First came the Wii. With the odd spelling, Nintendo could easily deny that it was an English word. Even if you thought it might have a meaning in English it could mean the English word, wee, as well as the pronoun we.
Then came the U. What are the odds that Nintendo would sound out a second English word and again they had an odd spelling? Sure it could mean the English word, ewe, but twice in a row hints at a pattern and could easily be the English pronoun, you.
This is too much of a coincidence. Like Apple’s attempt to dominate the letter “i” (also a pronoun -do you see where this is headed?).
I think Nintendo is going to actually challenge the Apple stranglehold in their next outing. Of course the U fits under the Wii branding. It only makes sense for U and Aye to make up the Wii line. That is just as much logic as Apple uses in making everything an “i”.
Indeed we should celebrate Nintendo for branching out with their naming pattern because if we let companies own a letter there are only 25 more to go.
Nintendo could continue with Uss, Thay, Mii etc. Then they could make male and female versions like a blue Hii and a pink Shii or a blue Hym and pink Hur.
Then, once Nintendo has a stranglehold on their market and their customers they can be more possessive with names like Miine, Yore, Thare and of course “R” as in Our. Nintendo, you trademark testing monstrosity, you want to take on the Toys R Us chain, too? Sure the R in Toys R Us is backward but that hasn’t slowed down that trademark’s annexation of the forward form,too.
I say let the companies fight it out. Maybe eventually we English speakers will get back our letters I,R and U, as well as our pronouns.
Update: Apparently Nintendo used “Mii”s as player avatars right from the outset with the Wii.
