Worst console name?

corblimey

Disregarding the Xbox 360 (why 360?) and the Wii (hee, sounds like wee), what is the worst named console? For my money, the Playstation is a ridiculous name, but it's fairly ubiquitous now, so I'm going for Sega Saturn. Great machine, terrible name.

PS: I know the Japanese console market gets pretty wacky with its naming algorithms (FM Towns Marty anyone?).

ghostchant

N-Gage

Retr0gamer

Nothing wrong with the saturn. Thought playstation was pretty crap but like Wii I just got used to it. The worst however was Dreamcast. They should have stuck with Katana.

tman

Virtual Boy

Worst name for an emulator would have to be Visual Boy Advance... Felt like a right paedo with a shortcut to that on my desktop!:o

kdave

playstation 4

Atavan-Halen

Genesis. Sounds so...feminine compared to MEGADRIVE!! GRR!!

Azhrei

kdave wrote: »

playstation 4

Also PlayStation 2, 3 and 5. Get a clue, Sony.

Apple Pippin, Nokia N-Gage and Fairchild Channel F are all terrible names.

Butch Cassidy

When you think about it, they're all fairly ridiculous!

Mega Drive sounded ****ing cool AND MEGA!!!
Nintendo and all it's successors was alright and innoffensive. N64 was a bit silly but it stood out.


32X was stupid
Saturn was a bit silly
Playstation isn't bad because it is a play-station!
Dreamcast? ehhh... Dreamcast? - never got that one!
Atari Jaguar? why a jaguar?! Why not a puma, cheetah or panther!
Xbox I always thought was silly but I agree "360" makes even less sense. Maybe Microsoft thought if they'd put a number on it they'd create a new bit war!!

Butch Cassidy

I hate the way people call their Xbox 360 and games just "Xbox". Does my head in when looking/asking/searching for Xbox "original" stuff.

Azhrei

Butch Cassidy wrote: »

Playstation isn't bad because it is a play-station!

Not really. The name comes from the SNES CD add-on Sony was developing for Nintendo back in the day. It is a perfect name for a Nintendo system - Nintendo, who concentrates on pure gaming more than any other company. The PSX could do nothing but play games (and music cd's, I guess), but PS2 played DVD's and had (limited) 'net access, while the PS3 is, in console terms at least, a media powerhouse. The majority of early PS3 purchases were in order to acquire a cheap Blu-Ray player.

The name no longer applies. It's Sony's problem that they are afraid to innovate, preferring to safely imitate instead. I don't know what their executives are like, but I'd imagine the conversations went along these lines -

"Nintendo's developing an analogue stick controller?! Then we'd better put one on ours!"
"Make it two, sir. More is always better."
"Clever man!"

"Okay, okay, so we have our nice shiny new PS2. What can we do with the controller?"
"Well, Nintendo hasn't let on what they're doing with their new controller yet, so why don't we just one-up the N64 again by adding rumble into the controller without the need for an expansion pak?"
"Aha, I like your thinking. That'll show 'em!"

"Alright guys, the PS3 is a while away yet. I'm thinking this time we try coming up with a new controller."
"Hmm... hmm... I'm not sure, boss."
"Oh, come on. Give it a try."
...
"Well, we tried. Here it is."
"It looks like a banana!"
"Well, yeah, but once you hold it, you realise how comfortable and natural the shape is."
"Good job people. Let's see how the fans take it."
...
"RUN AWAY! BAD KARMA, BAD KARMA!"
"Yeah, yeah... best go back to the old design. Nintendo's doing that motion thingy with their new system, maybe we should add a **** implementation of it into our classic, totally not SNES-derived controller."
"I like your thinking, boss."
...
"Damn, Nintendo's really become successful. And that new motion attachment thinger looks to make them even more so. Get our guys working on a completely new controller design, that doesn't imitate Nintendo in any way. And give it a terrible name."

Damn, Sony. You got some moves.

x in the city

corblimey wrote: »

Disregarding the Xbox 360 (why 360?) and the Wii (hee, sounds like wee), what is the worst named console? For my money, the Playstation is a ridiculous name, but it's fairly ubiquitous now, so I'm going for Sega Saturn. Great machine, terrible name.

PS: I know the Japanese console market gets pretty wacky with its naming algorithms (FM Towns Marty anyone?).

theres a eat out in frankfurt am main called 360, questioned them about it and its to do with encompassing a whole circle, everything as it were.

so its probably the 360 means.. everyone

Azhrei

XBox comes from DirectX, then DirectXBox, hence XBox. The 360 is indeed Microsoft's idea of stupid people thinking that PlayStation 3 must be better than Xbox 2. The 360 circle stuff is corporate nonsense.They will surely choose a new name for the 360's successor.

I hate the way people call their Xbox 360 and games just "Xbox". Does my head in when looking/asking/searching for Xbox "original" stuff.

Why? It's much the same as people talking about "PlayStation" or asking about "Nintendo" games. They have a specific system in mind, it's just that the brand name is so ubiquitous.

Dark Savior

Gizmondo - ugh, trys to hard to be cool and fails.

ghostchant

Don't forget the game.com, pronounced 'game com'...why make it look like a web address for god's sake?!

batari

Famicom - sounds like a tampon.

jhegarty

Someone add a poll so Atari Jaguar can be a serious answer for once !

Azhrei

atariman wrote: »

Famicom - sounds like a tampon.

Family Computer.

Blazer

Azhrei wrote: »

XBox comes from DirectX, then DirectXBox, hence XBox. The 360 is indeed Microsoft's idea of stupid people thinking that PlayStation 3 must be better than Xbox 2. The 360 circle stuff is corporate nonsense.They will surely choose a new name for the 360's successor.

Rumours are Xbox 720

martineatworld

Can't believe it hasn't been mentioned, although I guess it was never big over here...

The Wonderswan.

At the risk of sounding juvenile, it's the gayest possible name for a console! What were they thinking...

ghostchant

Yeah I was going to mention that, then I realised I hated the name N-Gage more for its stupid text-speak sounding name.
Oh and I know we're excluding it, but surely everyone agrees the Wii is almost certainly the worst name for a console ever, yes?

Myrddin

Butch Cassidy wrote: »

When you think about it, they're all fairly ridiculous!

Mega Drive sounded ****ing cool AND MEGA!!!
Nintendo and all it's successors was alright and innoffensive. N64 was a bit silly but it stood out.


32X was stupid
Saturn was a bit silly
Playstation isn't bad because it is a play-station!
Dreamcast? ehhh... Dreamcast? - never got that one!
Atari Jaguar? why a jaguar?! Why not a puma, cheetah or panther!
Xbox I always thought was silly but I agree "360" makes even less sense. Maybe Microsoft thought if they'd put a number on it they'd create a new bit war!!

The 32X - a 32 bit add on for an existing console, seems good to me.
Saturn - Sega used planetary names for project codenames, neptune/mars etc were all console codenames...frankly I like the name Saturn.
Dreamcast - why? To cast your dreams into reality of course
Atari Jaguar - Speed my good friend, a Jaguar is one of the fastest cats in town, meaning this Atari was supposedly faster/more powerful than anything else at the time.
XBox - Indeed comes from Direct X Box, the 360 name has been explained above.

Frankly, Gamecube is a little weak. But dont be stabbing consoles in the back lads

CiDeRmAn

Playstation was easily the best name ever for a games console so far, given that for 15 years the name was synonymous with games console, like Hoover was to vacuum cleaner, Saturn never had a chance, and so it is probably the historically worst console name as it promised so much and delivered so little, at least when compared to the PS.
Now don't get on your soap box, I have a Saturn, love it, I have loads of games, many great exclusives, but i have more on the PS, and more games that either only came out on it or the best editions were on the PS, Wipeout 2097 for example, F197 is another.

Then, whats in a name, all the Wii jokes seem weak now, now that nearly everyone owns one!

Gizmondo was pretty crap, as was the Tapwave, all trying for the two/three syllable hook into the collective shopping conciousness, but failing miserably!

Jack burton

Even though the jaguar is pretty silly i think Ataris whole cat themed consoles is pretty good.

The Jaguar, The Lynx, The Puma (cancelled) The bigger the cat the better the console :P

Sega Mega Drive! does exaclty what is says on the tin! its mega and it drives! :P Sounds better than "the blast processor" or the "blastie box"

Well I still have my hopes up for the Sega Hyper Drive or Mega Dream!

ghostchant

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

Playstation was easily the best name ever for a games console so far, given that for 15 years the name was synonymous with games console, like Hoover was to vacuum cleaner, Saturn never had a chance, and so it is probably the historically worst console name as it promised so much and delivered so little, at least when compared to the PS.
Now don't get on your soap box, I have a Saturn, love it, I have loads of games, many great exclusives, but i have more on the PS, and more games that either only came out on it or the best editions were on the PS, Wipeout 2097 for example, F197 is another.

Then, whats in a name, all the Wii jokes seem weak now, now that nearly everyone owns one!

Gizmondo was pretty crap, as was the Tapwave, all trying for the two/three syllable hook into the collective shopping conciousness, but failing miserably!

Even at its height I heard some people (i.e. parents with their kids) referring to the PS as a Nintendo..but I don't think that any brand has come close to being the 'Hoover' or 'Coke' of video games. The PS was better than the Saturn (in my opinion), and obviously way more successful, but that doesn't have any bearing on whether 'Saturn' was a good name for a console or not.

Yeah Gizmondo is one of the worst. Having a crap name isn't half as bad as having a gangster as one of the company executives though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stefan_Eriksson

Dr Bob

Jack burton wrote: »

Even though the jaguar is pretty silly i think Ataris whole cat themed consoles is pretty good.

The Jaguar, The Lynx, The Puma (cancelled) The bigger the cat the better the console :P

Sega Mega Drive! does exaclty what is says on the tin! its mega and it drives! :P Sounds better than "the blast processor" or the "blastie box"

Well I still have my hopes up for the Sega Hyper Drive or Mega Dream!

I dunno , Always preferred Megadrive to its terrible U.S. name :Genesis.

Jack burton

Well the genesis is for a new beginning but i love the mega drive

osprey

It's a strange thing, but you often set aside the name of a new console in favour of what it can do. There's a general feeling out there at the time that what ever name it is - it's the greatest thing on earth. Reading these posts I am in agreement with a few people, as time passes you look back and laugh a bit!

Atavan-Halen

Not strictly a name but the development name for the Gamecube, the Dolphin. I highly doubt that anyone would have bought it if it was called the Dolphin.

"Oh hey, wanna come to my house and play with my new Dolphin? ^.^"

"O.o"

landsleaving

atavan-halen wrote: »

Not strictly a name but the development name for the Gamecube, the Dolphin. I highly doubt that anyone would have bought it if it was called the Dolphin.

"Oh hey, wanna come to my house and play with my new Dolphin? ^.^"

"O.o"

I don't think nintendo considered that argument tbh.

"Oh hey, wanna come to my house and play with my wii?"

Emmmm...

Gunmonkey

I always thought the PSP had a stupid name: the Playstation Portable, wow you guys really earned your paychecks with naming that alright.

And if 32X (32 bit eXpansion) is stupid, what about the Nintendo 64??

carlowed

nee-yo-gee-yo

Zombrex

It has been mentioned but, N-Gage hands down.

It came a good few years after the trend of turning "En" into "N" in everything was pretty much dead, and has the impression it was named in a board room by someones mother or father who vaguely remembered their teenage son doing that a few years ago.

Zombrex

carlowed wrote: »

nee-yo-gee-yo

I love the quirky names of Asian consoles

Mr Trade In

Dark Savior wrote: »

Gizmondo - ugh, trys to hard to be cool and fails.

Weirdest thing I have ever bought. It went back in the box after 1 hour.

Mr Trade In

Sega Nomad or Multi Mega for me really stupid names, also Game Gear,if they released that today people would think they were drug pushers.

Adyx

Gunmonkey wrote: »

I always thought the PSP had a stupid name: the Playstation Portable, wow you guys really earned your paychecks with naming that alright.

And if 32X (32 bit eXpansion) is stupid, what about the Nintendo 64??

Better than the "Ultra" 64 if you ask me. More consistent too.

Azhrei

landsleaving wrote: »

I don't think nintendo considered that argument tbh.

"Oh hey, wanna come to my house and play with my wii?"

Emmmm...

That name was thought up by employees at Nintendo of Japan, who couldn't care less that it sounds like a slang word for urine in some western countries, because they knew people would get used to the name and the laughing would stop pretty early on.

Which, to be fair, is what happened.

o1s1n

Mr Trade In wrote: »

Sega Nomad or Multi Mega for me really stupid names, also Game Gear,if they released that today people would think they were drug pushers.

Sega Nomad is THE best name for a handheld, ever. Anyone who states otherwise is just wrong :P

+1 for Wonderswan, Game.com, N-Gage and n64. The whole N64 thing really pissed me off the way they stuck '64' into the title of so many games. **** off!!!

CathalDublin

GP2X-Wiz WTF??

Azhrei

I know of the GP2X, but I've never heard it called the GP2X-Wiz.

ghostchant

Azhrei wrote: »

I know of the GP2X, but I've never heard it called the GP2X-Wiz.

They're different consoles. The GP2X Wiz is the successor to the GP2X

CiDeRmAn

I 2nd the Nomad as a great name for a console, pity it never got a euro release, I do miss my american one from time to time.
Don't miss the batteries it chewed through though!
The PSP was a great name, the logo was cool and it was one of the most desirable consoles at the time, remembering that the original DS was an ugly pig of a machine and not so popular, took the DS Lite to light that fuse.
No one really called it Playstation Portable, the PSP name was cool, and the logo matched in with the PS2 logo as well. We are looking at the PSP from the wrong end of the telescope, from here it looks like and alsoran compared to the DS, but back then it was a marvel.

And I stand by my comments about Playstation = Videogames, it may not be true now, but for 10 years or more, 96-07, the brand, via the PS and PS2, was shorthand for videogames, to most non-gamers, and it took the 360 years to break that hold, but only took Nintendo a year or two for the Wii to become the new videogame staple, claiming back the crown they once owned, world wide, with the Nes and later the Snes.

o1s1n

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

And I stand by my comments about Playstation = Videogames, it may not be true now, but for 10 years or more, 96-07, the brand, via the PS and PS2, was shorthand for videogames, to most non-gamers, and it took the 360 years to break that hold, but only took Nintendo a year or two for the Wii to become the new videogame staple, claiming back the crown they once owned, world wide, with the Nes and later the Snes.

I know what you mean here. I really don't think the 360 or the Wii have come anywhere close to Playstation being used as shorthand for videogames. Although maybe that was just in Ireland. We were a bit Playstation fanatical here!

As for the name, I always liked it myself. It was the lack of innovation with the following ps2 & ps3 that annoyed me. As good as a brand is, sticking a number onto the end of it always pisses me off. It's the most unoriginal thing you can possibly do. Unfortunately that just seems to be the way things have gone now.

Although saying that, Nintendo weren't much better, were they?

Nintendo Entertainmeny System
Super Nintendo Entertainment System
Nintendo 64

Sega still come out on top with me for naming consoles. They're always incredibly kick ass. No sign of weakness. And everyone knows that sticking the word 'Mega' onto something immediately makes it ten times better.

Azhrei

Whatever with the names, at least Nintendo's consoles were sufficiently different from the last, they had a new direction to go in. Sony's intentions for the PlayStation brand included an increasing focus on media and whatever Nintendo was doing.

Ireland may have been PlayStation crazy, but Nintendo held up well elsewhere, especially in the States. There the N64 put up a hell of a fight, and only the N64 could have even survived against the onslaught that was the PlayStation, never mind give it a run for it's money (though there was never really any doubt). Remember that even despite the lower price, even the Saturn was more popular than the PlayStation at first.

It took quite a while for the PlayStation to achieve the momentum it did, and while you mention that people refer to consoles unanimously as "PlayStation", long into the PS1 and even the PS2's life, people were still calling them "Nintendo". Nintendo's name is no longer prominent on the front of their consoles and people don't call them that anymore, they are either Wii games or DS games.

I wonder if it's the start of a new trend, the one that should have been there all along, where people call the console's games by the name of the console? I'll bet you anything that people won't ever be looking for games for "Microsoft"

Butch Cassidy

Azhrei wrote: »

Whatever with the names, at least Nintendo's consoles were sufficiently different from the last, they had a new direction to go in. Sony's intentions for the PlayStation brand included an increasing focus on media and whatever Nintendo was doing.

Ireland may have been PlayStation crazy, but Nintendo held up well elsewhere, especially in the States. There the N64 put up a hell of a fight, and only the N64 could have even survived against the onslaught that was the PlayStation, never mind give it a run for it's money (though there was never really any doubt). Remember that even despite the lower price, even the Saturn was more popular than the PlayStation at first.

The N64 held its own indeed. I just think that similar to SNES vs. Mega Drive, N64 vs. PSX both had their own respective peculiar crowd. Playstation kids were just coming into the teen years and some of the games represented a slightly more grown up theme to them in terms of violence and that whereas Nintendo still focused on games not the cinematic style stuff PSX was doing with the likes of Metal Gear and Resident Evil.

Sony managed to get a lot of life out of the Playstation 2. It's swan song may have been God of War but it still hung around for a good while with the Buzz and Singstar titles which was a fairly decent idea to prolonge its life.

Azhrei wrote: »

It took quite a while for the PlayStation to achieve the momentum it did,

You can say that again! I was shocked when I read a wiki page that said the PSx was released in 1994 :eek:. We only got a Mega Drive in 1995! - played my cousin's before that.

Azhrei wrote: »

and while you mention that people refer to consoles unanimously as "PlayStation", long into the PS1 and even the PS2's life, people were still calling them "Nintendo". Nintendo's name is no longer prominent on the front of their consoles and people don't call them that anymore, they are either Wii games or DS games.

I wonder if it's the start of a new trend, the one that should have been there all along, where people call the console's games by the name of the console? I'll bet you anything that people won't ever be looking for games for "Microsoft"

I knew a kid about 15 who got a Wii and he kept calling it "Nintendo Wii". I think he was ashamed of the name. He traded it in for a PS3