Wrestling Is Invigorating. Weirdos Inside Innovation. We Is Ill. Which Is It?

What could Nintendo’s hit game console, the Wii, possibly stand for? As it turns out, nothing; “Wii” is meant to be a word, not an acronym (but I’m sure we all had some good guesses). So if Wii is supposed to be a word, what in the world is it supposed to mean?

Nintendo chose to scrap the original name of the console—which was “Revolution,” and has an obvious meaning and connotation—and opted for an abstract, vague little word that, until now, meant nothing. When Nintendo bigwigs first announced that the much-anticipated Revolution would instead be called the Wii, brows were furrowed, heads were cocked like curious puppies’, and some folks were even outraged. There were even complaints about how “wee” is what children call urine or a silly synonym for small.

When asked about the name in an interview, Perrin Kaplan, Nintendo’s VP of Corporate Affairs, explained it all. First you have to consider how it’s pronounced. Just like the plural of you and I, the console is pronounced, “we.” This is important to keep in mind because while the games are suitable for one player, Nintendo encourages more than one to play at a time. The Wii was developed as a party game, after all!

Next to keep in mind about the console’s name is the logo. The two lowercase I’s are meant to represent two controllers and two people (the dots are their heads). This emphasizes the camaraderie (and competition) that the Wii hopefully brings to its players.

Finally, Kaplan made it a point to give her audience a little marketing lesson. While “Revolution” was fitting for the console and its revolutionary features, it wasn’t the kind of name that grabbed the attention of the consumer. Referring to names like Google (only mathematicians knew what that meant before they hit it big), Amazon, and Virgin Atlantic, she pointed out that these are unique, interesting names of things we know and love. If you think about brands that resonate with you, you’ll probably notice that a lot of them are a little odd, or at least not as clichéd as something like “Revolution” (I mean, that’s the name of a soccer team!). Reebok, Nike, Pepsi, Tivo…Something that’s important to realize is that “Wii” sounds different from all of the other game consoles out there. One witty writer on a Wired.com thread wrote, “…you find that normal people can’t/don’t/won’t keep the names of the systems straight. People ask for “PlayStation 360s” and “PlayCubes” and “Mario on Xbox”—to them the system names are confusing and completely interchangeable.”

It all makes sense to me. Then again, I always thought they called it the Wii because when you play it, you go, “wheeee!!!!”

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