"What should a new machine do? Much more. An unprecedented gameplay experience. Something no other machine has delivered before. The definition for a new machine must be different. I want you to know that Nintendo is working on our next system, and that system will create a gaming revolution."
Nintendo's president, Satoru Iwata, was in a familiar place. On stage, in Los Angeles, just before E3. Delivering the same kind of pre-show press conference speech he does every year – except this one was a little different. He took things on a tangent. He started talking about a new machine, and how things had to be different, and . . . wait, did he just announce Nintendo's next console?
It was May 11, 2004. Less than two and a half years after the launch of the GameCube. It was not the time to talk about a successor – it was way too early for that. And yet, it happened. In a move that must have been motivated by the Cube's third-place position languishing behind Sony's PS2 and Microsoft's first Xbox, Nintendo decided to kickstart the hype for the next generation far sooner than most anyone would have imagined. We'd ultimately have to wait another two and a half years for the system to actually launch, when what we now know as the Wii debuted in November of 2006. But back in '04, right in the wake of Mr. Iwata's announcement, all anyone could talk about was "The Revolution."
"I could give you our technical specs, as I know you'd like that, but I won't for a simple reason: they really don't matter. The time when horsepower alone made all the difference is over."
Even before stepping off that same stage in May '04, President Iwata took the time to define the intended direction for the new console, officially codenamed Revolution – Nintendo wouldn't be going head-to-head against Sony and Microsoft anymore. The company wouldn't rush toward HD graphics, trying to come from behind to win a three-way battle when they were already being so badly beaten. No, rather, they would embrace "the blue ocean strategy," steering Nintendo out into open, uncontested waters while Sony and Microsoft stayed behind to keep bloodying themselves against each other in the same "red ocean" territory.
Distancing themselves from the competition was a lovely thought, of course, but that classic Nintendo sense of vagueness kept us confused as to just what Mr. Iwata and the company's other executives were really saying. So they wanted to push forward with a new machine that didn't emphasize horsepower. OK. They wanted to produce a system that could be sold cheaply. Fair enough. And they promised that it would be fundamentally different when it did debut, like nothing we'd ever seen before. Again, intriguing, but all very, very vague.
And it would be over another year before we got more concrete information.
Nintendo's fans went wild with speculation in the meanwhile, trying to envision a console that would somehow focus on a microphone built into the controller, or some kind of second screen on the controller similar to the recently-released DS handheld (pretty apt, in hindsight), or even a wireless helmet that interfaced directly with your brain. And a year later, at E3 2005, Nintendo kept the guesses coming when it unveiled the console itself – a sleek, black box with a glowing disc tray – but shared little other info besides promising a new Super Smash Bros. sequel to play on it at launch.
They didn't show off the controller. Until...
... a few months later. Nintendo's executives would later confirm in interviews that E3 2005 had been the intended debut for the Revolution controller, but it just wasn't quite ready for prime time yet – so it was a few months later, at September 2005's Tokyo Game Show, when we finally learned that Nintendo's gaming revolution would be motion control.
A motion-sensing controller! A little TV-remote-looking wand that you held in your hand and waved around, and, when you did, the games on the screen would react immediately to your movements. It seems so commonplace today, as here in 2012 we're seen the technology come, and go, and inspired several imitators – but in September 2005, it absolutely was revolutionary tech. It was so odd and unexpected that journalists like our own Matt Casamassina struggled to even find the words to properly describe the sensation of it, asking readers at the time to "imagine sticking your hand into a virtual box and having your TV understand how it's moving in there."
Nintendo demoed a prototype version of its new Remote at that Tokyo Game Show, and it was unmistakably crude at the time – the controller itself was short and stubby, lacking the speaker holes in the middle of its casing, among other design differences compared to its final retail edition. The demo software, too, included mostly unpolished, entirely basic interfaces to illustrate how things like pointing at the screen with the IR sensor would function, or how the internal gyroscopes would sense how you were twisting the controller to the left or right.
But you know what? It worked. The controller had a little way to go to get its functionality ironed out, but the potential was absolutely there – and an early Retro Studios demo mapping pointer control to Samus' arm cannon in an in-development build of Metroid Prime 3 helped drive the point how further. After that TGS ended, Nintendo's fans were re-energized about the potential of the new machine. Motion control was definitely something different, and no one could wait to get their own hands on the Revolution.
Unfortunately, no one would ever get to play "the Revolution" again – because by the time the next year's E3 rolled around and Nintendo really began to show off the system's software, that codename had been cast aside. Nintendo had renamed the hardcore-sounding, fan-rallying Revolution with three little letters instead. Here is the statement the company sent out on April 27, 2006:
Introducing... Wii.
As in "we."
While the code-name Revolution expressed our direction, Wii represents the answer. Wii will break down that wall that seperates videogame players from everybody else. Wii will put people more in touch with their games... and each other. But you're probably asking: What does the name mean?
Wii sounds like "we," which emphasizes the console is for everyone. Wii can easily be remembered by people around the world, no matter what language they speak. No confusion. No need to abbreviate. Just Wii.
Wii has a distinctive "ii" spelling that symbolizes both the unique controllers and the image of people playing it. And Wii, as a name and a console, brings something revolutionary to the world of videogames that sets it apart from the crowd.
So that's Wii. But now Nintendo needs you. Because it's really not about you or me. It's about Wii. And together, Wii will change everything.
The fallout from such a drastic shift in branding was immediate and immense – nearly across the board, Nintendo fans cried out with unified hatred for the ridiculous new system name. The fans had had problem defending the company's kiddie image before – now, it seemed like Nintendo was conceded the fight. Their new system wouldn't be called the Revolution. Instead, it would be named after the thing kindergartners say on playground slides.
Nintendo was ultimately wise, though – in the timing of the announcement, at least. The late April delivery date of that "letter" to the fans let us all get the negative reactions off our chests, such that by the time E3 rolled around most people had made peace with the new name and could focus on the actual games.
And there, thankfully, the Wii delivered – the easy accessibility of Wii Sports proved the appeal of motion control immediately, while we knew mainstay series like Zelda, Mario and Metroid would all be arriving on the new system either at or shortly after its launch. The revolution was coming – with a different, sillier name, sure – but it was still coming.
That concludes our look back on the origins of Wii, but keep your browsers locked on IGN through the days ahead, because we're just getting started with our look back on Nintendo's fifth home console. Stay tuned!
Lucas M. Thomas still remembers how taken aback he was when the Revolution was renamed as Wii – but Nintendo's silliness with that brand at least prepared him to not be shocked by the even more ridiculous "Wii U." You can follow him on Twitter.
Source : ign[dot]com
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