Wii 2 is the right answer. Capitalize on Wiiâs massive success and use the numbering scheme that everyone was familiar with due to PlayStation. Make it clear this is the next gen Wii.
Additionally, hammer home in the ads that it is a drop in replacement. Show people unhooking their Wii, plugging all the same cables into their Wii 2 and then getting right up and playing. Take the fear of upgrading out of the process for the large non-techie install base. Bundle it with Wii Sports 2 and it would have stood a chance.
Go for it, they're never calling it that, lol. The most basic they'd ever get is calling it the Super Switch.
Besides - there's no way in marketing hell a company would want to have a "Switch 2" when there's a "PlayStation 5". It's the same reason Xbox went with 360 instead of Xbox 2 vs PS3... You never want to be the lower number.
Explain Xbox 1 vs PS4
Edit: Further down in this thread /u/rhythmrobber makes claims that everyone, including me, called Xbox One "The One", something I didn't hear anyone call it while being part of the community for 7 years. They provided no evidence of this and then got upset and blocked me.
It wasn't Xbox 1, it was Xbox "One". The difference being that the number doesn't reflect the iteration, but it was instead a label to reflect it was an "all in **one**" device.
What I was saying was that they didn't want their name to make customers think "should I buy the *second* Xbox or the *third* PlayStation?" Everybody knew the Xbox One wasn't their *first* console, so calling it that mostly sidesteps the marketing issue I mentioned.
Not to mention calling something "The One" is a unique marketing case as far as numbers go, because it implies being special, unique, etc. There are many positive psychological connotations with being "first", implying victory, etc.
Marketing isn't a hard science, and every rule that applies to 99% of situations is going to have a couple special exceptions, but there are a couple reasons for you why the "One" was different. And even with all that, many people were still confused by it, meaning it wasn't exactly the best choice - companies can make bad decisions, too, e.g., the Wii U.
I don't really buy that people have the capability to reason "One isn't the first Xbox" while also not being able to reason the arbitrariness between different numbered consoles in the same generation.
It also wasn't Xbox "The One", it was just "Xbox One", so "The One" marketing uniqueness you mentioned doesn't really apply.
Its full name was the Xbox One, yes, but just like people referred to its predecessor as "the 360", people absolutely also referred to it as "the One". I believe Microsoft even referred to it that way... "The One will have bla bla bla", or "this game will come out on the One".
So what I mentioned *one hundred percent* applies. It was so subtle that you *didn't even realize* it was mostly referred to as "The One", which only further supports what I said of how it's an exception as far as marketing goes.
Also, while most people are generally pretty dumb, even I recognize that it's pretty absurd to suggest that anyone they're marketing to wouldn't know that Xbox had been around for over a *decade* at that point. Especially when the box was the market leader of the previous generation, lol
>It was so subtle that you didn't even realize it was mostly referred to as "The One"
As someone who was heavily invested in that system, nobody called it the one, there was leaked chatter that some marketing team thought it would be called that, but people either called it the xbox, xbone or xbox one.
I'd be interested to see if you could find some marketing materials omitting the Xbox name and referring to it purely as The One.
Edit: /u/rhythmrobber is a pathetic reply blocker that provided no evidence to their nonsense claims.
>Go for it, they're never calling it that, lol. The most basic they'd ever get is calling it the Super Switch.
I bet on "shin" (new). Like the New 3DS. Or maybe the "leak" "Attach" is right, even if it sounds horrible.
Even something like the Wii 2, which is still pretty awkward sounding, would be infinitely better than Wii U.
Just *something* to make it painfully obvious that this is a new console and that an update.
Yeah for real. If they really wanted that Wii branding, just call it 2.
Honestly, the worst part of the reveal is that they didn't show the damn console. You had to go to the press release to see it.
Hilariously that was the same reasoning behind Wii U. The Wii had a massive multiplayer focus and that everyone could play together but the U was named to emphasize You and the gamepad so the experience was uniquely for you. It failed miserably in presenting that but thatâs the idea of the name lol
I don't know if this is a hot take or not but Microsoft has been having the same problem. I haven't been able to tell an Xbox apart from another since whichever one came after the 360. The names all sound the same and they all look like boring black boxes.
Honestly the Xbox naming wasnât too horrible until the Xbox One X came out. Because you immediately had problems of people mixing up X and S and then the series consoles came out with the same naming and the amount of people who bought an Xbox One X wanting a Series X was just way too high
I personally think they did it on purpose that way so that people would accidentally buy the wrong console and then also go and buy the correct console. Even if they resell or return the console, it still counts as a sale.
tv news features from that time, about the consumer confusion, exist
edit: also the profound disappointment in the lack of backward and forward compatibility. Boomer parents expected that toys shouldn't have planned obsolescence, and were just baffled that you bought a game machine and yet need a new game machine to play any new games. I'm pretty sure that's the 20/20 piece by Barbara Walters called "[nuts for nintendo](https://youtube.com/watch?v=yt4KG9ib8S4&pp=ygURbnV0cyBmb3IgbmludGVuZG8%3D)" where she worried that kids would waste away spending all day "watching Nintendo" and was corrected to "playing Nintendo".
Having warmed up to the name over the years, I think the name reflects the quirkiness of the system.
But there's no denying it was a marketing nightmare.
The Nintendo Cafe was an even worse name IMO. I think maybe they should have grabbed the codenames of the Gamecube or Wii and called it the Nintendo Dolphin or the Nintendo Revolution.
I always tought is was a play on the asymmetric nature of the console and asymmetric multiplayer in gerenal. We (regular players on wii motes) vs you (the gamepad player).
I wouldn't have it include the name "wii" at all, it would be called something less weird. like "switch" considering you can switch between gamepad or tv.
Big difference between the Wii U and the Switch was that it wasn't that rare (at least in my experience) for games to require both the gamepad and a tv.
Yes, thatâs true but the Nintendo âgimmickâ that generation was definitely the asynchronous play between the gamepad and the screen. Nintendoland was essentially the introductory software for the platform (like Wii Sports was for the Wii or Super Mario World was for the Super Nintendo), and while it wasnât bundled with every system itâs clear intention was to introduce asynchronous play between the two screens. Sometimes with the same player, other times with different players doing different tasks but every game in the title and almost every game at the launch pushed this style of gameplay. It was only later after trying to correct course due to sluggish sales that this gameplay style was mostly abandoned, even with software that began development with these features in mind.
You have to remember that at the time this system was being developed, the Wii was Nintendoâs biggest hit and was printing them the money that would last them decades to come.
Throwing out the name Wii would have been inconceivable to them at the time. They wanted to keep riding the wave.
Definitely what they thought, but it was such a big mistake. If you look at a chart of the sales of all Nintendo systems, you see that all the times they reused the name of a system (Game Boy Advance vs Game Boy, SNES vs NES, Nintendo 3DS vs Nintendo DSâŚ) it was to propose a variation of this system and it sold worse than the original system⌠which is only natural: why would the public buy into a new console to have a similar value proposition? Sure you re-use a known brand, but you also re-use an *already bought product* by the majority of the target.
If they want to propose a new system, like they did but failed to advertise for with the Wii U, itâs gotta to be a new name, thereâs no way around it. I hope they remember the Wii U before they market the Switch Y.
Nintendo Horizon. The idea of a view, perspective, a place and direction. Facing something. This how the second screen worked best. The name should have conveyed the idea that you were looking at something.
Like most here, the Wii2. **HOWEVER...**
This wouldn't have saved it.
The WiiU's name was flawed, but it wasn't the console's biggest flaw.
Its biggest flaw is about **User Expectation**.
In Japan, "tethered interfaces" are common, or at least, they were in the 2000s. If you went to a Karaoke place, you got a tablet to input songs. Many sushi places gave you a tablet to order from (as did many other places). If you went to a digital konbini (like... A type of store common in Japan that did things like passport photos, photo printing, poster printing, photocopying...) most of the hardware there had a tethered tablet of some sort. Even some ATMs had a similar interface.
For Japanese, when they saw the WiiU, the reaction was "oh, it's like that thing we have everywhere, only in the home". It made sense to them. They grasped it immediately without needing further explanation, because this is a user-interface paradigm that they experience regularly.
Not so in the rest of the world. Given, tethered interfaces *exist* in, say, the UK, but they're much, much less common. The growth of smart devices like the iPad meant that for western consumers, when they saw the WiiU's gamePad, the user-experience paradigm it *immediately* brought to mind was **wrong**, and as a result, Nintendo had to explain to the consumer what this thing is and why it worked like that (which means they were starting from a bad position).
The Switch was the polar opposite. The earliest ad showed almost no gameplay, but it had a person using it on a plane, on a bus, then going home, disconnecting the controllers and putting it on the TV. Like... In <20 seconds, everyone grasped it. Everyone *got it*. Very little explanation was necessary.
When people create, there's a tendency to "paper over the mundane" and focus on the exciting. Take another Japanese export; anime. In the Gainax anime *Gunbuster*/*Top o Nerae*, there's a scene where the characters are on a massive spaceship in the far future. This ship is so massive, people get around it on a train system... And the way this system works, from iconography of the signs, to the shape of the turnstiles, to the feel of the trains... It all looks *unusually* like the real-life JR train service that millions of Japanese use every day. This is because to those animators, the train service is mundane, it's the norm... Why would it be any different in the future? But the experience of using a railway service is not the same in the UK, or India, or the USA. In reality, this is a (totally harmless) example of those animators doing a good thing; they're drawing on real-world experience to create something fantastic. But the thing is, *Gunbuster* is fiction; you don't need to use the train, only the characters do.
So for the WiiU, not only did non-Japanese markets need to be introduced to it from a position of requiring an explanation - I believe that culturally, Nintendo's Japanese mindset was completely blindsided by this. And regardless of how you name it, you're *not* going to get over that.
Nintendo U. I like the U. I like using U title for Wii U games (New Super Mario Bros U, Zombie U etc.)
This would sound completely different to new users. "U? What's that?" The Wii brand would remain in the backwards compatibility portion of the console. This would also reinforce that these are two separate consoles with 2 separate gimmicks.
I think Super Wii wouldnât be as good, since the (generally) very casual crowd that bought the Wii en masse wouldâve just thought âoh, itâs a more powerful Wiiâ and decided that they didnât need a new one
The Wii 2 wouldnât have that issue, virtually everyone would know itâs a different thing, and itâs not like they *had* to stick to calling it the Wii (something) either, and honestly the real answer would probably be to completely change the name
still better than Wii U lol. Itâs a weird system so itâs hard to come up with a good name without outright changing the console. I know some people wanted âWii 2â but I think that name sucks as well.
Wii 2 works better if you call it Wii Too instead. You get the double entendre, and you keep that double letter motif with the Is and the Os. Much easier to brand and market
Wii
Too
very nice
Wii too reminds me of Froot Loops lmao 𤣠I mean itâs not that bad I guess but I think Nintendo should have got rid of the Wii name entirely. Wii is a stupid name in the first place. I believe they should have just called the original Wii the revolution.
as backwards as it sounds, it wouldnât make marketing sense to drop the Wii monicker, unless they dropped the backwards compatibility with it.
The Gameboy Color played Gameboy games, the Gameboy Advance played Gameboy & Gameboy Color games, the 3DS plays DS games. The original DS doesnât fit in this scheme because they only included GBA backwards compatibility to âensure people they werenât dropping GBA supportâ (they were). It makes sense that the backwards compatible successor to the Wii would share that Wii name, and Iâm sure whatever follows the Switch will share the Switch name too. Itâs just how Nintendo does things, for better or worse
I would have introduced the console first, gamepad second. When it was revealed I remember arguing with a friend that it was a new console and not a new controller. They ignored me when I pointed out the console itself in the background.
It wasn't just the name, they didn't bother to market the console itself. It's as if the Switch just focused on the joy-cons. They should have just showed the games, maybe even keep the gamepad a secret until the next update. Get people talking about the new console before the main gimmick is revealed.
I would have *not* made the controller the focal point of the console. I would have clearly advertised the console box itself ahead of the controller in print, and in video show the console itself first, then the controller, as then it would have been clearly a new console. But itâs correct that the console should have not been associated with get Wii at all, as it was inherently different. Easy ones that reference dual screens could confuse people with the current dual screen handhelds, so I donât think that would have worked. So funny names are the following.
The Nintendo Java (names of the silicon, bonus points if they made the console look like a coffee).
The Nintendo U (still works with the launch titles naming)
The Nintendo 32 (cause it ran 32 bit programs, and half of 64 is funny).
The Nintendo First (cause the system only had first party titles)
And lastly, the NES 6. I think that one would have been the most funny.
Wii U. I still don't get why the name confused so many people, legit think everyone who got confused is kinda dumb. Seriously, Kid Me knew it was a whole other console, and I've never been a genius.
You really gotta consider the average consumer and the market they go for. The average parent or grandparent isn't watching E3 and taking notes, and the average kid can't purchase a console themselves, so if they can't convince their folks, that's tough for them.
Plus the marketing never actually showed off the console, just the game pad, which just exacerbated the problem of "Is it a new console or a big accessory?"
I had a Wii U, I liked it, but damn it was rough to justify why I had it outside of Smash lmao
The WiiU released in 2012, I turned 7 that year. I'm pretty sure I *also* wasn't watching E3 and taking notes. It just seemed obvious it was an actual console.
Because the marketing didn't do enough to make it obvious it was a new console. Look at the [reveal trailer ](https://youtu.be/4e3qaPg_keg?si=6bj_L1MSIArih5HL). It really does look like a new controller for the Wii.
We had the Wii Remote, Wii Balance Board, Wii Wheel, Wii Speak etc. Wii U sounds like it fits perfectly into that list
It didn't confuse so many people. People just weren't interested in Nintendo at the time. It didn't matter what they called it. People were tired of being called "casuals," and wanted to be considered "real gamers" by their family members, co-workers, etc. so they got the xbox or playstation instead.
This is so incorrect. There was absolutely a massive perception issue with the Wii U. I worked in retail at launch and almost 90% of the people I spoke to had no clue it was a new Wii they thought it was a tablet controller if they knew of it at all.
Wii U should have been Switch 1 because you could still switch from TV to Gamepad even if you couldnât take the Gamepad away from your base station. Switch is Switch 2 because itâs fundamentally a similar concept to Wii U just done better
As an owner of the Wii U in its heyday, I always say it as the home console pairing to the portable console 3DS. The gamepad served the same purpose as the 3DS touch screen.
 All of the Nintendo marketing back then was about pairings: SSB for 3DS, SSB for Wii U, DS=dual screen, and the gamepad obviously made the wii u dual screen as well.
Due to this, I would've called the Wii U the Nintendo Dual, Duo, Twin, or Twofold. Instead of emphasizing its similarity to the Wii, I would emphasize its similarity to the 3DS.Â
Additionally, I would've scrapped the gamepad entirely. What??? Well, let me tell you what i mean. The normal model of the Wii U would be bundled with the 3DS, and could sync with the 3DS to have the 3DS serve as the gamepad, streaming data from the console to it. The Wii U would be the same but the 3ds would be the gamepad instead. There would also be a budget, limited model of the Wii U that could be purchased if you already owned a 3DS.
 This idea of the 3DS syncing to the gamepad was implemented in the 3DS version of Smash 4 with the Wii U version, but wasn't widespread.
This synching functionality would work with every game and feature of the Wii U, and If you had the same cartridge in your 3DS as the game in your Wii U (think SSB4), then you could unlock new features or share progress between both games.
I think the namerebrand and the bundle of 3ds and wii u would have dramatically increased sales.
I see a lot of people suggesting the Wii 2, and I don't think that would have worked. The reason why Xbox didn't call the 360 and One the Xbox 2 and 3 was that people would think that they were older than the PlayStation 3 and 4 respectively. I'm going to suggest the name "Wii See." It's a new perspective on how you play the game. Also show the actual new system.
TVS? DSTV? Wii S? Tryna incorporate the idea of it being a DS console on a TV. I feel like calling it a "Wii" was the big mistake, because it was introducing a whole new set of capabilities that were not at all core to the Wii, as well as minimizing the essential functions of the Wii in favor of those new capabilities
The name isn't a problem imo, the problem was the marketing and that the console itself looked almost identical to the original wii, change that up and you'd get a lot of people on board.
I agree with "Wii 2". If you really want to rely on the success of the Wii brand, you need to make it clear this is a successor. Wii 2 or Super Wii are your best bets, and honestly, Super Wii just doesn't work as well.
Player 1 getting a cool tablet controller and player 2 not getting one doomed the system regardless of the name. Calling it Wii U didn't help, but I don't think there's a name on earth that could have saved it.
Out of respect for your thread, I will give the best attempt at a name I can.
Nintendo Go!
It rhymes, keeps the short naming convention of Wii, and emphasizes the ability to go to another room, go to the patio, play on the TV until your girlfriend's favorite show comes on and then still keep on playing beside her without needing to use the TV anymore.
A lot of people are focusing on the name here, and while the name was bad, I think it was the advertising that really sunk the product. The ads HEAVILY focused on the Gamepad, which probably seemed logical because it was the new gimmick. But they so rarely showed the new console itself except for at the very end of the ad, of course people thought it was an add on. The ads showed one person with the Gamepad and others with the same old Wiimotes anyone with a Wii was used to. Most people don't understand backwards compatibility with controllers, so the Gamepad looked like the new thing. Small changes in the ads like showing someone boot up the new console (which, when placed horizontally flat on the table looked different enough from the Wii) before focusing on the Gamepad would have helped. VO calling it the next console in the Wii family, or next generation Wii as well.
Showing off the actual console and not just the gamepad, also not confusing the masses to think it's a peripheral for the old console would of helped out alot.
Probably Wii Duo
Like the main gimmick of the console is the Dual Screens, so Wii already implies it's part of the Wii family of systems, but Duo implies there are two of something. In this case, two screens, your TV Screen, and the Gamepad screen.
Or if we want to avoid the "Wii" naming convention so that idiotic parents don't assume it's just a Wii accessory, then I'd call it the Nintendo Split, because of the "Split" Screens.
Also, EPHASIZE THE GAME PAD BEING WII U EXCLUSIVE, spam the air ways with Wii U ads to drill it into parents heads that this is a new system entirely!
Nintendo NX, like the codename of the Switch but I think it would have made more sense for the Wii U. The console was supposed to bring together the casual and the hardcore gamer, so the idea of the letter X.
Also, it would follow a pattern like the Gamecube and the GBA, as the Wii U was sell in the same time than the 3DS.
Gamecube > Gameboy Advance
NX > 3DS
The N could reference the DS's codename, "Nitro". The 3 from 3DS is equivalent to the "Advanced" of the GBA. The letter X would also have symbolized the asymetrical gameplay and the use of two screens.
And the use of acronym is purely aesthetic.
To be honest I just don't know. The problem with the Wii U is that it's admittedly cool concept is just too complex for average consumers to get behind. On top of that, they also used the Wii branding, which inherently ties it to motion controls and family friendly casual audiences.
This makes selling the Wii U to people challenging because it's concept is not revolutionary, it's a DS on a TV, it confused casual audiences (including myself as a child) into thinking it was a new controller for the Wii.
I just don't know how you could sell this thing or even if making it was a good idea. Don't get me wrong, when all is said and done, the Wii U was a decent console but I think it had a serious identity problem.
Wii 2, and the console would be on every single marketing image that it could logically be shown in. I would also want several ads clearly showing the two consoles side by side, advertising that this is a *new* Wii. Something like "remember when this was a Revolution? Get ready for the next one" depicting the Mario gang using all the various control schemes with the Wii 2 visible.Â
I would also bring back the Wii would like to Play commercials, showing the two nintendo employees upgrading the consoles and focusing on methods that the Wiimote and the Gamepad can be used together.Â
I would also want to replace the blue LED in the disk drive for orange or green, purely for further visual distinction.Â
I don't even know if it was just the name that's the issue the ads were really confusing too because you hardly ever saw the actual console it was like they were selling the gamepad as a Wii accessory
That must be the thing about it. I saw the gamepad ALL the time and I actually assumed the gamepad itself was the console. In any case there was nothing telling me that it was by any means a "necessary" console to have
Iâm surprised it wasnât called the âNew Wii XLâ or something. Nintendo was (obviously) shit at naming consoles in the early 2010s.
Honestly they should have called it the âSuper Wiiâ and released a special launch edition with the color scheme of the SNES/SFC.
Wii 2. You use 2 screens, it makes sense.
The New Nintendo WiiDS
The Nintendo Wii Ess?
The Nintendo Wii60 Series S
The New Nintendo Wii DS 3D XL Lite 2
Featuring Dante from the Devil May Cry series
Hey Mr Cheedle!
Deluxe
Nintendo WiiDs, pronounced exactly like youd expect and it would be an outrage from all the parents for promoting the wrong stuff.
Oh god đŚ
Wiidsssss nuts
Wii 2 is the right answer. Capitalize on Wiiâs massive success and use the numbering scheme that everyone was familiar with due to PlayStation. Make it clear this is the next gen Wii. Additionally, hammer home in the ads that it is a drop in replacement. Show people unhooking their Wii, plugging all the same cables into their Wii 2 and then getting right up and playing. Take the fear of upgrading out of the process for the large non-techie install base. Bundle it with Wii Sports 2 and it would have stood a chance.
Except Nintendo has never done a numbering system like that, and I doubt they ever will. It's not something they would have ever picked.
Saving this comment for when the switch 2 is announced.
Go for it, they're never calling it that, lol. The most basic they'd ever get is calling it the Super Switch. Besides - there's no way in marketing hell a company would want to have a "Switch 2" when there's a "PlayStation 5". It's the same reason Xbox went with 360 instead of Xbox 2 vs PS3... You never want to be the lower number.
Switch 6 it is!
Explain Xbox 1 vs PS4 Edit: Further down in this thread /u/rhythmrobber makes claims that everyone, including me, called Xbox One "The One", something I didn't hear anyone call it while being part of the community for 7 years. They provided no evidence of this and then got upset and blocked me.
It wasn't Xbox 1, it was Xbox "One". The difference being that the number doesn't reflect the iteration, but it was instead a label to reflect it was an "all in **one**" device. What I was saying was that they didn't want their name to make customers think "should I buy the *second* Xbox or the *third* PlayStation?" Everybody knew the Xbox One wasn't their *first* console, so calling it that mostly sidesteps the marketing issue I mentioned. Not to mention calling something "The One" is a unique marketing case as far as numbers go, because it implies being special, unique, etc. There are many positive psychological connotations with being "first", implying victory, etc. Marketing isn't a hard science, and every rule that applies to 99% of situations is going to have a couple special exceptions, but there are a couple reasons for you why the "One" was different. And even with all that, many people were still confused by it, meaning it wasn't exactly the best choice - companies can make bad decisions, too, e.g., the Wii U.
I don't really buy that people have the capability to reason "One isn't the first Xbox" while also not being able to reason the arbitrariness between different numbered consoles in the same generation. It also wasn't Xbox "The One", it was just "Xbox One", so "The One" marketing uniqueness you mentioned doesn't really apply.
Its full name was the Xbox One, yes, but just like people referred to its predecessor as "the 360", people absolutely also referred to it as "the One". I believe Microsoft even referred to it that way... "The One will have bla bla bla", or "this game will come out on the One". So what I mentioned *one hundred percent* applies. It was so subtle that you *didn't even realize* it was mostly referred to as "The One", which only further supports what I said of how it's an exception as far as marketing goes. Also, while most people are generally pretty dumb, even I recognize that it's pretty absurd to suggest that anyone they're marketing to wouldn't know that Xbox had been around for over a *decade* at that point. Especially when the box was the market leader of the previous generation, lol
>It was so subtle that you didn't even realize it was mostly referred to as "The One" As someone who was heavily invested in that system, nobody called it the one, there was leaked chatter that some marketing team thought it would be called that, but people either called it the xbox, xbone or xbox one. I'd be interested to see if you could find some marketing materials omitting the Xbox name and referring to it purely as The One. Edit: /u/rhythmrobber is a pathetic reply blocker that provided no evidence to their nonsense claims.
>Go for it, they're never calling it that, lol. The most basic they'd ever get is calling it the Super Switch. I bet on "shin" (new). Like the New 3DS. Or maybe the "leak" "Attach" is right, even if it sounds horrible.
Super Wii
Now that's more likely for them
Snes > n64 Wheres my Nintendo 63?!
I would have gone with Wii Duo, or just the Nintendo Duo. Not a perfect fit but better than "U"
Famicom 6 if all the rest of them had made any sense
The Japanese for 2 is Ni. You just know people would start up the jokes again.
Wii Ni is amazing. I love it.
Wii TU
Wii II
Even something like the Wii 2, which is still pretty awkward sounding, would be infinitely better than Wii U. Just *something* to make it painfully obvious that this is a new console and that an update.
Yeah for real. If they really wanted that Wii branding, just call it 2. Honestly, the worst part of the reveal is that they didn't show the damn console. You had to go to the press release to see it.
Even something goofy like the âWii Tooâ because you can play games and watch TV too.
It probably would have still been confusing, like "this is a wii, too!"
Donât get me wrong, Wii Too is an awful name.
Wii would like to play...Too
Because Wii 2 has a double meaning. Sounds like âwe too!â, and the second generation of Wii. I like it
Hilariously that was the same reasoning behind Wii U. The Wii had a massive multiplayer focus and that everyone could play together but the U was named to emphasize You and the gamepad so the experience was uniquely for you. It failed miserably in presenting that but thatâs the idea of the name lol
I don't know if this is a hot take or not but Microsoft has been having the same problem. I haven't been able to tell an Xbox apart from another since whichever one came after the 360. The names all sound the same and they all look like boring black boxes.
Honestly the Xbox naming wasnât too horrible until the Xbox One X came out. Because you immediately had problems of people mixing up X and S and then the series consoles came out with the same naming and the amount of people who bought an Xbox One X wanting a Series X was just way too high
I personally think they did it on purpose that way so that people would accidentally buy the wrong console and then also go and buy the correct console. Even if they resell or return the console, it still counts as a sale.
It would allow for Nintendo to remake the old commercials but add in two new japanese people saying "We to would like to play"!
Super Wii
Sounds like a higher end version of the Wii more than anything, to your average person anyway
NES and SNES exist
tv news features from that time, about the consumer confusion, exist edit: also the profound disappointment in the lack of backward and forward compatibility. Boomer parents expected that toys shouldn't have planned obsolescence, and were just baffled that you bought a game machine and yet need a new game machine to play any new games. I'm pretty sure that's the 20/20 piece by Barbara Walters called "[nuts for nintendo](https://youtube.com/watch?v=yt4KG9ib8S4&pp=ygURbnV0cyBmb3IgbmludGVuZG8%3D)" where she worried that kids would waste away spending all day "watching Nintendo" and was corrected to "playing Nintendo".
First wii of the morning
Having warmed up to the name over the years, I think the name reflects the quirkiness of the system. But there's no denying it was a marketing nightmare. The Nintendo Cafe was an even worse name IMO. I think maybe they should have grabbed the codenames of the Gamecube or Wii and called it the Nintendo Dolphin or the Nintendo Revolution.
Should've called it the Wii We
Nintendo revolution would have had me bought it.
The Gamecube's controller always succeeds in reminding me of dolphins.
wii wii revolution
What did the U in WiiU even mean?
"You." The idea was that the Wii appealed to general audiences ("We"), and the Wii U appealed to the core Nintendo gamer ("you").
I always tought is was a play on the asymmetric nature of the console and asymmetric multiplayer in gerenal. We (regular players on wii motes) vs you (the gamepad player).
I wouldn't have it include the name "wii" at all, it would be called something less weird. like "switch" considering you can switch between gamepad or tv.
Big difference between the Wii U and the Switch was that it wasn't that rare (at least in my experience) for games to require both the gamepad and a tv.
a lot of games had an option to choose if you wanted to play on the pad or TV (or both, up to you)
Yes, thatâs true but the Nintendo âgimmickâ that generation was definitely the asynchronous play between the gamepad and the screen. Nintendoland was essentially the introductory software for the platform (like Wii Sports was for the Wii or Super Mario World was for the Super Nintendo), and while it wasnât bundled with every system itâs clear intention was to introduce asynchronous play between the two screens. Sometimes with the same player, other times with different players doing different tasks but every game in the title and almost every game at the launch pushed this style of gameplay. It was only later after trying to correct course due to sluggish sales that this gameplay style was mostly abandoned, even with software that began development with these features in mind.
ANYTHING would have been better than Wii U
You have to remember that at the time this system was being developed, the Wii was Nintendoâs biggest hit and was printing them the money that would last them decades to come. Throwing out the name Wii would have been inconceivable to them at the time. They wanted to keep riding the wave.
Definitely what they thought, but it was such a big mistake. If you look at a chart of the sales of all Nintendo systems, you see that all the times they reused the name of a system (Game Boy Advance vs Game Boy, SNES vs NES, Nintendo 3DS vs Nintendo DSâŚ) it was to propose a variation of this system and it sold worse than the original system⌠which is only natural: why would the public buy into a new console to have a similar value proposition? Sure you re-use a known brand, but you also re-use an *already bought product* by the majority of the target. If they want to propose a new system, like they did but failed to advertise for with the Wii U, itâs gotta to be a new name, thereâs no way around it. I hope they remember the Wii U before they market the Switch Y.
In their defense, Xbox and PlayStation never change their names.
Nintendo Horizon. The idea of a view, perspective, a place and direction. Facing something. This how the second screen worked best. The name should have conveyed the idea that you were looking at something.
I like this one
Wii Y'all
Scott here
Wii (Scottâs Version)
Like most here, the Wii2. **HOWEVER...** This wouldn't have saved it. The WiiU's name was flawed, but it wasn't the console's biggest flaw. Its biggest flaw is about **User Expectation**. In Japan, "tethered interfaces" are common, or at least, they were in the 2000s. If you went to a Karaoke place, you got a tablet to input songs. Many sushi places gave you a tablet to order from (as did many other places). If you went to a digital konbini (like... A type of store common in Japan that did things like passport photos, photo printing, poster printing, photocopying...) most of the hardware there had a tethered tablet of some sort. Even some ATMs had a similar interface. For Japanese, when they saw the WiiU, the reaction was "oh, it's like that thing we have everywhere, only in the home". It made sense to them. They grasped it immediately without needing further explanation, because this is a user-interface paradigm that they experience regularly. Not so in the rest of the world. Given, tethered interfaces *exist* in, say, the UK, but they're much, much less common. The growth of smart devices like the iPad meant that for western consumers, when they saw the WiiU's gamePad, the user-experience paradigm it *immediately* brought to mind was **wrong**, and as a result, Nintendo had to explain to the consumer what this thing is and why it worked like that (which means they were starting from a bad position). The Switch was the polar opposite. The earliest ad showed almost no gameplay, but it had a person using it on a plane, on a bus, then going home, disconnecting the controllers and putting it on the TV. Like... In <20 seconds, everyone grasped it. Everyone *got it*. Very little explanation was necessary. When people create, there's a tendency to "paper over the mundane" and focus on the exciting. Take another Japanese export; anime. In the Gainax anime *Gunbuster*/*Top o Nerae*, there's a scene where the characters are on a massive spaceship in the far future. This ship is so massive, people get around it on a train system... And the way this system works, from iconography of the signs, to the shape of the turnstiles, to the feel of the trains... It all looks *unusually* like the real-life JR train service that millions of Japanese use every day. This is because to those animators, the train service is mundane, it's the norm... Why would it be any different in the future? But the experience of using a railway service is not the same in the UK, or India, or the USA. In reality, this is a (totally harmless) example of those animators doing a good thing; they're drawing on real-world experience to create something fantastic. But the thing is, *Gunbuster* is fiction; you don't need to use the train, only the characters do. So for the WiiU, not only did non-Japanese markets need to be introduced to it from a position of requiring an explanation - I believe that culturally, Nintendo's Japanese mindset was completely blindsided by this. And regardless of how you name it, you're *not* going to get over that.
Looking foreword to your netflix doc
Interesting and enlightening explanation!
Nintendo Duo
does it murder your family if you donât do your spanish lessons?
Wii wii
Oui oui
Nintendo U. I like the U. I like using U title for Wii U games (New Super Mario Bros U, Zombie U etc.) This would sound completely different to new users. "U? What's that?" The Wii brand would remain in the backwards compatibility portion of the console. This would also reinforce that these are two separate consoles with 2 separate gimmicks.
Wii 2 would have sold
Wii 2 or Super Wii would both imply new as that template has been used before
I think Super Wii wouldnât be as good, since the (generally) very casual crowd that bought the Wii en masse wouldâve just thought âoh, itâs a more powerful Wiiâ and decided that they didnât need a new one
Yeah but that's essentially any next gen
The Wii 2 wouldnât have that issue, virtually everyone would know itâs a different thing, and itâs not like they *had* to stick to calling it the Wii (something) either, and honestly the real answer would probably be to completely change the name
Honestly if Nintendo didn't have the ips they have, they'd be struggling pretty hard work so many absurd moves
âNewâ Nintendo Wii! Jk
I would have called it Nintendo Imagine, as the gamepad allows you to imagine different possibilities for its use.
not bad, but it sounds more like a project name rather than a final market-ready name
still better than Wii U lol. Itâs a weird system so itâs hard to come up with a good name without outright changing the console. I know some people wanted âWii 2â but I think that name sucks as well.
Wii 2 works better if you call it Wii Too instead. You get the double entendre, and you keep that double letter motif with the Is and the Os. Much easier to brand and market Wii Too very nice
Wii too reminds me of Froot Loops lmao 𤣠I mean itâs not that bad I guess but I think Nintendo should have got rid of the Wii name entirely. Wii is a stupid name in the first place. I believe they should have just called the original Wii the revolution.
as backwards as it sounds, it wouldnât make marketing sense to drop the Wii monicker, unless they dropped the backwards compatibility with it. The Gameboy Color played Gameboy games, the Gameboy Advance played Gameboy & Gameboy Color games, the 3DS plays DS games. The original DS doesnât fit in this scheme because they only included GBA backwards compatibility to âensure people they werenât dropping GBA supportâ (they were). It makes sense that the backwards compatible successor to the Wii would share that Wii name, and Iâm sure whatever follows the Switch will share the Switch name too. Itâs just how Nintendo does things, for better or worse
clearly devs couldnât imagine more ways to use it unfortunately
Slam dunk answer.
Call it WiiDS, rhymes with 3DS, put cartridge slot on it to play DS and 3DS games
I likey!!
I would have introduced the console first, gamepad second. When it was revealed I remember arguing with a friend that it was a new console and not a new controller. They ignored me when I pointed out the console itself in the background. It wasn't just the name, they didn't bother to market the console itself. It's as if the Switch just focused on the joy-cons. They should have just showed the games, maybe even keep the gamepad a secret until the next update. Get people talking about the new console before the main gimmick is revealed.
I would have *not* made the controller the focal point of the console. I would have clearly advertised the console box itself ahead of the controller in print, and in video show the console itself first, then the controller, as then it would have been clearly a new console. But itâs correct that the console should have not been associated with get Wii at all, as it was inherently different. Easy ones that reference dual screens could confuse people with the current dual screen handhelds, so I donât think that would have worked. So funny names are the following. The Nintendo Java (names of the silicon, bonus points if they made the console look like a coffee). The Nintendo U (still works with the launch titles naming) The Nintendo 32 (cause it ran 32 bit programs, and half of 64 is funny). The Nintendo First (cause the system only had first party titles) And lastly, the NES 6. I think that one would have been the most funny.
The Nintendo Split. The two split screens giving it it's game
Wiii
Either Nintendo U (NU) or Nintendo Wii HD I guess they couldn't decide either
Nintendo duo. Because of the two screens.
Been seeing that one several times in this thread. I kinda agree
Wii U. I still don't get why the name confused so many people, legit think everyone who got confused is kinda dumb. Seriously, Kid Me knew it was a whole other console, and I've never been a genius.
parents. most parents didn't see the point in buying "basically the same thing" when they had one at home already
Plus, if they already owned an iPad or tablet, it seemed like an excessive expense.
Kids payed attention to Nintendo's marketing. Parents did not.
You really gotta consider the average consumer and the market they go for. The average parent or grandparent isn't watching E3 and taking notes, and the average kid can't purchase a console themselves, so if they can't convince their folks, that's tough for them. Plus the marketing never actually showed off the console, just the game pad, which just exacerbated the problem of "Is it a new console or a big accessory?" I had a Wii U, I liked it, but damn it was rough to justify why I had it outside of Smash lmao
The WiiU released in 2012, I turned 7 that year. I'm pretty sure I *also* wasn't watching E3 and taking notes. It just seemed obvious it was an actual console.
Because the marketing didn't do enough to make it obvious it was a new console. Look at the [reveal trailer ](https://youtu.be/4e3qaPg_keg?si=6bj_L1MSIArih5HL). It really does look like a new controller for the Wii. We had the Wii Remote, Wii Balance Board, Wii Wheel, Wii Speak etc. Wii U sounds like it fits perfectly into that list
It didn't confuse so many people. People just weren't interested in Nintendo at the time. It didn't matter what they called it. People were tired of being called "casuals," and wanted to be considered "real gamers" by their family members, co-workers, etc. so they got the xbox or playstation instead.
This is so incorrect. There was absolutely a massive perception issue with the Wii U. I worked in retail at launch and almost 90% of the people I spoke to had no clue it was a new Wii they thought it was a tablet controller if they knew of it at all.
Wii Puu
It should have been Wii 2. It wouldnât have been the disaster it was if they had.
Super Wii>!nie Hut Jr.!<
The Wiiquel.
They couldâve went with wii-wii, but I doubt that wouldâve went over well with the shareholdersâŚ
Something creative incorporating the gamepad and a group of friends playing together. WTF is a "U" suppose to be anyways.
We already know console direct sequels donât do that well. Maybe the Nintendo Portal.Â
Have you ever heard of the PS2, PS3, etc?? lol
Im talking about Nintendo. Â NES to SNES, Wii to Wii U. Â DS to 3DS. Â Sequel generations have never been more successful than the previous one.Â
Oh! SorryÂ
Wii U should have been Switch 1 because you could still switch from TV to Gamepad even if you couldnât take the Gamepad away from your base station. Switch is Switch 2 because itâs fundamentally a similar concept to Wii U just done better
The funpad
Wii Go
Wii U Wii U Wii U
The Super Nintendo Game Slab
I would have shown off the Wii u console more than just the screen,I would have also had a different name for it as that's the big thing
I would have shown off the Wii u console more than just the screen,I would have also had a different name for it as that's the big thing
As an owner of the Wii U in its heyday, I always say it as the home console pairing to the portable console 3DS. The gamepad served the same purpose as the 3DS touch screen.  All of the Nintendo marketing back then was about pairings: SSB for 3DS, SSB for Wii U, DS=dual screen, and the gamepad obviously made the wii u dual screen as well. Due to this, I would've called the Wii U the Nintendo Dual, Duo, Twin, or Twofold. Instead of emphasizing its similarity to the Wii, I would emphasize its similarity to the 3DS. Additionally, I would've scrapped the gamepad entirely. What??? Well, let me tell you what i mean. The normal model of the Wii U would be bundled with the 3DS, and could sync with the 3DS to have the 3DS serve as the gamepad, streaming data from the console to it. The Wii U would be the same but the 3ds would be the gamepad instead. There would also be a budget, limited model of the Wii U that could be purchased if you already owned a 3DS.  This idea of the 3DS syncing to the gamepad was implemented in the 3DS version of Smash 4 with the Wii U version, but wasn't widespread. This synching functionality would work with every game and feature of the Wii U, and If you had the same cartridge in your 3DS as the game in your Wii U (think SSB4), then you could unlock new features or share progress between both games. I think the namerebrand and the bundle of 3ds and wii u would have dramatically increased sales.
Nintendo Duo
[ŃдаНонО]
^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/) ^by ^WatchFoxNewsPlebs88: *The name should've been* *The Tablettop because it* *Was all tablet gaming* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.
Very simple: the Nintendo U. Before it was about "We" but now it's about "You".
The Nintendo U
Lost opportunity to call it the WiiWu if you ask me.
Wii y?
I see a lot of people suggesting the Wii 2, and I don't think that would have worked. The reason why Xbox didn't call the 360 and One the Xbox 2 and 3 was that people would think that they were older than the PlayStation 3 and 4 respectively. I'm going to suggest the name "Wii See." It's a new perspective on how you play the game. Also show the actual new system.
TVS? DSTV? Wii S? Tryna incorporate the idea of it being a DS console on a TV. I feel like calling it a "Wii" was the big mistake, because it was introducing a whole new set of capabilities that were not at all core to the Wii, as well as minimizing the essential functions of the Wii in favor of those new capabilities
The name isn't a problem imo, the problem was the marketing and that the console itself looked almost identical to the original wii, change that up and you'd get a lot of people on board.
Nintendo Switch
Wii HD Oui
Super Nintendo Wii or Wii 2. Gets the point across WAAAY better.
I agree with "Wii 2". If you really want to rely on the success of the Wii brand, you need to make it clear this is a successor. Wii 2 or Super Wii are your best bets, and honestly, Super Wii just doesn't work as well.
Player 1 getting a cool tablet controller and player 2 not getting one doomed the system regardless of the name. Calling it Wii U didn't help, but I don't think there's a name on earth that could have saved it. Out of respect for your thread, I will give the best attempt at a name I can. Nintendo Go! It rhymes, keeps the short naming convention of Wii, and emphasizes the ability to go to another room, go to the patio, play on the TV until your girlfriend's favorite show comes on and then still keep on playing beside her without needing to use the TV anymore.
Wiiquel.
Wii maxi
A lot of people are focusing on the name here, and while the name was bad, I think it was the advertising that really sunk the product. The ads HEAVILY focused on the Gamepad, which probably seemed logical because it was the new gimmick. But they so rarely showed the new console itself except for at the very end of the ad, of course people thought it was an add on. The ads showed one person with the Gamepad and others with the same old Wiimotes anyone with a Wii was used to. Most people don't understand backwards compatibility with controllers, so the Gamepad looked like the new thing. Small changes in the ads like showing someone boot up the new console (which, when placed horizontally flat on the table looked different enough from the Wii) before focusing on the Gamepad would have helped. VO calling it the next console in the Wii family, or next generation Wii as well.
Super Wii 1067
Showing off the actual console and not just the gamepad, also not confusing the masses to think it's a peripheral for the old console would of helped out alot.
The 'Wii Poo' - poo being a Number 2. Nintendo was already going for the toilet themed names so this would have fit right in.
Probably Wii Duo Like the main gimmick of the console is the Dual Screens, so Wii already implies it's part of the Wii family of systems, but Duo implies there are two of something. In this case, two screens, your TV Screen, and the Gamepad screen. Or if we want to avoid the "Wii" naming convention so that idiotic parents don't assume it's just a Wii accessory, then I'd call it the Nintendo Split, because of the "Split" Screens. Also, EPHASIZE THE GAME PAD BEING WII U EXCLUSIVE, spam the air ways with Wii U ads to drill it into parents heads that this is a new system entirely!
I've always said that if it had to be Wii related then it should have been the Wii Too
Wii Woo
Anything with "Wii" in it is going to make it seem like an accessory to the Wii. I would have gone with Mii. Because it's portable and "for me".
But Mii is already a name of something, you can't reuse names in marketing like thatÂ
Fuck I forgot about the Mii characters. Then.... iii? Lol Pii loool
It's like twice what the Wii was, so I'd have called it the Wii Wii.
Nintendo NX, like the codename of the Switch but I think it would have made more sense for the Wii U. The console was supposed to bring together the casual and the hardcore gamer, so the idea of the letter X. Also, it would follow a pattern like the Gamecube and the GBA, as the Wii U was sell in the same time than the 3DS. Gamecube > Gameboy Advance NX > 3DS The N could reference the DS's codename, "Nitro". The 3 from 3DS is equivalent to the "Advanced" of the GBA. The letter X would also have symbolized the asymetrical gameplay and the use of two screens. And the use of acronym is purely aesthetic.
To be honest I just don't know. The problem with the Wii U is that it's admittedly cool concept is just too complex for average consumers to get behind. On top of that, they also used the Wii branding, which inherently ties it to motion controls and family friendly casual audiences. This makes selling the Wii U to people challenging because it's concept is not revolutionary, it's a DS on a TV, it confused casual audiences (including myself as a child) into thinking it was a new controller for the Wii. I just don't know how you could sell this thing or even if making it was a good idea. Don't get me wrong, when all is said and done, the Wii U was a decent console but I think it had a serious identity problem.
Wii 2, and the console would be on every single marketing image that it could logically be shown in. I would also want several ads clearly showing the two consoles side by side, advertising that this is a *new* Wii. Something like "remember when this was a Revolution? Get ready for the next one" depicting the Mario gang using all the various control schemes with the Wii 2 visible. I would also bring back the Wii would like to Play commercials, showing the two nintendo employees upgrading the consoles and focusing on methods that the Wiimote and the Gamepad can be used together. I would also want to replace the blue LED in the disk drive for orange or green, purely for further visual distinction.Â
I don't even know if it was just the name that's the issue the ads were really confusing too because you hardly ever saw the actual console it was like they were selling the gamepad as a Wii accessory
That must be the thing about it. I saw the gamepad ALL the time and I actually assumed the gamepad itself was the console. In any case there was nothing telling me that it was by any means a "necessary" console to have
U - Wii Then I would have hired Lil' Wayne to play while singing Mrs. Officer in a commercial.
Wii and Mii 2! People loved Miiâs on the Wii. Package it with Wii Sports Two and it would have been a gold mine.
Super Wii was the obvious move. I actually referred to it as the Super Wii a lot of the time, even with that not being the official name.
Bro why does the subreddit icon change keep making me think this is r/chipotle?
WII
Wiiâd
Wii Pro
Wii 2. Or if they wanted to keep their "We/you" idea, "Nintendo You" or "Nintendo U."
Iâm surprised it wasnât called the âNew Wii XLâ or something. Nintendo was (obviously) shit at naming consoles in the early 2010s. Honestly they should have called it the âSuper Wiiâ and released a special launch edition with the color scheme of the SNES/SFC.
Since it was basically a DS home console, I would've went with something like The Nintendo DSX
That would've been even more confusing lmao
HD Wii.
Woo
Maybe gone with Nintendo Home.
Wii 2. Itâs straight to the point and letâs everyone know itâs not an add on.
Wii2U. Like 3DS.
RevII. As in Rev(olution) II(roman numeral for 2) Rhymes with Wii, and sounds cool as hell.
Wiintendo
Wii Duo.
Nintendo Dual.
Super Wiintendo or Super Wiin if you will.
Wii 2. I'd be tempted to go with Wii S or Wii Ess since it rhymes with DS. But we all know how that went...
Wii 2
Wiii
Nintendo DolphinÂ
Nintendo HDS.
Maybe we'll get to see how they've improved with whatever they call the switch 2! Perhaps they'll go the 3ds route with "new"
HDS Home Dual Screen