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Why more important than “Wii”

There's been much negative reaction to Nintendo's name for the console formerly code-named Revolution. It may be the company's highest-concept name ever. Apart from a fair amount of mispronunciation that Nintendo concedes that the console will receive, though, the literal name of this game is not the figurative one.

Nintendo has been hammering home that the name is consistent with the console's backward compatibility and controller design that will broaden its appeal beyond the core console "fanboy." After all, "GameCube," while perhaps not inspiring, could not have been more descriptive, and that didn't help Nintendo escape a distant third place in the home console market.

The problem has been that, far too often, Nintendo's definition of inclusion often reverts to the lowest common denominator of its kiddie core audience and those nostalgic to relive their days in it. Nintendo has proven adept at furthering its platforms' agendas with its first-party titles, such has been the case with the varied input methods of the Nintendo DS. But it also tends to fall back to the easy money of its franchises, and it will need to move beyond that to become truly inclusive.