Topic: Bye bye Game Boy? It may be the end of the line for our beloved handheld.

[Mashiro]

Source: Nintendojo Harrison: Nintendo May Retire Game Boy

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(...) Now it appears there may be room for only two pillars and the Nintendo Game Boy might be on its way out.

So says George Harrison, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Corporate Communications of NOA, in an E3 interview with GameDaily BIZ, in which he says "This year in our marketing you really won't see much push against Game Boy itself, so it will kind of seek its own level. It's hard to say in the future if we will ever bring back the Game Boy trademark."

[Mode7]

That's expected. I don't see why anyone should be surprised --- the GBA served a long, healthy life. It's purpose was not in vain. 5-6-7 years, however you put it, that's a huge dent considering the massive sales! The DS continues the legacy.

[Chozo Ghost]

I really hope Nintendo's next handheld will bear the Gameboy name. It will probably have two screens like the DS, and they'll be touch sensitive like the DS, but the Gameboy name is just better than DS... it sounds better when you say it.

Plus it has a legacy. It has been around for about 20 years...

[Ian Sane]

Deep down everyone knew the "third pillar" stuff was just Nintendo protecting the Gameboy brand name (and thus Nintendo's reputation for portables) in case the DS flopped.  They could have ditched the extra screen and touchscreen capabilities and just called it the new Gameboy if the DS was bombing and they needed a new "Gameboy" in a hurry.  The DS is successful so there's no need to protect anything anymore so there's no need to pretend the DS is seperate from Nintendo's main portable line.  If anything the DS is so successful that Nintendo probably wants to de-emphasize the third pillar stuff so as to associate the Gameboy and DS as part of Nintendo's portable line.

They should call the next portable the Gameboy DS and watch as the money just spills in.

[GoldenPhoenix]

The GameBoy name is sexist and indicates it is for kids all rolled up into one.

[Mario]

^ Yeah that was a real problem for the 150 million or so Gameboy owners.

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They could have ditched the extra screen and touchscreen capabilities and just called it the new Gameboy if the DS was bombing and they needed a new "Gameboy" in a hurry.

Can someone explain this to me. A system is bombing, you take away it's new features and change the name, now its a success? That seems to me like a complete disaster.

[Kairon]

Well... it IS nice that the DS moniker is unisex.

Anyways, Nintendo could EASILY give the GB a classy farewell if they, I don't know... LOCALIZED some games like Sound Voyager, the bit generations titles, Mother 3 and Rhythm Tengoku!

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Originally posted by: Mario
Can someone explain this to me. A system is bombing, you take away it's new features and change the name, now its a success? That seems to me like a complete disaster.

That's what's going through Sony's mind right now.

[Urkel]

The Gameboy name wasn't so much sexist as it was teh kiddeh. Bringing that name back at this point would likely do more harm than good, considering that the DS has been able to reach an older demographic. A much older demographic.

It's not like the DS needs a boost, anyway.

[Michael8983]

The third-pillar thing worked for a while, I don't think Nintendo ever meant for it to be a permanent thing.
I mean the DS has been out for years now and they're just NOW ready to retire the Gameboy which until recently was still selling quite well.
In fact it was still one of the top selling systems for two holidays seasons after the DS's release.

[Infernal Monkey]

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Originally posted by: GoldenPhoenix
The GameBoy name is sexist and indicates it is for kids all rolled up into one.

Fun fact! Both Barbie on GB and Angelica's .. something something for GBC actually messed with the 'Gameboy' strip down the side of box, turning it into 'Gamegirl'.  Sales were probably very low as a result. *Parent walks into store, GAMEGIRL???!! WHAT IS THAT??!!! MY DAUGHTER ONLY HAS A GAMEBOY!!!???!! MY BRAIN!!!!???*

[Rhoq]

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Originally posted by: Mario

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They could have ditched the extra screen and touchscreen capabilities and just called it the new Gameboy if the DS was bombing and they needed a new "Gameboy" in a hurry.

Can someone explain this to me. A system is bombing, you take away it's new features and change the name, now its a success? That seems to me like a complete disaster.

The gamble that Nintendo took with the DS was the touch screen. Nobody knew how the general public would react. Nintendo protected themselves by keeping the DS and GameBoy separate entities. This is where the whole "third pillar" strategy came into play. If the DS proved to be unsuccessful, they could have phased it out and the GameBoy line would have come out unscathed by the DS experiment. From that failure, Nintendo could have revised the DS hardware to get rid of the touch screen for the next incarnation of the "GameBoy". It would have been successful because of the GB name. Instead, the DS served as a proof of concept for the Wii and showed the world that people want to experience a new way to play their games.

[Ian Sane]

"Can someone explain this to me. A system is bombing, you take away it's new features and change the name, now its a success? That seems to me like a complete disaster."

Rhoq explained my logic quite well.  Another part of it is that without all the extra stuff the DS is very much what people expected out of the next Gameboy anyway.  It increased the amount of face buttons to match the SNES and was now both 3D and online.  A lot of it relies also on fooling the ignorant.  WE would know the new Gameboy would be a gimped DS but the general public that rejected the touchscreen wouldn't.

Now Nintendo could have dumped an unsuccessful DS and released a totally different Gameboy but why go to that trouble when a stripped DS already has the technology to deliver the Gameboy people want?  The hardware is already being produced so tinker with it a bit and you've got the backup Gameboy for a DS flop.  It's no different than Nintendo converting unsold Radarscope arcade machines into Donkey Kong.

I can't believe anyone is seriously suggesting that "Gameboy" isn't a good name and it's good that its gone.  It outsold everything.  It wouldn't matter if it was called GameHitler.  It sold huge so people associate the name "Gameboy" with quality portable systems regardless of any supposed sexism or kid stuff.  In know tons of adults who owned Gameboys.  It was a very popular brand name.

[Mashiro]

Agreed with Ian Sane on the branding of Gameboy and with the remarks as to how the third pillar thing was set up by Nintendo as a fail safe incase DS flopped.

I wonder what the "next" DS will be called. . . DS Advance. =D  

[Kairon]

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Originally posted by: Ian Sane
It wouldn't matter if it was called GameHitler.

[UltimatePartyBear]

I don't know about that.  If the DS has really expanded the market, then many DS owners did not own Game Boys, and the name may not mean anything to them.

I didn't have a problem with it when they didn't call the N64 the NES64 (or the Ultra NES), so I don't see why they should have to keep the same name for all their handhelds, either.

[Ian Sane]

"I wonder what the 'next' DS will be called. . . DS Advance."

Considering how many people I know called it "Game Boy Advanced" with the "d" at the end Nintendo probably should avoid that naming convention again.  Typically company's don't like it when people don't get the names of their products correct and even people who owned GBAs were screwing it up.

[Chozo Ghost]

The Gameboy name is NOT sexist or ageist. It does imply that the device is a boy, but that doesn't mean the people who play it have to be. There is no rule saying girls or older people can't play it....  it is just like how Mario is obviously an Italian plumber. You don't have to be an Italian Plumber to play Mario games. Same with the Gameboy.

So I would like it if Nintendo did resurrect the Gameboy name for the next handheld. It has nostalgia, you know. But if they don't, then maybe they can use the Wii name like Sony uses the Playstation name in their handheld? They could call it the "Pocket Wii", or "Wii Jr", or "Wii Portable".

[Chozo Ghost]

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Originally posted by: Ian Sane
"I wonder what the 'next' DS will be called. . . DS Advance."

Considering how many people I know called it "Game Boy Advanced" with the "d" at the end Nintendo probably should avoid that naming convention again.  Typically company's don't like it when people don't get the names of their products correct and even people who owned GBAs were screwing it up.

I agree companies don't like it when people get their products' names wrong, but can that really be avoided? It is pretty much inevitable that when you have an abbreviation someone is going to start saying one of the letters stands for something other than what it really does.

That's a good thing about the name "Wii". It is so short that no one needs to abbreviate it and get confused. Nintendo should either use that or consider something like that for their next handheld if they are dropping the Gameboy name for good. Everyone hated "Wii" when the name was first announced, but it is actually something you remember and people talk about it, so it has fulfilled its purpose.

But "DS" on the other hand is a very unsexy name, and Nintendo should drop it next generation, in my opinion. It sells well and all, but the name could be better.

[UncleBob]

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Originally posted by: PartyBear
I don't know about that.  If the DS has really expanded the market, then many DS owners did not own Game Boys, and the name may not mean anything to them.

Keep in mind that a lot of the "older" DS owners could be folks who bought a Game Boy for Tetris 20 years ago and haven't touched it since.  While the DS may have "expanded" into the 30-50 year old market, those people were 10-30 back when the original Game Boy came out - so the "Game Boy " name might still mean something to them (for better or worse)...

[Chozo Ghost]

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Originally posted by: PartyBear
I don't know about that.  If the DS has really expanded the market, then many DS owners did not own Game Boys, and the name may not mean anything to them.

I didn't have a problem with it when they didn't call the N64 the NES64 (or the Ultra NES), so I don't see why they should have to keep the same name for all their handhelds, either.

I was a bit disappointed with the N64 name. I understand Nintendo wanted to include 64 in the name so consumers understood that it had better graphics than the other consoles of the time, but couldn't they have continued their naming conventions from the last two consoles?

It may have sold a bit better if they did. Probably not enough to make much of a difference, but it seems when you throw out the name of a product line and start a new one from scratch you have to spend a bit more work to build that new name's recognition up. If the N64 were named "Ultra NES", or "NES64", then everyone would know it was a continuation of the popular NES generations which came before it.

Same with the DS, really. If it had the Gameboy name in it and if Nintendo didn't talk about this third pillar nonsense, then it would have been adopted much swifter than it was. People look in display cases and see this DS thing and they think, "what the hell is this?". But if it has the Gameboy name in it then they can reasonably assume it will play Gameboy games and will be a direct successor.

So yeah, the DS is doing great, but it would be doing better and would be doing better earlier in its life if it had the Gameboy name to it... Just my 2 cents, though.

[Kairon]

Apparently, the DS is not doing well enough for us.

[Louieturkey]

Yeah, being the fastest selling system of all time is just not enough for Chozo Ghost.

[Chozo Ghost]

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Originally posted by: Louieturkey
Yeah, being the fastest selling system of all time is just not enough for Chozo Ghost.

It didn't do that well initially. Even in Japan it struggled with the PSP for the first few months.... and in the US it took even longer for it to pull ahead.

It is selling great now, so don't get me wrong (though in the USA it could still be doing better). My point was that it would have done better initially if people knew it was a genuine GB successor from the time it launched instead of being marketed as a "third pillar".

[Kairon]

No. Two things spurred on the DS' explosive growth, and none of them were things relating to the "GB" moniker:

1. Games that made use of its unique capabilities: Brain Age, Nintendogs, etc.

2. A better hardware design, the Lite, to overcome the psychological barriers consumers had when viewing the original's bulky design

Calling it a gameboy would have no relation at all to these two issues.

As a spoony bard once said: "What's in a name? A rose by any other name et cetera et cetera et cetera shall we dance?"

... I'm sorry, what were we talking about again?

[Ages]

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Originally posted by: PartyBear
I don't know about that.  If the DS has really expanded the market, then many DS owners did not own Game Boys, and the name may not mean anything to them.

I didn't have a problem with it when they didn't call the N64 the NES64 (or the Ultra NES), so I don't see why they should have to keep the same name for all their handhelds, either.

It's not that simple PartyBear.  Although the N64 wasn't called the NES64, it really didn't matter since all home Nintendo systems were called "Nintendo" by the average person.  It didn't matter if it was the "Original" Nintendo, the Super Nintendo or the Nintendo 64, to everyone not in the know, it was just Nintendo.  Same convention goes for the Gameboy.  It didn't matter that there was the DS.  Every handheld Nintendo had made was a Gameboy.  Not many people I knew called it a "Gameboy Advance" or a "Gameboy Pocket" it was just Gameboy.

Edit: Also, it's impossible for Nintendo to kill off the Gameboy