Over at CVG they’ve got a rumor up citing ‘serious discussions’ at the ‘highest level’ that due to the whole 3DS launch fiasco, Nintendo is seriously considering changing the name of the Wii U to something else. Something less Wii-like.
Take a look at a couple of UK retailers, adding big red 3DS stickers to game cases. And this ad for the 3DS, claiming that ‘This is not DS, this is Nintendo 3DS’
Personally I thought the name 3DS was perfect when it was revealed, told us it was 3D version of the DS, but I have to admit when the system first came out and I was asked what the difference was, the first thing I akways said was that it had 3D. Which would have seemed obvious, but people still seemed surprised by it. I got the impression that the 3 indicated to people a system number, like ‘360’ or ‘3’. Since then the marketing push has done a decent job of showing the new abilities of the system I think, but that came after a terrible launch. And lets think back to E3.
Nintendo put such a massive emphasis on the tablet controller for the Wii U, rightfully so I thought, that consumers were left a little confused about the console. People were wondering if it was just the tablet that was an add-on for the Wii, as they only showed a single brief glimpse of the white box, which just looked like a rounded Wii anyways.
So, no idea if they’re going to rebrand or put out a massive marketing push explaining it. Neither of those sound like great options, which is likely why they haven’t done either yet. So, what do you think the Wii U should be named?