Topic: Email Nintendo and tell them you HATE the name!

[PaLaDiN]

Nintendo obviously has a huge marketing blitz planned for Wii. It's a brand new name, it's aimed at a much larger market than is traditional... Nintendo needs to make sure everybody knows about Wii, not just gamers anymore. Its unique name will only help in that respect. People will have no idea what Wii is about until they ask and/or try it out, thus forcing them to take a look at machines they would typically dismiss off-hand.

Xbox, Playstation, Gamecube and even Revolution are typically arrogant and elitist videogame console names and are thus easily dismissed. Wii has no such connotation; it has a mostly blank slate to work with, and people's impressions of it are much more likely to come from word of mouth, marketing and personal experience.

[mantidor]

Im past the funny at this point, Im starting to agree with Ian more. The concept of the console is amazing and I love it and I cant wait to buy it, the only thing that will stop me is if E3 goes horribly wrong, every reporter hates the demos and MP3 ends up like some sort of Hunters-like game.

But... marketing is everything, having the better product WONT guarantee your success, Im very, very doubtful now that the concept and the awesome controller will help the console to carry on despite the name, specially with such an agressive and excellent competitor in the marketing department as sony is, sony blows away Nintendo in marketing, thats unarguable, this desision is making sony the job even easier.

The worst part, all this happens just because of the stupid name and the arrogance of Nintendo, they can come up with other names that arent "exxtreme" like "revolution" or "xbox" and unfriendly to the "non gamer" but also that arent so badly recieved as this one, they knew this was coming, yet they stick with it, so because it sounds like "we" and the "i" represent people playing together it rocks and we have to deal with it? thats simply not enough reason to outweight the backslash that the name is recieving and will recieve everywhere from nongamers and gamers alike.

[IceCold]

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TP would've sold better, and moved more Cubes, if it had been released when WW was... It would've outsold it if we'd seen it for Xmas of 2005. By the time we see it, frankly, I think the Cube's going to be the last thing on most peoples' minds.

And also, Wind Waker's preorder bonus was brilliant and sold a lot of copies..

[Strell]

Ian, if I send you ten bucks, will you not buy a Wii?

Cuz that would be ten bucks well spent.

Please take me up on my offer.

[Ian Sane]

Is there any reason whatsoever to assume a company that was completely unable to market "Gamecube" worth a damn is going to be able to market "Wii" so effectively?  I mean I was concerned they would be unable to market "Revolution" worth crap and that's a cool name.

This whole console's success seems to rely a lot on people actually sitting down and trying the thing out.  Thus it relies on successful marketing more than anything.  Yet marketing is the one thing that Nintendo just absolutely SUCKS at.

Plus I would assume that a better marketer would think of a better name.  It seems kind of a odd for a company to pick such a horrible name and then manage to market it successfully.  If you're so good at marketing why would you pick a name that requires a long explanation for anyone to even understand?

[Smash_Brother]

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Thank you, that's the funniest thing i've ever read in my entire life.

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<sarcasm> We've got a Nostradamus in the forum! </sarcasm>

When you don't even pose a counter argument, it further proves Ian's point.

See what Paladin did here? This is a counter argument. You look like less of a nebbish Nintendo fanboy when you use one.

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Originally posted by: PaLaDiN
Okay Ian, have fun avoiding a console whose name you "don't care about" because of its name... and what your no doubt extensive marketing experience tells you other people will think about it. Because after all, market success is more important than having fun. Your dollars shouldn't go towards buying things to have fun with, they should go toward guaranteeing you belong in a group that will get fun things later.

I'm with Deguello. Enough with the immaturity... one day was all right, I assumed you all weren't that serious. Now it's just... kind of sad.

I'm still going to buy one (read my sig quote, heh), but Ian's point is not that he's afraid to buy one because of the name but that the console will bomb in NA because of the name and it'll be the GC all over again.

Frankly, this is my concern as well, and like I said, unless Nintendo advertises this thing more than the iPod, I don't see how it's going to take off.

Nintendo's name should have been one that all of their fans (at least 95%) would have heard and said, "That's PERFECT!" If anything, we have the exact opposite ratio going on. If the majority of Nintendo's fans don't like it, what are the non-gamers going to think? What are OTHER gamers going to think?

Even Japan isn't pleased with it.

The Rev was likely going to sell JUST fine with its current name and setup. Why throw one more hurdle in its path with a bizarre name which needs to be explained before a person even knows how to pronounce it and even then will likely still sound ridiculous to them?

If Nintendo was going for a joke to make people laugh at their console, I'm sure it worked, but who's going to take a console seriously (and buy it) when it can't even take ITSELF seriously?

I'll enjoy my Rev, no doubt, but I don't think Ian is too far off. I think people need to get out of PGC's forums and see what the rest of the internet is saying because you can't sit in a safety web of loyal Nintendo fanboys out there and denounce dissenting opinions on the name.

People hate the name and many people who were on the fence will likely not buy it because of the name. If Ian doesn't want to buy a console which is basically jeopardizing its own future, then I don't blame him.

[zakkiel]

Exactly. The only purpose of a name is to help sell a console. Why would you ever choose a name that makes it harder to sell a console?  

[31 Flavas]

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Originally posted by: mantidor

Im very, very doubtful now that the concept and the awesome controller will help the console to carry on despite the name, specially with such an agressive and excellent competitor in the marketing department as sony is, sony blows away Nintendo in marketing, thats unarguable, this desision is making sony the job even easier.

Ahh, right, who can forget those awesome 'urban ranger' grafitti or the commercials with the tag line "PSP. It's like an acorn, that you can take out side." Maybe the tag line should have been, "PSP. It's like 'Member's Only' from the 80's, but in 2006."

[Strell]

You know I expect dumbassery out of clueless 12 year old Xbox and PS2 huggers, but not out of Nintendo fans, especially when the majority of people here have obviously passed themselves off as informed, intelligent people.  

On the one hand you are smart enough to look past colorful graphics to the gameplay.

And on the other you scream about the name.  A name for godssake.

Please.  If you won't buy on name alone, don't.  Then don't come back and whine at the forums.  And don't pass yourself off as this kind of enlightened gamer when it's obvious you're just a tool because you're branding sh*t before it's even available based on the name alone.  

If I want to have a discussion about marketing potential and other things regarding sales, I'll do it in another thread.  But as far as I am concerned about the name, it's livable.  I can deal with it.  You're using an excuse of marketing to mask/disguise your childish refusal of the name, hoping that will fool most people.  I'm not blindsided by some arrogant mofo trying to talk down to me to hide their own thoughts.  Give me a break.

We'll dredge up sales reports a year from now and see what happens.  

[nitsu niflheim]

The name doesn't mean anything to me.  I've slept on it and actually am more keen to it than I was yesterday.

[PaLaDiN]

"If Nintendo was going for a joke to make people laugh at their console, I'm sure it worked, but who's going to take a console seriously (and buy it) when it can't even take ITSELF seriously?"

Why would a console that you play games on take itself seriously? Why would you need to take it seriously in order to buy it? This is going to be a sort of impulse buy, something to buy in order to have fun, and doubtless the price will reflect that. I hate to bring up toys because of the negative connotations, but that's basically what it is... a toy. Please stop with these silly delusions of serious grandeur... you're going to buy Wii because you want to have fun, not because you've carefully considered the matter and decided that it'll offer you sufficient return on investment and guaranteed popularity in return for your unflinching loyalty. There really is such a thing as overthinking simple decisions.

See, this crap is exactly why Nintendo is so easy to dismiss these days. Gamers have dug themselves into an elitist hole that everybody else just doesn't get. I remember being three years old and buying the NES just to play with Mario... I couldn't imagine doing that anymore these days because "games" take themselves way too seriously now, and it saddens me. My 8-year-old brother is buying a PSP, not because of the games, not because it's fun, but because it's cool. Do you see nothing wrong with this?

Like it or not, the market has mostly gone to crap and it does need a drastic overhaul, and a thoroughly unexpected name like Wii can only serve to help. The more I think of Wii, the more Revolution just seems forced, elitist, cliche and overly serious.

[Jin-X]

I don't get it, some people here must have been home schooled at Nintendo HQ. When some here say GROW UP, etc, they need to tell it to Joe 6pack, because anybody that has gone to school knows the immaturity and insecurity of a lot og people, that's why the name is horrible, it hurts its image tremendously, and Nintendo doesn't have a good image to begin with.

How can you not understand this? ITS NOT ABOUT US HARDCORE NINTENDO FANS, ITS ABOUT ALL THE OTHER PEOPLE THAT DIDNT BUY THE GC. SALES IMPACT 3RD PARTY SUPPORT. AMERICANS ARE VERY IMAGE-CONSCIOUS AND STUFF THAT IS STUPID AND INCONSEQUENTIAL, BUT THAT IS HOW IT IS REGARDLESS.

Sorry for Caps but I used them to get a point across.

[Smash_Brother]

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Originally posted by: PaLaDiN My 8-year-old brother is buying a PSP, not because of the games, not because it's fun, but because it's cool. Do you see nothing wrong with this?

You just answered your own question.

Unless Nintendo has completely abandoned the NA market, then they're going to have an insanely uphill battle when it comes to elevating "wii" to the status of "cool".

In fact, giving the tendency of their marketing to be awful, I don't think they can do it.

Revolution was at least a socially acceptable name. It wasn't diminutive, spelled oddly and didn't have any meaning other than its intended meaning. You didn't need a pamphlet to understand what Nintendo was trying to get across.

I think most people won't BOTHER to learn what "wii" means. I think most people will assume it's something pretentious and uninteresting and never think twice about it. People are bombarded with so much advertising crap these days that I hardly expect Nintendo to be able to catch their eye, especially when Sony and MS have roughly 20X their marketing budget.

I'd LOVE to be wrong here, but "wii" will have a harder time earning respect in the eyes of the potential American buyer than Revolution will and that's my primary gripe with the name.

No one wants to buy the console that is a "joke", they want to buy the cool console. The Rev had a very good chance of BEING that console, especially with games like Red Steel in its launch lineup, but the "wee" practically demands that the image-conscious American does NOT buy it. Again, this is a market in which Nintendo BADLY needs to recover and giving their console a bad pun for a name is not the road to that recovery.

[jasonditz]

"Americans" aren't some undifferentiated mass of people all looking for the l33test thing they can find.

Kids are insecure, and you're right, a lot of them won't buy it because it's not the cool thing to do. But lets face facts, Nintendo hasn't been a cool thing for a highschooler to buy in nearly 20 years. That boat sailed long before we heard of Wii, and no amount of Tony Hawk look-alikes playing GBAs was going to change that.

The non-gamer market isn't that market. The 40 year old housewife who wants to play the painting simulation doesn't have any misconceptions that she's cool. The 60-something couple playing brain training isn't operating under the assumption that it's going to get them laid.

Real gamers are going to buy it if it's what they want regardless of the name. Non-gamers are going to buy it if it's what they want regardless of the name. Fashion-conscious teens and tweens are neither a growth market in the video game industry nor with all the advertising it takes to convince them buying it will enhance their cool are they a particularly high margin segment, it's best to let Sony and MSFT spend billions advertising towards them and just grab the whole rest of the market.

[Jin-X]

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Originally posted by: PaLaDiN
My 8-year-old brother is buying a PSP, not because of the games, not because it's fun, but because it's cool. Do you see nothing wrong with this?


That's the point.

[PaLaDiN]

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Originally posted by: Smash_Brother


You just answered your own question.

Unless Nintendo has completely abandoned the NA market, then they're going to have an insanely uphill battle when it comes to elevating "wii" to the status of "cool".

In fact, giving the tendency of their marketing to be awful, I don't think they can do it.

You realize you're just strengthening my point: they need to find another way to sell the console to people, because this "cool" thing just isn't working out for them.

Nintendo needs to utterly divorce themselves from the whole Sony and Microsoft marketing style of "cool" and reach out to new people the way they reached out to me with the NES and Mario... the message should be, "buy this console to have some simple fun". Forget about "cool". Forget about catering to the whims of an increasingly jaded and elitist mindset. Give my brother a reason other than a pathetic desire to be "cool" to buy their console.

This would be a good time to note, the guy takes the DS out of my hands everytime I fly back home and doesn't give it back till I leave. The only reason he isn't buying one of his own is because I promised him mine when I get a DS Lite.

[Jin-X]

Sorry Jasonditz, but sales say otherwise.

[Jin-X]

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Originally posted by: PaLaDiN

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Originally posted by: Smash_Brother


You just answered your own question.

Unless Nintendo has completely abandoned the NA market, then they're going to have an insanely uphill battle when it comes to elevating "wii" to the status of "cool".

In fact, giving the tendency of their marketing to be awful, I don't think they can do it.

You realize you're just strengthening my point: they need to find another way to sell the console to people, because this "cool" thing just isn't working out for them.

Nintendo needs to utterly divorce themselves from the whole Sony and Microsoft marketing style of "cool" and reach out to new people the way they reached out to me with the NES and Mario... the message should be, "buy this console to have some simple fun". Forget about "cool". Forget about catering to the whims of an increasingly jaded and elitist mindset. Give my brother a reason other than a pathetic desire to be "cool" to buy their console.

This would be a good time to note, the guy takes the DS out of my hands everytime I fly back home and doesn't give it back till I leave. The only reason he isn't buying one of his own is because I promised him mine when I get a DS Lite.

The DS has no name issues, and Nintendo has never tried the "cool" thing, they may think otherwise, but they haven't. And I hate the kewl thing but the bottomline is that increases sales which means more games, intead of droughts.

[mantidor]

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Originally posted by: 31 Flavas

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Originally posted by: mantidor

Im very, very doubtful now that the concept and the awesome controller will help the console to carry on despite the name, specially with such an agressive and excellent competitor in the marketing department as sony is, sony blows away Nintendo in marketing, thats unarguable, this desision is making sony the job even easier.

Ahh, right, who can forget those awesome 'urban ranger' grafitti or the commercials with the tag line "PSP. It's like an acorn, that you can take out side." Maybe the tag line should have been, "PSP. It's like 'Member's Only' from the 80's, but in 2006."

Say what you want, but the psp is almost head to head with the DS in NA WITH NO GAMES WHATSOEVER, just check the NPD data. the only seller has been GTA and it didnt do as good as it should.

In sony's case, a really bad product is being helped by good marketing, and marketing doesnt limit itself to just the obnoxious commercials.

[PaLaDiN]

"And I hate the kewl thing but the bottomline is that increases sales which means more games, intead of droughts."

They can also increase sales and get more games by being fun instead of cool... look at the DS. The thing has everything going against it except for fun, and it's outselling the PSP with its amazing superior image and marketing pretty much everywhere.

[jasonditz]

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Originally posted by: Jin-X
Sorry Jasonditz, but sales say otherwise.

Care to provide actual data or are we to be contented with broad claims that only take up a single sentence?

[Smash_Brother]

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Originally posted by: PaLaDiN
You realize you're just strengthening my point: they need to find another way to sell the console to people, because this "cool" thing just isn't working out for them.

Nintendo needs to utterly divorce themselves from the whole Sony and Microsoft marketing style of "cool" and reach out to new people the way they reached out to me with the NES and Mario... the message should be, "buy this console to have some simple fun". Forget about "cool". Forget about catering to the whims of an increasingly jaded and elitist mindset. Give my brother a reason other than a pathetic desire to be "cool" to buy their console.

Sony and MS didn't invent that image: it was already there, they just adhered to it and learned to market within its confines. Tobacco companies have made billions selling to children by convincing them that smoking is cool. Kids were trying to be cool LONG before video games were around. Like it or not, THAT is how you sell product in the US, by convincing Americans that they'll have a better image for owning it.

Look at the Gamecube. Look how well the "ignore image, people will buy it anyway" philosophy worked for them: LAST FRIGGIN' PLACE!

Nintendo didn't HAVE to do anything else this gen to be the COOL console. They have what equates virtual reality for many people and that alone would make them the coolest, but then they go and stick the console with one of the fruitiest sounding names imaginable, sending it right from 1st place in the "cool" department to last.

I'd say they shot off a foot, but this is more like shooting off a whole leg.  

[Smash_Brother]

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Originally posted by: PaLaDiN They can also increase sales and get more games by being fun instead of cool... look at the DS. The thing has everything going against it except for fun, and it's outselling the PSP with its amazing superior image and marketing pretty much everywhere.

...Everywhere except the US, where people care more about the image than the product.

[jasonditz]

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Originally posted by: Smash_Brother

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Originally posted by: PaLaDiN

Sony and MS didn't invent that image: it was already there, they just adhered to it and learned to market within its confines. Tobacco companies have made billions selling to children by convincing them that smoking is cool. Kids were trying to be cool LONG before video games were around. Like it or not, THAT is how you sell product in the US, by convincing Americans that they'll have a better image for owning it.

That's how you sell a product to children. It's also very expensive.

[PaLaDiN]

"...Everywhere except the US, where people care more about the image than the product."

Actually, funny how that works out, they're pretty much neck and neck there last I heard. Seems the product somehow managed to be just as important as the image this time around, unless you can honestly tell me the DS is just as cool as the PSP in the US.

I've got to run to class now.