Nintendo is going nuts! From
Spong:
Quote:Nintendo might well appear to be going mad, especially if you’ve been following the news of late. On the back of the Donkey Konga drum and Iwata’s assertions that a new ‘thing’ is in development that somehow sits in the void between hardware and software comes this: an explanation of exactly how to refer to the Game Boy Advance.
Read and enjoy.
Game Boy® Trademark Initiative, January 6, 2004
Did you know that there are ways to actually misuse a Game Boy? We just did it in the last sentence. Our famous Game Boy® trademark is sometimes misused. When a trademark is repeatedly misused it risks becoming a generic word that does not indicate the source or quality of the product.
You are probably one of more than 160 million people who love their Game Boy video game systems. But no matter how you use it (Gameboy, GameBoy, game boy, gameboy), real portable fun is actually spelled:
Game Boy® system
Game Boy® Advance hardware
Game Boy® Advance SP hardware
(Game Boy® can be used as an adjective to modify many generic nouns like system, video game system, hardware, game, software, accessory and so on.)
Now for some plural fun:
When there's more than one Game Boy®, Game Boy® Advance or Game Boy® Advance SP system, trademarks should never be used in plural format.
Here are some examples.
Incorrect usage:
Game Boys
Game Boy Advance SPs
Correct usage:
Game Boy systems
Game Boy Advance SP hardware
Of course, our trademark Game Boy® should never be used to refer to a non-Nintendo video game system. Our competitors have to earn their own reputations. Please don't give them a free ride on ours.
So there you have it. You never need to misrepresent any Gameboy Advances ever again.
This reminds me of when Nintendo said they wanted GameCube to be spelled GAMECUBE in every article. I don't know if they issued a press release about it like this one, but it stuck out in my mind because no one in their right mind is going to capitalize GameCube everytime they use it.
I know, it's hilarious. Nintendo can be so stupid sometimes.
I don't care HOW they tell me to say Game's Boy, I'll spell it as I will!
Was there really a problem with the term becoming generic? I never heard anyone refer to the N-Gage or Game Gear as a Gameboy. Then again, I almost never hear anyone refer to those at all anyway. Is Nintendo just trying to make sure people are aware of this before some potential portable threat emerges beyond the horizon? The PSP MIGHT pose a potential threat of course, but I highly doubt anyone would be calling it a Gameboy if it managed to work it's way into a substantial part of the market.
For that matter, if that was their goal, they certainly could have been a bit less anal about it. Perhaps they could have left out the registered trade mark symbol (I have no idea how to type that in via ascii code) and the word "system" and just made a point that ONLY Nintendo's handhelds are called Game Boys (though I really have a hard time believing anyone would generically refer to them all as Gameboys).
The REAL threat to liscensed names is, well was, Nintendo itself as a term to refer to ALL console games. I remember shortly after the Genesis was released, everyone was still referring to ALL console games as "Nintendo games" instead of "video games". Only now is the term finally correct. I think it's because it wasn't everyone that said it, but rather old people alone who said it, and they all died or something. Or maybe Sony had a hand in it. I dunno, anyway that one trademark becoming a household name threat was snuffed out almost a decade ago. I really don't think Nintendo should be too concerned about this sort of thing. Band-Aid has something to worry about (and let's face it, they lost :D, no one even considers using the non-trademark term), as does Kleenex (sometimes people call them tissues, but a lot of people still call them Kleenex generically), but not Nintendo.
Maybe this also explains why they insist on GAMECUBE NINTENDO (GCN).
Does Nintendo think anyone will actually say GAMECUBE NINTENDO every time you mention it, and call the GB the Game Boy Advance SP® hardware? Not Game Boy Advance SP, but Game Boy Advance SP® hardware!
Idiots...
And yes, there is a danger when it becomes a all-encompassing term like "Nintendo" in the NES days, or among clueless people "Playstation" for most all home consoles these days... but yeah, I haven't seen that in the portable market... none of the competition has been around for long enough. :) And I agree, there doesn't seem to be much danger of people confusing the PSP or N-Gage with the GBA...
Though, I will say that I think that it should be spelled as two words and not one. GameBoy is wrong.
Eh
Where have you heard people refer to all game systems as "Playstation"? I saw some old man on Mad TV call every single gift opened a Playstation, but that's it. Generally, if it's not specific, people just call it a system, at least that's all I've heard.
I'll call it poop on a stick if I want to!
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I think I'll just stick with Gameboy Advance, though.
I hear people refer to general consoles as Playstation and Xbox a lot. I don't hear people refer to consoles as GameCube at all, but they do refer to them as Nintendo.
Yeah, people who don't know better seem to think Playstation, X-Box, and Nintendo (you're right, never 'Gamecube') are interchangable...
From my experience, anything that even vaguely resembles a Game Boy (including, once, a Walkman) is generically termed "Game Boy".
That is probably true a lot.
Look at Tissue papper, People often call it Kleenex. Which is a brand of tissue papper.
Haven't we had this discussion like five times before?
asm, don't say words anymore. :D It's just that I mentioned your very thing already!
Hmm, so apparently it HAS become an issue in some places. Never heard it that way myself, as I said. Odd. Then again it's only said by the clueless. They'll die out eventually :D.
Interchangable referenses eh? Never heard anyone call them all Playstations, and I'm surprised anyone would call all of them XBoxes (really, how'd that happen?). As for Nintendo, I guess not all the people who called them all that have died yet. Oh well... As I said, generally those who don't know or care to learn all the names of the systems around here, the casuals, the parents, the rest, just call them "systems".
Example: "Could you put one of your systems in the living room so one of the kids could have something to play?"
I don't think so... clueless people just say whichever one of the three pops into their head first. 'systems'? Maybe sometimes, but more often I'm pretty sure that people just say "playstation" or whatever they can think of... I mean, they're all the same...
You don't think so? How can you say you don't think my own personal experience was like that and "correct" my memories? I did specify that's what I've seen from personal experience.
I mean in the vast majority. Maybe it's different or something in wherever you are... but I doubt it because people don't seem to be that different about it. Maybe it's just some people you know? Maybe they aren't as clueless as the people Weltall and I are talking about? I don't know...
I agree with ABF. In that sentence you used DJ most people I know who don't know the difference between consoles will say "Could you put the Nintendo in the living room so one of the kids could have something to play?"
Some people say Playstation or Xbox instead of Nintendo, but you get the idea.
I call all of my systems "fun machines".
For some reason, the only system I every hear people talking about these days is XBox. Even though Nintendo is the old industry vet and PS2 has a stranglehold on the market, people seem to think XBox is the cool thing and from my experience XBox is the new term for game machines in general. A scary thought, indeed.
Weird.
On another note, some company that I think is local was advertising that you could win a "Sega XBox" in some contest they were having. Ah ignorance...
Yeah, for some reason Microsoft seems to have captured the "cool" market...
Well their sales still can't match Sony's, or even Nintendo's this past holiday season.
Definitely true. Which is why the fact that so many people seem to think that they're the coolest is so odd...
Replace 'weird' with 'stupid' and you are right. (Yes, I agree with Terry Goodkind's rules... *wonders if anyone has read the Sword of Truth series*)