The Nintendo Wii The Name is Genius

Within hours of the announcement the new Nintendo console would be called the "Wii," the derision began. The name was repeated over and over again. Articles were written, and re-written. Discussions took place on blog after blog, news site after news site. What a ridiculous name! They all said. Yet with every mention, the name was repeated.

And it accomplished its purpose.

Now, people can't stop talking about the new Nintendo console. The name has become the product, and the meaning of the name has finally occurred to those who previously ridiculed it. Surprise! It's a play on words. Take a bow, skeptics. You are probably half the reason the Wii is outselling everything else at the moment.

Nintendo's new console adds a social aspect to computer games: something which hasn't previously existed to any real degree. So "Wii" makes all the sense in the world if it is heard as a homonym. That combined with the fact it isn't another combination of letters and numbers that are just so cool that everyone has to get one right now makes it unique. Then the first group of people saw what Nintendo was offering for gameplay, and all the possibilities, and they saw the future of video games.

It's different, so people talk about it. They talk about it because it's different. Get it yet, skeptics? The name is its own publicity. The choice of that name probably cut Nintendo's console marketing budget in half.

Pure, undeniable, invincible, absolute genius.