The Wii U will hit stores this coming holiday season, but there's a chance it will be called something else by launch day. According to a report on CVG, sources close to Nintendo told the site that the company is considering rebranding the console, which was first unveiled at the 2011 Electronic Entertainment Expo last June.
Would a Wii U by any other name smell as sweet? Nintendo is supposedly unhappy with the initial reaction following the Wii U's announcement and is concerned that it might be inviting consumer confusion with the Wii. Such misunderstandings were one of the blamed culprits for the rocky launch of the 3DS. Some of Nintendo's marketing has since made a point to emphasize that the 3DS is not just another DS, but an entirely new system.
If the Wii U were to be renamed, it would be a sort of reversed reprisal of Nintendo's last console launch. At E3 2006, Nintendo renamed its in-development console from the Revolution to the Wii, a move that drew mixed reactions from gamers and analysts alike.
As of press time, a Nintendo representative had not responded to GameSpot's request for comment.