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No no, you, Richard, confused the casual audience because people like you, Richard, didn't pay attention. Before E3 2011, Nintendo said specifically they were revealing a new console. They showed a picture of the Wii U console, with the name Wii U next to the console (not the tablet) before they showed off the tablet.
There is no other reason for someone who's job it is to pay attention to the world of Nintendo to have any second thoughts (or first thoughts) that the Wii U might just be a controller for Wii, other than the reason of incompetence.
A point he made right up top is that the "era of Wii is over - and should be", yet I don't think he makes any distinct points about why it should be over, unless we should just assume that the Wii deserves to be dying because of how Nintendo has stopped focusing on it the past year, which is an analysis of the Wii as a console, not the Wii as a name.
The public doesn't know better. The public can't say the 3DS' name correctly (DS3, 3DDS) and think that it's the same system as the DSi. I agree that Wii U needs a name change because Wii is more than a name, it's a brand and an ideology. It's Wii Sports, Wii Play, Wii Fit, Wii Music, Wii Party. The Wii name has to die so Nintendo can mend ties and dispel stereotypes. That and people will not understand it's something new, they don't go out of their way to understand that. Nor do they listen to anyone that TRIES to teach them otherwise...
Oh, thanks IGN for telling us there's a new puzzle on the StreetPass Plaza several days later. Granted it's not exciting, but it is news (especially if you think it was worth posting days later). Those idiots need to learn the importance of exigence like real journalists.
I really do want to agree with this, and I actually like the Wii U name, but the average Joe really is a bumbling, flailing idiot when it comes to gaming or even general computing. The average Joe gets confused very easily and does not pay attention or keep up with the news like we do here, I teach computer basics to technically illiterate adults and spend far too long in electronics stores so I experience a lot of it first hand.
I'm all for the Wii U name changing. First off, it just sounds awkward. Second, to the average Wii user they're just going to see it as an upgraded Wii and, chances are, won't bother getting it.
I want to see the Wii U get it's name changed. Too bad they won't go back to the Wii's original codename: Revolution. I actually liked that name a lot; it had a nice ring to it.
Honestly, I liked the name "Wii U", so... I'm somewhat against the name change. :I
...You guys don't like it? Fine. They can remove the "U", but as long as they kept the "Wii" name, I'm happy.
i agree with this... man, it bugged, and still does bug, me when people who were supposed to be in the know when it comes to video games were so baffeled by the unveiling. clearly its a new console. there were tech demos showing off the graphical capabilities of the new console. the mentioned it was a new console. you even got to SEE a NEW CONSOLE! their response? "daaaaaaah is dat just a new contwolla?".. i was watching g4's e3 coverage (the one time a year i actually do) and they were unsure... here i am, not being paid to report on the industry, sitting at home eating cheezits, and i frickin knew what it was!
oi...
also, i dont think they have to "kill off" the wii branding. there is no reason to. why kill of something that has been wildly popular? guess what system sold like hot cakes? the wii! guess what series of games have done really well? the "wii ---" series! there is no reason not to continue those in some capacity. guess what? im a serious gamer. i enjoy many types of gaming experiences. and i LOVE the wii games. my family LOVES the wii games. they are a blast to play with a room of people. i enjoy that experience and i truly do hope they continue it. oh, and the snobby, idiotic, douche bag, hopeless dude bro gamers wont buy a nintendo system no matter what its called. it could be called "the nintendo killing machine" or the "gta machine of duty" and they will still crap on it BECAUSE its nintendo. you cant win them over with a name. and the idiotic consumer everyone is alluding to here? they bought up the wii. they WILL buy it if its called the wii-u. they know that name. it makes sense to them even if they dont 100% get it. those people make purchases based on marketing.. and believe me, nintendo will push the HELL out of this thing! they also have loose wallets. they buy their 8 year old children i-phones and have no idea why. believe me.. they will be fine.
i think that name wouldve been murder on the japanese tongue.. also... it sounds a little dated now. mind you, at the time, i loved it.
As a huge Nintendo fan, I was well aware that Nintendo was supposed to be showing a new console at E3, yet when they showed the trailer, full of Wii Fit, Wii Sports, Wii remotes, video play back and drawing (i.e. things that either were done or could be done on the Wii), even I was asking out loud if it was just a tablet controller for the original Wii (roughly until the Zelda part of the trailer).
And this trailer is still the go-to Wii U trailer that casuals will come across if searching for Wii U on YouTube.
Given the casual audience's confusion over the 3DS (thinking it's yet another iteration of the DS) I think it's reasonable to be concerned that this will be a repeat scenario. I don't see how you can blame gaming journalists for the casual audience's confusion when the latter will hardly ever read anything by the former unless they've googled reviews, so even then they're not going to be reading articles.
great article there by Rich, agree with every bit of it.
When the gaming media goes back and starts writing articles that they're not sure if it's a new console or just an add-on controller, that's where the problem lies. The general world didn't, and really still doesn't, know anything about the Wii U. But for months after the systems reveal gaming news sites were ambivalent as to what it really was, even though they knew for a fact that it was a new system.
That has, and will continue to foster confusion.
And if the Wii U is confusing people as to whether it's a new system or not, just what have all the other consoles that have ever been released done? Just look at the PS line. Every new system has the EXACT SAME CONTROLLER! I would think that would be FAR more confusing for customers than how the Wii U was first shown. The 360 runs XBox Live. Wouldn't gamers be confused by the mere mention that XBox Live runs on the 360? Isn't that supposed to be part of the original XBox? This must just be an add-on system then or something.
Unless, of course, this only applies to Nintendo.
A lot of strange rules in the games industry seem to only apply to them though. Like how making money means your going to be dropping out of the hardware business. How having a weaker system means it's going to be DOA even though historically the weakest system is almost always the highest seller. How whatever they do is wrong and bad and somehow the obvious bias against them in the games industry is really just the imagination of hypersensitive Nintendo fanboys.
Ugh...
This thread is full of so much win.
*clap* *clap*
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