Reaction to Nintendo's choice of name for its next-gen console has been instant and very dramatic as fans have launched online petitions and others have started questioning the new name and its validity.
Nintendo executives have been doing the rounds, some asking people to put up and shut up and others trying to convince us that the new name is less embarrassing than naming an airline Virgin but should work just as well. Nintendo has vehemently defended its choice of name and has focused on its visual properties hinting at a connection with the big surprise the company has in store for E3 2006.
It's this visual property of Wii that some fans are challenging, claiming that Nintendo may be trying to mislead us until E3 in order to introduce a new name. The evidence supporting the Wii-fraud stems from the lack of a patent in the U.S. for the name of Wii. It is definitely odd for a company not to secure its intellectual property before making it public and it appears that the US patent and trademark office holds no such submission by Nintendo. Assuming that Nintendo of America's VP of corporate affairs, Perrin Kaplan, knows what she is on about, the name Wii was conceived some time back so it is extremely unlikely that a company as big as Nintendo would not be protecting the name of its brand new console. Similarly the domain name wii.com is not available and not owned by Nintendo.
These facts may lead to some doubt over the legitimacy of the new name but then again most companies that wish to deceive us for a while usually go to the trouble of securing a patent anyway in order to add authenticity to their claims.
Another interesting theory comes from Nintendo fans that witnessed a Total Immersion demonstration in 2004 and claim that this is the technology behind Nintendo's expected surprise announcement at E3 2006. This theory has been mentioned before but a lot of it relies on comments made on an IGN forum last December by someone claiming to be a Nintendo insider who suggested that the secret will be in how Revolution/Wii games will be presented. A look at the video however does not clear things up regarding how such technology as Total Immersion's D'Fusion could be implemented with Wii.
Nintendo fans that grew attached to the Revolution name have also created an Online Petition in an attempt to convince Nintendo to drop the Wii.
For the time being however, we have to admit that Nintendo is doing a good job of driving everyone crazy with anticipation regarding its new console. This sort of excitement is nothing short of refreshing as we have never been so involved since Atari gave way to color video games. The downside for Nintendo is that if its E3 announcement is anything less than spectacular it may end up alienating all gamers, including its fan-base.