I think Nintendo chose Wii over Revolution because Iwata kept saying "Revorushun." :P

When I first heard that they were going to change the name to Wii, I was like OMG, Nintendo is doomed! But the name has grown on me and Wii is definetely the better name. Sure Revolution sounded cooler, but Wii is a better name for their strategy in getting everybody to play games. They kept it simple and it worked.

The worst console name award has to be given to either Xbox or Gamecube. Actually, now that I think about it, alot of console names are pretty dull, except for some of Sega's consoles like Dreamcast or Genesis.

edit:  Nintendo Entertainment System was a good name too.  But then Nintendo just got lazy and started adding prefixes and suffixes to Nintendo, just like what is happening to xbox and playstaion.  But to create a brand name, I guess it's not such a bad idea.  Just start off with a good brand name :)

I was definitely one of the people who were completely shocked when they first heard it. Revolution sounded totally awesome, so why change it to something so weird?

Of course that's the problem. The competition had big macho names that really sounded like something that played games, and only geeks would own. The Wii sounds totally cute and innocent, so it's easy to get non-gamers to try it.


Btw, I'm annoyed by how people keep saying Nintendo changed the name to Wii because the Japanese have a hard time saying the word revolution. Nobody in this thread yet, but it eventually pops up everywhere.

First of all it's not that hard for them. Due to the syllabic structure of their language it would end up as reborushon, or revorushon.

Secondly, you guys know what they called the most popular console of last gen? The pureishuteeson tsu. The most popular gaming franchises are poketto monsutaa, fainaru fantajii and doragon kuesuto. Revolution is starting to sound pretty easy, isn't it? =P

@ Parokki
Whoops sorry, I used that dumb mispronunciation joke. I only mean well, though :)

Hehe or the ecksbawks.

revolution sounded good but wii is simple and very good not confusing for some

I have to agree that bricks do make excellent weapons.

Wii is a better long term name. After a while the Revolution would no longer be a revolution... it would become the norm.

^good point

I hated when they changed the name to Wii, but now I like Wii better.