The Nintendo Game Boy has a competitor to thank for its name, with fans just realising the revolutionary handheld console derived its name from a company soon to be Nintendo’s business rival
Gamers are only just realising Nintendo’s revolutionary Game Boy has another handheld device to thank for its name. The portable gaming console which made it possible to play Tetris, Super Mario and Pac-man on the go revolutionised the gaming industry, but fans have always wondered where the name came from, and it seems another handheld device is responsible.
Launched in April 1989, and released in North America in 1990, the Game Boy became a dominant force in the gaming world. Handheld consoles like the Nintendo DS and hybrid console Switch would follow. But the Game Boy, which went on to receive several redesigns in the 1990s, got its name from an unlikely product.
Fans will be surprised to know Nintendo’s competitor, Sony, were responsible for the naming of the Game Boy. A post to the r/TodayILearned subreddit reads: “Nintendo’s Game Boy got its name as a riff on Sony’s Walk Man.”
The Sony Walkman is a portable cassette player which revolutionised how people listen to music on the go. Fans were thrilled to realise the origins of the Game Boy name.
One person wrote: “I’ve always wondered where the ‘Boy’ part of the name came from, I thought it was a perfect name but never understood why they chose it. This makes perfect sense!”
Another added: “I associated the two as a kid for this reason, cool to know it was intentional.” A third shared: “Legit just blew my mind.”
It’s not the only smart console naming Nintendo has been behind. Decades on from the release of the Game Boy and Nintendo’s Wii, which released in 2006, was a play on the word “we”.
During an announcement for the console at E3 2006, Nintendo confirmed: “Wii sounds like ‘we’, which emphasizes that the console is for everyone. Wii can easily be remembered by people around the world, no matter what language they speak. No confusion.”
While the console was initially mocked for the naming, which had been changed from its project name “Revolution” before launch, the console would become one of the best-selling products for Nintendo.
It had a superior sales range to their previous console, the Nintendo GameCube. Though tech of the times had advanced further than the GameCube’s capabilities, a smaller disc made it a third place finish for Nintendo’s console.
Despite the roster of games and compatibility with Game Boy Advance games, the console would fail to match up to Microsoft’s Xbox and Sony’s Play Station 2.
The success of the Game Boy would lead to it being displayed in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History as part of the “American Enterprise” exhibition.
It has since been added to the U.S. National Toy Hall of Fame. A lack of colour screen did not stop the dominance of the Game Boy, which blew competitors Sega, Atari, and NEC out of the water.