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« on: May 13, 2008, 09:30:36 pm »
As to what the "Wii" name means, it's not an abbreviation or anything, but I read in a nintendo press release somewhere that, to accentuate their new audience of casual gamers, the changed the name of the console from "Revolution" to "Wii" because it incorporates the idea of a more widespread audience; as in "Wii all play together" = "We all play together." It's just a play on words, and so that they can have their small little i's to bow to people in commercials.
Also, there's the speculation that Revolution came off as too harsh of a name and would only really strike a chord with hardcore gamers, while Wii was less aggressive. Then add to that there was all the press, jokes and jabs at the new name that spread like wildfire. Yeah, it has a stupid name, but word got out there, better than it did for any console.
The marketing department just put way too much thought into it as far as I'm concerned.
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This looks like a job for Science!