I don't disagree with what you're saying; Game Boy® and PlayStation® are well recognised video games brands.teamonkey wrote:It doesn't need to be branded a Gameboy to be called a Gameboy. For many non-gamers the DS is a "Gameboy" because they think it means "handheld games console". I've heard friends and family call it that, I've heard confused parents in Game, even when referring to the PSP. I can understand why Nintendo wanted to get away from the "boy" part of it, but it's still a very powerful brand.Roobarb wrote:Nowhere in Nintendo's branding does the DS refer to Gameboy, nor have i ever heard anyone not 'in the know' refer to a 'DS' as a 'Gameboy'. The only thing in common is Nintendo.
Eh?Well if that's all Sony has going for it
A mum wants her kid to stop playing games and have some dinner, she tells him to "stop playing on his playstation" irrespective of what kind of console it is. "Playstation" and "Gameboy" are powerful household names. "Xbox" is getting there. "GameCube" never did, "Wii" may do.
And it's not simply because it's the biggest selling product either. How long has it been since Hoover and Xerox were brand leaders? The Gameboy hasn't been the biggest seller compared to the DS for a year, yet the average person in the street wouldn't immediately know what you mean if you said "DS" or even "Nintendo DS" (though they might have a clue that it was to do with computer ga1mes).
They will never be as generic as 'Hoover' or 'Walkman' though, as Sony and Nintendo protect them as Trade Marks. So you won't see them in the OED as nouns for 'portable console' and 'home console'. Xerox® also did this and I don't hear many people using the term 'xerox' instead of 'photocopy' these days. Same thing with Rollerblade®: instead of using the term as a generic, publications have to the use the term "in-line skating", and this affects how commonly the term is used by the general public. Google is also following the same tack. Unless Nintendo revives the Game Boy® brand, I doubt it will be anywhere near as well recognised in 5 years time as it is today.
That Nintendo managed to launch a highly successful portable console (DS) without using the Game Boy® brand name clearly shows that whilst brand names do have value (companies would not spend so much money on them otherwise), they are not the be all and end all of a product's success by any means. This is especially true in a market that by its very nature is highly cyclical, with each new generation of product providing a huge opportunity for a competitor to usurp the market leader.
By far the biggest factors affecting success, regarding mass market console sales, are price and choice of games (especially big-hitting exclusives). PS3 has so far failed on both counts. If Sony don't sort this out the PlayStation® brand name certainly won't save them.
*snip*
