here they are saying how Wii is so hard to pronounce and they preferred Revolution. I think the icing on the cake is the comment about how the name is aimed at the Western market, when we generally felt that nothing could be further from that possibility! Why, all of a sudden! Have you lost your wisdom cap now? The common denominator is that both them and us are speaking from gamers' point of view. As Miyamoto said, Revolution is threatening to non-gamers and that's why he decided against it. The divide isn't West vs Japan. It's Gamers vs Non-Gamers. I would've thought you'd know that without being told.
YenRug Posted May 25, 2006 Author Posted May 25, 2006 Why, all of a sudden! Have you lost your wisdom cap now? The common denominator is that both them and us are speaking from gamers' point of view. As Miyamoto said, Revolution is threatening to non-gamers and that's why he decided against it. The divide isn't West vs Japan. It's Gamers vs Non-Gamers. I would've thought you'd know that without being told. And if you'd read my posts elsewhere, you may have remembered that I have commented that the name is aimed at the non-gamer market; my whole point of posting this was to show that, whilst we're blaming the Japanese market for the name, the Japanese market is blaming the Western market. This wasn't about ignorance, this was about enlightening people to the fact that we're not as different as we may think.
Flaight Posted May 27, 2006 Posted May 27, 2006 The thrust of your first post seems to be that the above-mentioned Japanese comments are a surprise. I don't think it is. I know you aren't here to stir things up - I know you from the days of the old forum and know you won't do that. It's just that I was genuinely surprised by the fact that your first post came across as if this whole issue is a surprise. If anything, I think this news varifies what we knew all along - Nintendo has put a lot of emphasis on non-gamers (as opposed to Japan vs West argument).
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