Nintendo's 'Wii' Just A Marketing Gimmick?

An anonymous reader writes "Tom's Hardware has an editorial up on the Nintendo Wii in which the author postulates that the new name may be a bigger PR stunt than it looks. From the article: 'Saying Wii is controversial mainly in the English-speaking world (the Japanese can't even pronounce it); in France, for instance, it's a homonym for oui. But the upcoming E3 Expo plays mostly to an English-speaking crowd, even though it's an international event. It's just over a week to E3, where Sony fans will be all giddy and running around like they have a Blu-ray chasing their tails. Amid all this, Nintendo announces a name change which is not only interesting, but controversial. You can't not notice it. Essentially, Nintendo steals more than a wee bit of Sony's thunder.'"

If the Japanese can't pronounce it...

[djkitsch]

...that would kinda suggest that they're planning on either

1) A name change (again) in the near future

or

2) A different name for the Japanese market (a-la "Super Famicom")

3) ...

4) Profit!

Oh, wait - I think I got confused a little along the way...

And might I be the first to say

[cgenman]

Wiiiiiiii! [firefoxflicks.com]

Re:If the Japanese can't pronounce it...

[linvir]

Parole juste Wii

We humbly bow to your expertise [altavista.com] in marketing linguistics, thou king amongst men.

Re:I stopped reading when I realized...

[Punto]

plus, they'll have an easier prononuncing 'wii' than 'revolution', which has an 'l' and an 'r' that are supposed to sound differently. _that_ would be a challenge for them.

Penny Arcade nailed it

[kie]

I think Penny Arcade nailed it,
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/04/28 [penny-arcade.com]

Re:The New Coke

[shirai]

Japanese seem to have a thing for liking made up names that are not easy to pronounce in Japanese. I'm Japanese and I remember making fun of all of the Japanese car names because most could not be pronounced in Japanese.

* Honda Accord (can't pronounce "r")
* Honda Civic (can't pronounce "v")
* Acura (can't pronounce "r")
* Integra (can't pronounce "r")
* Legend (can't pronounce "l")
* Camry ( no 'r')
* Corolla (holy crap!)
* Celica (no 'l')
* Supra (no 'r')
* Avalon (no 'r')

I say no 'l' and no 'r' but they have a similar sound which is halfway between 'l' and 'r' which is why Japanese often mix these two letters up.

I was just going to comment that this may be less now that Acura has switched to letters but actually, that's not entirely true either.

* RL (both letters not easy to pronounce)
* TL (L?)
* RSX (R?)

Anyways, the fact that it can't be pronounced is not an impediment to them using that name. In fact, I think for many using these sounds make the products sound more upmarket. Besides, Revolution is also difficult to pronounce in Japanese.

p.s. wii would most likely be pronounced like oo-ee.

We are the Knights...

[Skraut]

Am I the only one who can't stop hearing "We are Knights who say Wii!" over and over in their head?

I guess it's time for my meds again.

Re:Hold on..

[CableModemSniper]

For that matter, can you pronounce "w" in isolation? Hint: you can't because it's a glide.

double you

Re:They can...

[miyako]

I'd say the next most common one would be Naziism
Did you just Godwin the name of Nintendo's new console? Are they going to have to change to something else now? ...and just when I'd started to think the name was kinda neat.

Re:If the Japanese can't pronounce it...

[gEvil (beta)]

ROR!

Re:And the last horse reaches the finish line

[Meagermanx]

Personally, I'd rather game consoles have cool, interesting names. First you had the Nintendo, which was nondescript, but had a ring to it. Then you had the Super Nintendo. That name was cool because it had the word "super" in it. Gameboy was patronizing, Virtual Boy was too homoerotic (for my tastes), Genesis was too Bibley, Saturn was a cool name, Lynx was okay, because it's a cat, as well, Gamegear was cool, because "gear" sounds all mechanical and cool, Playstation sounded dumb, as did Playstation 2, Playstation Portable, Gamecube, and DS. Dreamcast was a decent name, simply because it didn't mean anything. Then there's XBOX, which has the best name for a console since Super Nintendo. Plus, the thing's black.
 
Personally, if I released a game maching, I'd name it something like "Psychotic Dragonskull: Mechanized Deathpod Maximized." Its logo would be a flaming skull with a dagger stuck through it, and a snake wrapped around a babe going through its eyes and mouth. The box itself would be a jet black sphere, and it would play overly-angsty deathmetal screams as it started up.
 
And it's predecessor wouldn't be white or have the number three hundred and sixty in its name.

Re:Crazy Characters in Japanese Names

[KDR_11k]

such as the boy's name "Raito" (Light)

Anyone with that name is required to get a PhD in robotics.