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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.