This is actually great news disguised as bad news. It keeps Nintendo on their toes, allows them to reevaluate what is and is not working and adjust accordingly. Universal or near-universal praise leads to mistakes due to complacency. WiiU has a few issues Nintendo needs to address and iron out. This sends the message loud and clear so, we'll see how Nintendo reacts. My hope is that they'll actually listen.

For consumers, core or casual, this is only a good thing since we'll get the best product possible in the end. I think back to E3 2010 and all the buzz 3DS got. What did we get? Nintendo bumped the price up and failed to address issues like battery life and launch lineup. It's one thing to increase the price based on public reception; it's another to admit you did so for that reason. That's a special kind of hubris that hopefully will not be repeated with WiiU.

It was the name, mr. Iwata. Its not too late to change it, though. Please do!

Well I remember that last time Nintendo got a great reaction at E3 they jacked the price up for the 3DS and now it isn't selling so hot.  So maybe it's better for them to not get a big head and make arrogant mistakes.

I agree with Chozo Ghost, the name isn't all that great. Personally, I would've gone with "Wii Touch" maybe, (mainly beaus of the touch screen on the controller). But if Nintendo REALLY wants to stay in the game, (no pun intended), they need to beef up the graphics, gameplay, and on line features as well. I am a die hard Nintendo fan, but that's how I look at it.

In another thread Insanolord posted about how people actually turned off their monitor as soon as they heard the name and wouldn't even give it a chance to see the video of what it could do. If people literally gave up on this just by hearing the name isn't it possible that the stock holder people might have done that as well?

Let's hope so. A tech bump to allow seamless dual uScreen support and a reasonable pricing that doesn't include a 40% profit margin would be very nice.

and I'm sure a slight change in name wouldn't hurt.
Wii Stream may invite more pee jokes, but that all worked out for the better last time as the name became very commonly known by even people that don't game. Although WiiU isn't as bad as everyone is making it out to be, it's just not different enough.

Super Wii!

I would hope that stock holders aren't that reactionary.

Also if Iwata is truly confused as to why stocks have dropped based on positive news, just show him the article in this quote

and that is just a sample of the article from a Forbes Blog

To sum it up, everyone was confused on if they were looking at a WiiHD or a new controller meant to be used with Wii. This was only compounded by the Wii like graphics in the Chase Mii demo and NSMBMii.

The article then goes on about how E3 wasn't open to the public and how they didn't have any actual games to play... just "tech demos".

To summarize the whole thing so far, Nintendo didn't make it clear what the purpose of their unveiling was and that made it confusing to the uninformed as to what exactly they were supposed to be seeing or what they were supposed to be expecting.

Well, let's see if we can think of reasons why stockholders would be abandoning Nintendo:

- The name is the worst ever attached to a video game system - already covered.

- Nintendo didn't even mention any upcoming Wii software outside of Skyward Sword, and the Wii U doesn't arrive for another year.

- Nintendo didn't show a single 1st party title for the Wii U.

- None of the 3rd party titles showed for the Wii U are going to be exclusive, and several are going to arrive later than other incarnations of the games.

- Nintendo did a pretty poor job of explaining why this controller is something to get excited about as a Nintendo investor.

"Nintendo stocks fall as company unveils even dumber controller setup than last time!"

I agree with Broodwars that the lack of any Wii software for the rest of its life (except for Zelda) probably came as a huge blow to investors. The WiiU is a year to a year and a half away and the 3DS isn't doing so hot, so what positive thing does Nintendo have to show for the short term? Nothing.

The really shocking and sad thing here is that Iwata says he was surprised by this. He's in charge of Nintendo, so the fact he was surprised by this is VERY disturbing to me.

Well if Iwata wasn't surprised by this then that means they expected stock to drop and if they expected that why wouldn't they do something different?  Surely they would never WANT this to happen.

http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k302/shyguy70/haterszsqj.jpg

I think the manner in which Wii U was shown during the press conference was too stingy on details and potentially misleading. A shame, because it's been all positive buzz since then. Obviously, the initial presentation is important though, and I imagine there are a lot of people who follow E3 only up to the conferences. Probably not going to make much difference in the long term, although now is definitely the time to buy if you're into investing.

On another matter, I'm surprised that so many still care so much about console names. The Giant Bombcast had a good discussion about this (and this was referring to the Vita) - going all the way back to the Dreamcast, console names have been pretty ridiculous. I will say, reading the overreaction towards Wii U has been one of the funniest stories coming out of E3. People say the darnedest things.

That image reminds me of Riverdance.

If I were  an investor I really would be taking this opportunity to buy into Nintendo.

Maybe they should have call it the Wii64?

The Nintendo Presentation was confusing as anybody on irc at the time would attest to. Compounded with the current Nintendo gaming gap, for anybody who doesn't game but invest isn't seeing any good numbers right now. The real smart money is still on Nintendo, but Nintendo this E3 had a lot of non-news for this quarter and the next. With investing more and more focused on quarters to the point of resembling gambling in all but name, even neutral news or long term good news is considered bad since you can't make money NOW especially when something isn't quantifiable.

Atari 2600, 5200, 7800 - neutral name
Odyssey - good name
Colecovision - bad name
NES - neutral name
Super Nintendo - good name
Genesis - good name
TurboGrafx16 - bad name
Gameboy - good name
Lynx - good name
Gamegear - neutral name
Neo Geo - bad name
Gameboy Color - neutral name
Playstation - neutral name
Nintendo 64 - neutral name
Saturn - good name
Jaguar - good name
Gameboy Advance - neutral name
DreamCast - good name
Playstation 2 - neutral name
Gamecube - good name
Nintendo DS - neutral name
Xbox - bad name
Playstation Portable - bad name
Xbox 360 - bad name
Nintendo Wii - bad name
Playstation 3 - neutral name
Playstation Vita - badl name
Wii U - bad name

Wii, Vita and Wii U are the only systems I can think of that have borderline embarassing names.  "Xbox 360" is a dumb name but it isn't embarassing.  "Wii U" doesn't even sound like a real product.  If I went back in time and told myself in 2001 that there would be a system called "Wii U" he would probably not believe me.

I can't believe anyone would seriously suggest the name has anything to do with the stock dropping, talk about irrational. I think it had more to do with lack of real games being demonstrated, confusion over whether it is a new console or not (I was even confused during the conference). Bad names are common in gaming, Xbox is stupid, Playstation is lame, Nintendo Entertainment System is generic, Gamecube was ridiculous, Wii was weird. The only company who had some neat names was Sega, and well, that is proof right there that the name of the system means jack.

Wii U is an extension of the Wii brand, a known brand, nothing new. If someone told me in 1998 there would be a console called Xbox I would have thought they were full of crap too, heck if I heard something would be called an iPad I'd think it was a joke. That is just the electronics and gaming industry.

I'm hoping this is all some big misunderstanding and the Wii U is just the official name for the tablet, and the name of the console itself is something else entirely.

Keep dreaming. The name of the console is apart of the Wii branding. Get over it.

It actually appears that Nintendo knows exactly what they did wrong at E3 and I hope they right that wrong at both GDC Europe and GC Liepzig in August.


"Because we put so much emphasis on the controller, there appeared to be some misunderstandings," he said. "We should have made more effort to explain how it works."

"We haven't made any kind of blunder, but I should have shown a single picture of the new console, then started talking about the controller," he continued. "The console is not drastically different, and Wii U is about the controller. The console itself will be almost invisible."

Not showing off the console itself killed them.

I strongly disagree. The Gamecube name was excellent, because it was concise and it described exactly what it was. I loved the Gamecube, moreso than the Wii actually.

I agree completely that they should have shown that it was an all new system that was not a Wii and then started to discuss the controller and how that set it apart from any other console and controller we've used to date.


"There have been two groups of people writing about our announcement - those who have been able to experience the Wii U, and those who have not, and are simply writing about it from wire stories and pictures," he mused.

I don't know why Nintendo thought marketing a purple console was a good idea. That said, if you removed the handle of the black or platinum Gamecube, it's actually a pretty normal looking console and "Gamecube" is a totally appropriate name because the console is, in fact, cube-like in shape and it played games. Obvious name is obvious.

On a related note, I almost never used the handle when moving my Gamecube because I was so used to consoles NOT having handles. Who would have ever thought? I have small hands and was still able to grip the control comfortably with one hand. Unnecessary handle is unnecessary. So much for THAT idea, Nintendo.

How about this..
Nobody thinks the wiiu will succeed
DS, Wii crashed and burned
3ds is not looking good

It is better than "Playstation".

There actually is another thing called Playstation out on the market:

http://www.strictlyforkids.net/image/cache/data/SFPG465B_CottPlaySta4-2-500x500.jpg


I agree that the Gamecube's plastic Purple Lunchbox appearance was "kiddie", but the name itself was not. Its a video game system, so there's nothing wrong with calling it what it is. If the fact it plays games is "kiddie" then that applies to all other game consoles as well. Its not like a game console is intended for serious work. The Playstation on the other hand did have a "kiddie" name. The appearance may have been more mature than that of the Gamecube, but the name itself conjurs up the above image.

A Gamecube could suggest something like a Rubix cube or something, whereas a playstation is some little play prison for toddlers.

"Cube", "station", "box" - all of those are well known nouns and refer to some physical object.  The problem with the name "Wii" is that it does not describe a physical object.  It's only relation to a noun is "wee" which is not flattering.  "iPod" is a pod.  A pod is a physical object.  A name like that always makes way more sense.  Even saying "a Wii" or "the Wii" sounds like complete gibberish if don't know the context.  But if I referred to "the Playstation" you would assume it was referring to some sort of device even if you didn't know what a Playstation was.

But the name did not affect the stock.  Nintendo more or less demonstrated that aside from the 3DS they have virtually no product for a least a year and did not really reveal much of anything about their new product at all.  WE know games and yet during the E3 presentation it took a minute to determine if it was a new system or just a new controller for the Wii.  It was not at all obvious.

at least they didnt name it Ian Sane.

Actually I think the name did affect the stock price, but not because it's called WiiU, more directly because Nintendo never actually defined what WiiU was.

The majority of people thought WiiU was the new controller and not an actual new system.
I've detailed it in my previous post with comments from Iwata too.

Actually, it does. But.... uh, you know...

I usually recognize it if the word is used twice or followed by the sound "ner". I don't recall myself or others using the word once to refer to you-know.

In one argument, that is a bit ridiculous since Nintendo announced before hand that they will show off the new system. They also said the system will be playable on the show flow which means they would be showing off the new system's new controller as well.

Regardless, it was in Nintendo's best interests to make clear distinctions so it is a shame they confused so many people.

Stock Markets are really Giant opinion polls.  Thats why a company that is bleeding money can be worth more then a company making a modest steady profit.

Yes, but the majority of people weren't there and didn't get to experience that. All they saw was the new controller getting used with Wiimotes and a balance board. They also saw the name WiiU being thrown around, so one might draw the conclusion that WiiU was the new controller to be used with the existing Wii.

It's very easy to see how the mass majority may end up a little confused when they aren't there to experience it for themselves and are only reading about it 3rd hand from other people that weren't there either.

I think a bit if this would be mitigated by naming the controller.

That sounds like a good idea, so lets have fun with it
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/forums/index.php?topic=34754.0

The controller should be named Wii U

The console... should be named something else.

Im confused that he's commenting on it.