I thought it was weird Nintendo would go with that. I thought it sounded really gimmicky and too cutesy.

Now when he meets people, Wii says, "My name is Wii. I'm the original." And while he got pee-pee jokes as a kid, friends now ask him: "Oh, Wii, are you going to go home to play with yourself?" Oh, the hilarity.

A Man Named Wii Describes How Nintendo's Game Console Changed His Life [MTV News]

And if you're still pissy about having to refer to your new Nintendo console as the Wii, maybe this dull the pain of not owning a "Revolution."

Japanese people have a funny habit of abbreviating names. For instance if you have a "Family Computer," people call it "Famicom". We at Nintendo had thought of giving it a name that can not be abbreviated. It is a very short official name, and we wanted to add other words to create a new additional name. Such as "Wii Sports" "Wii Play" and so on. We debated how the Wii might be thought of in the English speaking countries. And we came to a conclusion that there is no other choice but to use this short, appealing name.

Feel better? I'm guessing "no." Michael McWhertor

Shigeru Miyamoto Talk Asia Interview [CNN]

Over at Game|Life, Chris Kohler has a rather hasty but somewhat interesting summary of a Nintendo.jp feature on the design philosophy and evolution of the Wii.

Nintendo chief hardware dude Genyo Takeda talks about how, as soon as GC was finished, they had to start thinking about the next hardware system. If they followed the accepted industry roadmap, they'd think about giving it better graphics and more power.

But then they started thinking, wait a minute, even if we do this, is it really going to have as much of an impact on players relative to the cost? If you give people 1, they want 2, give them that and they want 3. Where does it stop? 5, 10, 100...? This creates a sort of malaise because they'll never be satisfied.

So they figured they wanted to create something different. They started to wonder why video game systems couldn't be refined like other technology — like, rather than make a bigger, more powerful system, take what you have and make the chips smaller, make the box smaller, make it consume less power.

Ultimately, they decided they wanted to take the GameCube level hardware and make it so efficient that it would only use 1/3rd to 1/4th the power, while still maintaining high performance. Chris says this is only a partial summary — he'll post more tomorrow. Good, because that seems like pretty much the worst idea for a console ever, from a gamer's perspective. It's like reading about the design evolution of my utterly craptacular green-friendly Florian Eckhardt

Iwata Interviews Wii Developers [Game|Life]

The Nintendo Revolution.

It had a good ring to it. Maybe a little more longwinded than Nintendo usually is, maybe even a touch pretentious. But a good ring. The name of a new console. It sounded right.

And then shock, disbelief. Outrage, in some quarters. Laughter, certainly. I was absolutely convinced that "Wii" was a joke, and that we would get the punchline at E3. A giant "gotcha" after a hilarious media storm. But I was so wrong it hurt. And kept hurting. GayGamer's soothing balm is my only solace:

Sunday will mark the 4 month (1 year in gay relationship time) anniversary of the console formerly known as the Revolution being renamed the Wii.

At the time, wii all had some strong feelings about the name change. As clearly evidenced by the fan art you see. It was all so surreal.

In all honesty, I've ceased thinking about it. Wii is still a funny word, but the novelty is gone and I simply accept it now. Next shock, please. Eliza Gauger

"Wii" Forgive? [GayGamer]

I tend to dislike words that end with a squealing double e phoneme: I will take pains, for example, to avoid words like 'penny' or 'scrunchee', instead referring to them as 'one cent pieces' and 'that elastic sphincter trailer park tramps put in their hair', respectively. So it's surprising to me now that I can say 'Nintendo Wii' without finding myself giving an inadvertent, full body squirm.

I'm amazed by this: I would never have guessed it two months ago when the name change was announced. Don't get me wrong: named after a toddler's euphemism for his tiny, pre-pubescent penis, Wii is still the stupidest fucking name a console could possibly have. But the sexy hardware and the possibilities it represents have successfully brainwashed me into a Manchurian Candidate for Nintendo.

Still, I'm glad some people haven't sold out as quickly as I have: CNet has named the name change of the Revolution to the Wii as number 9 in their list of the 10 worst technology blunders in Q2 2006. "Nintendo Revolution sounds cool. Nintendo Wii sounds dumb. That's about all there is to say." I dunno, guys... I somehow managed to say some more! Florian Eckhardt

The 10 worst technologies in Q2 2006 [CNet]

For example:

Edinburgh International Games Festival 2006 21st - 22nd of August 2006

Description: The festival celebrates the best of the interactive entertainment industry and creates an environment where the development and publishing community can celebrate the latest creative milestones and look to future innovations.

Venues: Royal College of Physicians / Odeon, Edinburgh, UK

Notes: Co-located with the EIEF06 Edge Award. Nintendo is on the sponsors list.

Likelihood of Nintendo related news high.

By the powers invested in me, through the sole discretion of Gawker Media Inc., I hereby dub this the most useful Nintendo-related bit of news of the day... perhaps the week! Brian Crecente

Road to Release: All Major Gaming-Related Events Until the End of the Year [Nintendo Revolution]

Evil Avatar spotted a rumor as juicy as it is implausible about an upcoming PS3 peripheral designed by Primesense:

In conclusion, we have a very reliable source that claims Sony will have a PS3 peripheral which will recognize a user and his entire environment as well as his movements and will incorporate them into useful, in-console actions. The applications of this tech to gaming are obvious and if this story is proved right, Sony may yet manage to steal Nintendo's thunder in this generation of the console wars.

Ha ha. Yeah, right. Nintendo ON, anyone? Crecente thinks this could be for real — however, a shoddily designed site proclaiming a full virtual reality space for the PS3 is a bit hard to swallow, especially when even MIT grads who are merely the physical projections into our dimension of hovering astral brains have barely been able to get the tech to work right.Florian Eckhardt

PS3 Secret Hardware Revealed (via Evil Avatar)

Stop me if you've heard this one: A video games journalist and a Nintendo executive walk into a pub. The Nintendo executive slaps a poodle onto the bar, exposes himself, then blurts out the release date for the Wii.

Haven't heard that one? That's okay, we'll tell it to you sans the poodle: A French blogger is reporting that he had a drunken conversation with a Nintendo executive at an airport bar, during which conversation it was leaked that the Wii will be released on the 30th of October in Japan and only about a week later in the US or Europe.

The official Nintendo announcement about this should come in September, but it makes perfect sense from our perspective: Beat the PS3 out the door. And lest we forget, we've heard the early November rumor before. Florian Eckhardt

Novembre, Mois De La Wii? [Inpactvirtuel.com]

Regardless, I doubt highly that they would dare change it yet again, but the rumors are flowing like wine:

We have received over 200,000 e-mails with complaints about the Wii, and the console name has been commonly associated with urine. We have been the target of many jokes, and we strongly believe that it's a bad thing for the company's reputation.

This from a mysterious "Mike" at the Nintendo marketing department. Nintendo vehemently denies the mere suggestion that they are considering other names, and dares you to say that to their face.

I could not reach Nintendo for comment on this particular post, but as soon as I got tired of their hold music (a Limp Bizkit cover of the Yoshi's Island theme) and hung up, I got a text message from Joel that just said: "get laptop & leve hous now dnt look outsde gt out now!!1"

I started to hear scrabblings at my door, and recognized the potent aroma of Nintendo fanboy wafting up from the street. Thank god for my innate ability to scale vertical surface using an exuded sort of bio-glue on my fingertips, or I never would have escaped.

Thanks Joel for the warning, and for reminding me to bring my laptop so that even in terrified exile, I can update your goddamned site.

More here [GamesforWii, via NintendoGossip]

This clip's a few month's old and really short, but explains everything. Brian Ashcraft

More Here [Studio Cook] Thanks, Andre!

New Zelda: Twilight Princess Screenshots [British Gaming Blog]

Wishful thinking or print game journalism's shortcomings? The June issue of Game Informer still refers to the Nintendo Wii as the "Revolution." This is from a monthly glossy that claims to be "The World's #1 Computer & Video Game Magazine." Ehem. Surely, the mag's nimble publishing wheels move fast enough to change stuff like this. The Wii has been named for what, over a month? That's like a year in blog dating. Brian Ashcraft

I Do Love Print [Game Informer] Thanks, Evan!

With the Revolution name dead and buried, Nintendo fans no longer have that electrifying image of a Soviet-themed fist clutching a controller and lifted defiantly into the sky to rally behind. Comparatively, the Wii brand name has no strong imagery associated with it. The new name is a small child's euphemism for the movement of his bladder, not particularly conducive to tasteful illustration.

Luckily, Huzzah Goods has come to the rescue with their handsome Jolly Roger themed Wii/Revolution/Whatever! shirts. Called 'Skull and Crossmotes', the shirt will set you back about 17 bones come May 29th. Thanks to everyone who sent this in! - Florian Eckhardt

Skull & Crossmotes [Huzzah Goods]

• $249 Price tag •Virtual Console (we knew this) • 3d Controller (we knew this) • ALWAYS online (console is always online, even when OFF) • Built in speaker on the controller • No improved graphics on Virtual Console (as in, they aren't redoing the models, doesn't talk about framerates and such). • TG16 will have it's 1st party games out at launch, 3rd party will come later as demand increases. • Estimated prices for the VC are "a few dollars for NES, $5 for SNES and $10 for N64 • VC games are pro-scan enabled. • $250 "seems appropriate" • More 3rd party exclusives than the Cube

Zelda details after the jump:

Zelda information:

•Zelda is 80% complete, delay was for graphic tweaks, wii functions and because they want the game to be measured on a scale of 1 to 120 instead of 1 to 100.
• NO SWINGING THE CONTROLLER for the sword, you just press a button. There are some cases where you will swing though. Reason = you'll get tired too fast
• Controller does sound effects
• Widescreen on the REV only!
• Navi is only when you play on the REV.
• Something with online is planned but no battle mode.
• More dungeons than OOT already
•More items too

$249? We're there.
EGM Spillin' Wii Beans - New Details. [4CR]

Kotaku reader Daniel K. sent us in this mysterious photograph of a flamboyant man dressed entirely in gaudy leopard print duds hanging out with Koji Kondo at E3. Do you recognize him? Who is he? One of our on-site editors probably knows, but they are all sucking their thumbs whilst embryonically nuzzled in a booth babe's tequila-filled womb right now.

Daniel's email is after the jump! We're sort of intrigued ourselves, if only because we've never seen anyone pull off head-to-toe leopard print before.

I know E3 must be going stupenderriffically for you guys (it sure is for me). I don't know if you guys know or not, but it seems Koji Kondo (the legendary composer of Mario and Zelda music) was in the Wii booth the past couple days, playing the conductor game (on that rotating platform thingo) - I took three shots of him playing before I recognized who he was, and then completely geeked out when I finally did realize...and got a pic with him. (I just happened to run into Reggis later and got a pic there too! But that's another story)

Anyways, here is the bit where I'm asking for help identifying someone (I have pics). I went back to that area of the Wii booth later, and found that there were two other gentlemen sitting with Mr. Kondo, one regular business-y lookin' dude (not sure who he was), and another fella....all in leopard print clothing. Now, I'd seen the leopard guy yesterday, and last year too, but who is he??? I asked the booth girl, and she said the dude made Kirby and Pokemon. Now, we're goin' off at least several degrees of misinformation here, because when I get home and look it up, nope, turns out that ain't him.

Well, I had ended up getting a picture with him (when the booth girl asked him about a pic, she even yelled out "Hey! Leopard!"), so I can provide some clues that would help an investigation.

1) He's gotta be high up in the ranks (last year, a friend saw him being shown around Nintendo's booth by some suits), especially if he's rubbing elbows with Kondo.
2) His Starbucks cup holder had the name "Ash" written on it.
3) He loves his leopard print (wears it every E3). It is EVERYwhere. His shades, jeans, shoes!
4) His nametag even has leopard print.

Who is this Leopard Nintendo Man???? It's like his identity is supposed to be secret, because his badge is constantly and conveniently obstructed from a clear view (in my pics anyways). I wonder if Shigeru ever hits up clubs in leopard print too.

I guess when you're a Big N big shot, you can dress in all the leopard you want.

IGN Wii: What is your plan for the Wi-Fi Connection and how might it compare to Xbox Live?

Takahashi Tezuka: Well, the Wii Wi-Fi Connection works the same as the Nintendo DS one. It's the three qualities that we emphasize. It's easy, safe and free.

IGN Wii: Will it have a central interface a la Live that all games will interact with, or will it be different on a game-by-game basis?

Tezuka: It'll be just like the DS so the interface will depend on the software.

IGN Wii: Will Wi-Fi Connection on Wii also use a Friends Code system?

Tezuka: Yes.

Sorry, Nintendo, that sucks. Most of us were happy to leave behind the entering of endless and easily fuddled cryptographic strings into our consoles when we stopped playing Castlevania 2. Although Tezuka emphasizes this is part of Nintendo's strategy to keep WiFi free, we'd be happy to pony up some cash as an option. Scrawling down a 16 character friend code and laboriously entering it just so our girlfriend can enter our Animal Crossing town is worth paying to avoid.

Wii Wi-Fi Just Like DS [IGN]

E3 '06 is also the debut stage for our latest collaboration with Nintendo: we've possibly hinted at it in the past, but then again we've also hinted at a lot of other things, because we're like that. Yes, Diddy Kong Racing is our first official DS project, and Nintendo are busily promoting it as part of their next wave of big DS offerings for late 2006. Based on the N64 classic but improved and expanded in ways that only the DS allows, you can see the first shot and movie snippet over on NCL's website if you haven't already.

A few tantalising DKR DS info-bites to keep you going: eight-player single-card and multi-card WiFi play, touch-screen and microphone compatibility, some familiar faces in newly playable form, remodelled and retextured tracks, customisable vehicles, new modes, weapons and challenges, a little something called TT's Wish Races where you can create your very own tracks... and it doesn't end there.

Rare did it's best work with Nintendo, so it's good to see them climb back into bed with them. Now let's see what they can do with a Perfect Dark secret on the Wii.

Rare Confirms Diddy Kong Racing Involvement

Asked about Super Mario Bros. Galaxy release date, Shigeru Miyamoto responded:

[Galaxy] is progressing along quite well, but it's often said that when I get involved in a project I upend the tea table. I don't want to promise anything yet. But if it's not a launch title it will definitely be there within the first six months.

That sounds to us like a very cautious way of saying that Super Mario Bros. Galaxy isn't nearly as far along as games that were already in the pipeline for the Gamecube and are merely being ported over to the Wii late in development. Is this the first Nintendo console launch without a Mario game?

Miyamoto on Super Mario Bros. Galaxy Release [IGN]

First Wii Virtual Console Pics!! [Wiigamer]

Getting that out of our system, Miyamoto-whatever-san has granted an interview to Edge magazine about Nintendo's attempts to awaken the beast of gaming deep within the breasts of housecoat wearing moms and pablum-drooling geriatrics everywhere with their DS and Wii consoles. Next Generation has posted some contextless highlights and it's good reading, if you're as charmed as we are by Miyamoto's effusively polite optimism.

He even has some compliments for Sony and Microsoft, although the quality of those compliments makes it clear that they ushered forth from his stretched, corpse-like lips only because he felt pressured. "In the case of Sony, I think their endeavors to create new chips and then to make enough of them to reduce the manufacturing cost - I think that's something that's nice for this industry, as well as for other industries." That compliment probably sounded a lot less backhanded before Sony announced their new console would cost six hundred bucks.

Miyamoto Faces the Future [Next Generation]

The most radical is the addition of a speaker that rests just below the three buttons that divide the controller in half. The small speaker came into play during the Legend of Zelda fishing sequence we played and complemented its built-in rumble during the parts of the demo where we reeled in our catch, as it emitted the sound of a reel turning. This addition has resulted in the controller being a bit longer to accommodate the new feature.

This excites us, only because we like the idea of more tactile and aural feedback in our controllers. The PS3 is aping the Revolution by including tilt sensors, but right now, the device doesn't have Dualshock. Meanwhile, Nintendo has casually upped the ante yet again by including a speaker into their already revolutionary new controller.

Man, is there anything the Wii controller can't do? Granted, we probably will not be able to point it at a booth babe and tear her tassels off with a sly-flick of the wrist, but we're sure some Hong Kong hentai game dev is already working on that technology with the panties of polygonal schoolgirls.

Nintendo Wii Controller Hands-On [Gamespot]

Forget all these wimpy tickle-the-puppy and golf-putting games Nintendo is showcasing. The Wii controller has one clear, god-given purpose: to facilitate the disememberment of virtual zombies. Whether that is gouging your Wii remote forward to puncture the fetid jelly of a zombie's eye with a screw driver, lifting the remote and nunchuku shoulder high to garrote a Ganado or just lazily circle over Jill Valentine's posterior to tickle her bottom — Capcom ought to go nuts with the Wii remote.

Hopefully, this is a Resident Evil 4 style entry in the series, as opposed to the type that required you to place an Egyptian scarab in the eye of a sphinx to access the police station toilet.

The press release is after the jump:

Resident Evil, the Survival Horror King, is coming to Nintendo's Wii !

Capcom Co., Ltd. is pleased to announce that the development of a new game in the Resident Evil franchise is underway for Nintendo's next-generation Wii system.

The Resident Evil series, which began in 1996, has helped to propel the survival horror genre into the mainstream. The series has shipped over 30 million units (as of March 31st, 2006) and continues to entertain fans worldwide.

The intense story and cutting-edge graphics have combined to create a deep gaming world that has even been expanded into non-gaming media such as the Hollywood movie series of Resident Evil and Resident Evil: Apocalypse, each earning over 100 million dollars at the box-office. The most recent game in the series, Resident Evil 4, has been honored with the Award of Excellence at the 9th CESA Game Awards and the Game of the Year Award at the 1st Famitsu Awards, further demonstrating the worldwide recognition of the game's top-notch quality.

The next-generation console Wii is garnering much attention with its groundbreaking new controller. The new Resident Evil game for the console will combine the series' intense gaming experience and atmosphere with the revolutionary control system of the Wii.

As always, Capcom will continue to strive to produce great new game titles and expand its appeal to a broader audience across the globe.

About Capcom
As a worldwide leader in the gaming industry, Capcom is on the forefront of this new cutting-edge technology, and is proud to have produced a number of hit products such as Mega Man, Street Fighter, Onimusha, Devil May Cry and Resident Evil. Capcom will continue to provide customers with the best possible forms of innovative entertainment in this new and exciting media.

In case you missed the Nintendo E3 Press Conference Live Stream, here's part two of the Wii footage showed by Nintendo.

Thanks to You Tube for chugging on this for the last two hours!

• Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
• New Fire Emblem
• Super Mario Bros. Galaxy
• Tony Hawk 4 Downhill
• Red Steel
• Raymand
• Sonic Wildfire
• New Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles

Best news? Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. On launch! Q4 2006!

Set in the Arabian Nights or some such crazy non-sequitur setting, the Wii game will feature Sonic racing through storybook worlds before they disappear. More interestingly, this is the first entry since the original 1991 game to feature just Sonic. As opposed to that obnoxious fuck Tails or other who-cares? pantheon members like Shadow or Silver.

No word yet on how the Wii controller will modify the traditional Sonic experience, although sources claim that you will make Sonic run by putting your hand on the opalescent Wii shaft and whipping it back and forth as fast as you can. Hello, Mr. Thompson!

Sonic Wild Fire goes Wii!

Nintendo Press Conference Live Stream [1UP]

While we probably can't hope for Reggie to stand up, apologize for the entire Wii fiasco, pump one chocolate fist into the sky and declare "Revolution Forever!", you can expect the latest and greatest Nintendo coverage, photographs of the conference, as well as shaky-cam footage of whatever trailers Nintendo deigns to show.

Stay tuned, me bonny lads and lasses.

Thanks to Kotakuite Paul G. for forwarding this first pic of the Nintendo E3 Booth, originally posted on WiiGamer. Of course, it's not the swank of their booth that's going to attract gamers to Nintendo this E3, it's the thought of having a live-action swordfight at the demo booth by swishing the Wii's controller around while a crowd of onlookers scream your name, then victoriously collapsing into the arms of a cooing booth babe.

First Nintendo E3 Booth Pic [WiiGamer]

Thanks to Kotakuite David R. for sending along the link to this great fan-made Wii video. Despite the fruity name of the console, stuff like this still makes adrenaline start geysering out of our ears.

The video is a tad lame, saturated through out with the belabored husky breathing of a Japanese man wheezing into the mike. But perhaps this is a good portent of what emulated 8 bit games on the Wii will be like.

Homemade Wii Controller Doubles As NES [Gamebrink]

The US Patent Office link tends to like to die out, so we're not sure if it'll work for you, but you can see it in the screenshot above, and yes, Wii is indeed registered to Nintendo of America.

Of course, even as a publicity stunt, Nintendo would be likely to trademark Wii, right? Right?

Wii Trademark [US Patent Office] (Thanks to everyone who sent this in!)

Well, you've had eight days to get over your shock, so what do you think now?

Gawker Media polls require Javascript; if you're viewing this in an RSS reader, click through to view in your Javascript-enabled web browser.

Well, turns out in this case that both types of gamers were naive fools. When every capital letter in Rufus' post is ROT-13ed, it does indeed spell out a secret message. Unfortunately, that message is a huge middle finger to those who bothered to go through the trouble:

HOWDY PARDNERS WAY TO CRACK THE CODE BUT YOU WILL HAVE TO WAIT TO FIND OUT ABOUT WII WONT YOU NOA RUFUS

Don't you just hate it when guys like Doofus Rufus here manage to punk you?

Nintendo Pulls A Wii Prank (via 4CR)

Making us feel slightly better in our seething contempt, we're not the only ones who hate it. Gamasutra interviewed six devs, asking them what they thought of Revolution. Surprise, surprise... across the board, they hate it too.

Here's a winning quote from Meelad Sadat, director of business relations, High Moon Studios: "It's telling when a product name needs a 150-word explanation."

Quoth Ernest Adams, game design lecturer and columnist: "It doesn't change my personal opinions of the console in the slightest. It changes my opinion of the Nintendo marketing department considerably. Did they even bother to research this? Why do they do these things? What was wrong with "Revolution"? It's bad enough that the Japanese have a drink called "Sweat," but at least they don't try to export it to the English-speaking world with that name."

And David Sirlin, designer, Backbone Entertainment, dismisses it thusly: "Even though Wii meets many of the criteria Nintendo should be going for, it fails at the criteria "don't pick a silly, awful-sounding name."

Just change the name back already, Nintendo!

Wii Reactions: Developers Comment [Gamasutra]

There is a certain post-modern irony about the name Wii that the gaming community's healthy cross-section of Nintendo fanboys and the mentally ill find quite delicious. While the rest of us were reacting to the news of the Revolution's name change with a perpetual gurgling in the back of our throats that could only be cleared by tearing out our own jugulars with our fingernails, you guys were designing cute, slightly fruity wallpapers celebrating the new name. This happened mostly on IGN's forums, so we weren't really paying attention, but luckily, New Generation has compiled a few of the more attractive designs for the desktop-gracing of the fanatic Wii nutball.

If you want to replace your current wallpaper of a scarlet fist holding the Revolution controller stabbing defiantly at the sky with something a bit more topical, you could do worse than these largely handsome yet utterly misguided designs.

Clever Wii logos [New Generation]

Although Roman-Catholicism's Rite of Exorcism does not allow you to perform the sacred ritual on idiot Nintendo marketers, there's another way you can exorcise the Wii demon: simply go to Wiisuck.net and enter your 100 word totem of hate into their database. Or love! Wiisuck.net isn't picky!

As of right now, the site seems mostly devoted to elicit and/or pornographic versions of the punny Wii tautology. Best one on the first two pages? "Wii are the knights that say Wii!"

Wiisuck.net

During the interview Steve Manning became convinced that Nintendo had deliberately picked a bad name for the console and that it was, in fact, fake. Manning thinks that Nintendo is creating an enormous viral campaign by releasing a fake name and then coming back during E3 and announcing the real one.

It looks like he's not the only one who thinks this. Site Snark Hunting is also convinced, here's why:

Crazy? Here is the first clue, "By letting the gaming community vent now about the name, they will be less distracted as launch titles for the system are announced and initial reports about what it's like to play the games begin to come in." Allowing your audience time to vent is not SOP in a name announcement, and also telegraphs that Nintendo knows what a stinker this name would be.

Second, it's not possible to engineer a worse name for this product.

Third, and this is a big one, there are no trademarks registered by Nintendo nor by any dummy corp in the U.S or over there for Wii. This is unprecedented for Nintendo and it is not possible that his is an oversight. If Wii were the name, they would have registered it. In fact, no new trademarks have been registered by Nintendo at all. This leads us to conclude that Nintendo has in fact registered the real name under a dummy corp, which is SOP when trying to keep a name a secret prior to launch.

I've asked Nintendo reps straight out if this was the case, several times, and they deny it through and through. They also say they don't know why the name isn't yet trademarked.

Manning is now calling this the "most savvy name announcement we have seen in many years."

We think Nintendo is setting you all up to be Punk'd at E3, generating a massive amount of positive buzz when the scam and the real new name are announced.

Given that their video game audience is the same demographic as Punk'd, the whole campaign is perversely elegant. Except of course for failing to make the illusion complete by registering a TM for Wii.

Personally, I think this would run too many risks and could far too easily backfire for Nintendo to attempt it. I'm thinking Nintendo just thinks the shock is going to create an instant and lasting impression.

Update: This just in from Nintendo on the subject of the missing Wii trademark: "Nintendo has filed many trademark applications for Wii. Trademark Web sites often take time to update, and you can expect the Wii trademarks to appear shortly."

Nintendo Wii Brilliant [Snark Hunting]

Violently Dislike it: 35 percent (1884 votes)
Happy as a Clam 21 percent (1150 votes)
Still in Shock 42 percent (2274 votes)

I predict by the end of the week most people will either like it or not really care. Hit the link to cast your vote.

What do you think of Wii? [Kotaku]

Okay, so the name sucks. The general consensus is that Nintendo's boffed naming their new console. The moniker is reminiscent of everything from the French word for "yes" to the childish word for "urine." Not exactly the association that Nintendo was looking for, but is that why everyone is freaking out?

Traditionally, game consoles sound like, well, game consoles. The machines either invoke play (Atari 2600 or the PlayStation), technology (Intellevision or TurboGrafx-16), entertainment (Super NES or Xbox) or adventure (Magnavox Odyssey or Dreamcast). "Wii" invokes something far more mundane: us. The horror.

Fans across the global have truly been surprised, some delighted and others disgusted. Over what? Love it or despise it, Wii does not change what's inside the console. Between an innovative machine with a stupid name or a stupid machine with a fab name, I choose the stupid name.

With the DS, Nintendo's showing that they really aren't making traditional consoles anymore. Luke at 1Up writes, "Is Nintendo now just the weird uncle in gaming that we look at and say, 'Oh, don't mind him, he's a little bit off.' I for one, hope not, but I am starting to wonder." The Nintendo-of-late has been off and slightly strange. But isn't that the point?

We Wee Oui Wii [Ninendo Japan]