N-Sider Sherród Faulks says:
"Nintendo is not a new player. Nintendo ushered in the age of controllers, the age of platformers, the age of 32-bits, the age of directional sticks, and the rebirth of fun. Therefore, to think that Nintendo changing the Revolution's name to Wii is an oversight is just ignorant. Nintendo has been doing this decades longer than Sony and Microsoft, and know what to do with an idea. But there's something we American Nintendo fans keep forgetting -- Nintendo is a Japanese company.
Japanese is a very complex language. It uses a set of ideographs -- Kanji -- to represent words, phrases, sentences, and even complete and profound thoughts. What is most interesting about Kanji is, since they are really just simplified pictures, one can truly create imagery in a story with Kanji alone. Famed Japanese writer Yoko Tawada plays with the character for ear throughout her story "Spores": a woman named Kinoko (Kinoko is a type of Japanese mushroom, the character for which contains an ear) is involved in the removal of the protagonists' ears. The story by itself makes no sense, but with the Kanji dancing around the pages, the ideas come to life. Kanji provides not only literary imagery, but visual imagery, which we simply do not have in English because we use a syllabary. Now, apply this concept to Wii.
"...Wii seems to be a primordial fusion -- East and West, America and Japan, English and Japanese, the discrete and the ideologic...."
Wii seems to be a primordial fusion -- East and West, America and Japan, English and Japanese, the discrete and the ideologic. "Wii sounds like 'we,' which emphasizes this console is for everyone;" first, we get the discrete English base. "Wii has a distinctive 'ii' spelling that symbolizes both the unique controllers and the image of people gathering to play." Aha! There it is! There is the Japanese ideology. Wii is not just a word, it is now Kanji, and that is the true brilliance of this "name." An English word being use like Japanese Kanji breaks down the barriers between languages, just as the system intends to break down the rigid thoughts of what we consider games. To put it more elegantly, Wii is a Kanji wearing an English costume.
Nintendo's Marketing Department is now privy to the most powerful and profound moniker of our time. Right now, no one seems to get Wii. And that's just what they want. It is evident from the abrupt issuance of this new name, that this will unfold like flower petals. One by one, the facets of Wii, as name, symbol and system, are going to come out, and Nintendo's aim is to awe the world into purchase. They have already done this with the immeasurably slow release of the codename, controller and system specifications. Now the name has been unfolded, and all that remains is to demystify the symbol. However, it is important to note that Nintendo does have opportunity for failure. Their key to success is to make everyone understand the concept of Wii, so if they do so only half-heartedly, Wii could lose its appeal.
So, with all that said, a burning question remains -- Why all this mysticism and ooooh-aaaah over a name? Because Nintendo is trying to do the hardest thing in the world right now -- turn a multi-billion-dollar, worldwide, cut-throat, supersaturated industry upside down. In this humble author's opinion, Nintendo wants the world to remember how fun games can be; that memorizing the shapes on the buttons of a controller is unnecessary, that having twelve buttons and three directional pads is senseless, that power means nothing, and most importantly, games are for everybody -- Nintendo is going to remind the world that Wii are all gamers."