Well, it was only a matter of time, eh?
I can remember when I saw the article about it. Was on the phone with one of my X-box supporing friends. After searching a while, I found it to be true. I ended up saying: "NOOOooooo!" and then the dissing came from the other end. Have been hearing it since.
My initial thought was: Nintendo just took everything good they had for the machine and wrecked it. But as it is, it a remarkable success as advertisement. Only in the first hour after it's release just about every gamenews site with a forum had been spammed with piss jokes. You have to admit, that's a pretty good way to get attention to yourself.
The name is in itself a market strategy. First of all, Nintendo shows it's "be different" approach and names the console something completely in the other direction. Also, Nintendo has stated through it's entire development of Wii (well, most of it) that they are modeling their product after Apple and their iPod. Look at it: short, incredibly easy to remember, both with the tiny i's, both glossy white and tiny. Most of all: it does not link to Nintendo. The machine is name Wii and not Nintendo Wii (contrary to ign.) When someone biased looks at Nintendo he or she allready has a specific view about the thing. When someone spots something in the store that's just called Wii, they don't think "It's that kiddy console." or "ugh.. it's just another Nintendo". They see it as something else, just like most people don't think of Apple when they think of iPod. Also, remember that Nintendo targets not just gamers, but everyone. The simple name, light package and no link to "this whole gameconsole business." will draw interest from other people.
I'm still a little concerned since allmost the entire game market (for all the consoles) are pre-teens, so there will be a lot of "wee-wee" jokes. But, if those kids are as immature as they seem right now, they they'll probably forget about fairly quickly and start looking at shiny box instead. Personally, I'm just waiting to see the games that will surface at E3.
Oh, just remembered. I never say "let's play Gamecube." It's more along the lines of: "Play Smash bros?" Don't remember the last time I mentioned the consoles name.
