Could ‘Beem’ be Project Café’s real name?

There’s been a lot of debate over what Project Café would actually end up being called. The two most common names we’ve heard so far are ‘Nintendo Stream’ and ‘Nintendo Feel’. But an interesting news tip from Dooks1111 (who contributed a piece to the mockup gallery and will get a community showcase feature soon) brings ‘Beem’ up as a potential contender, too.

Apparently, the domain beem.com was sold on January 31st for about $136,000, most likely to a major company. Dooks1111 told me that when he tried to access the site then, he found a logo on it which looks very much like a possible logo for a gaming console, which he then sent me a screenshot of. Here it is:

Beem

The domain currently resolves to a blank page, and is under WHOIS protection, which would make sense if Nintendo is indeed trying to mask the identity of its new console.

It’s interesting to note that just a couple of weeks prior, Nintendo registered the domain touchthegame.com, which strongly supports everything we’ve been hearing about a touchscreen-enabled controller. Now, while there is no way to find out who actually owns beem.com, the relatively close registration dates of both domains suggests that it’s possible they may be related.

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Comments, Reactions, and General Hooliganism

  1. CractusJack

    I like it, but I don’t think it expresses the idea of the controller enough.

    • DaimyoNintendo

      What you said it true but BEEM hints at “beaming” i.e. transporting or transferring data. The controller is a big aspect of this new console no doubt, but I have a feeling its really about the info going back and forth i.e. like 4 player shooters etc. Nintendo has always been about connectivity.

  2. DaimyoNintendo

    I was looking into beem.com weeks ago. We don’t know for sure but I called it back on the 10th of May on my IGN blog, (link below.) I have a feeling its going to be either Striim or BEEM. I am hinting at BEEM because in this day and age a logo and name are one of the most important aspects of marketing. Wii was a cleaver and unique name, Nintendo has to top that. Striim is interesting but, c’mon, the two “i’s” again. But with the BEEM they are using the same shape for all four of the letters. Its cleaver as hell and would save costs with print advertisement.

    http://www.ign.com/blogs/daimyonintendo/2011/05/10/im-calling-it-now-nintendo-beem

    • F0

      Striim, to be perfectly honest, doesn’t look very serious, and I don’t think that’s gonna be it. Beem seems reasonably realistic, on the other hand, especially when you consider that all four letters are the same shape – clever touches like that could definitely help in marketing.

  3. David

    sounds very Nintendo.

  4. George Tirebiter

    I wouldn’t have voted for either name because they both do that double-letter thing. Wii, Striim, Beem. They’re too similar for comfort.

  5. SteveDOF

    That registering of “Touchthegame.com” is very intriguing, suggesting the touch-screen might be pushed for all it is worth, maybe even including the rumoured haptic feedback?

  6. Shayne

    No
    1. The domain is whois protected.
    2. The domain is not sitting on a Nintendo based server.
    3. The registrar is not the same as Nintendo’s usual.

    • F0

      If Nintendo wanted to protect the console’s name, using WHOIS protection, a third-party server, and a different registrar would all be logical steps to ensure it remains secret.

      Besides, take a look at the company it is actually registered through. It’s a company that specializes in protecting brands. The pieces of the puzzle all fit into place.

  7. Shayne

    That’s a big IF though. Have they done it before? Touchthegame.com is not whois protected. I’m just saying.

    • F0

      An “if” does not equate to a “no.” I’m not saying that ‘Beem’ is actually going to be the console’s name, but there’s ample evidence to at least speculate on it. You can make whatever you want of it from there. It’s all part of the fun of reporting on and talking about a console we know absolutely nothing about yet. 😛

  8. Shayne

    I’m standing with the it not being beem, just because it doesn’t sound very Nintendo and the points I made in my first comment. I dont think Nintendo would use whois protection and Beem was a concept name/image for an IGN contest. Next week cant come quick enough though.

    • DaimyoNintendo

      Oh c’mon, did Wii sound very Nintendo? Uh no. And after Revolution did we expect Wii? No. So after a code name like Project Café what can we expect?

      You can’t (well you can) just say no without an explanation. I am giving my reason below why it MIGHT be the name.

      We start off with pre NES in the 70’s with the Color TV Game and Computer TV Game consoles. In Japan Nintendo stick with the computer name using it in the Famicom Family Computer and the Super Famicom. With the rest of the world (NES and SNES) Nintendo ditches the Computer TV name and goes with something more streamlined and cool “Entertainment Systems” with ‘Nintendo’ in the name. A slight shift with Nintendo64, no longer an “Entertainment System” and now a number in the name. GameCube is another shift, describing the device in its physicality (a game machine of a cube configuration.) A “Game Cube” but no longer an “Entertainment System.” And another shift with Wii, unlike anything Nintendo has ever done.

      So don’t tell me BEEM does not sound very Nintendo considering how much Nintendo loves to surprise us. We don’t know what really is Nintendo sounding.

      But considering the cleverness of the BEEM logo using the same shape for all four letter. And “beaming” or transferring live game data to the controller. Nintendo was cleaver with the Wii title, Nintendo does not compete much with other console companies but they love to compete with themselves. They know they will have to top the cleverness of the name Wii.

      If I loose, and its not BEEM this Commonwealth loyalist will buy you a Guinness.

    • DaimyoNintendo

      Another thing, the longer I look at BEEM the way it is spelled gives me that gut feeling, and my gut is 95% right, that it might be BEEM. The lettering just looks so new age, fresh, sleek and most importantly minimalist, which is Nintendo’s style. Even if before, when we did not know the console name was Wii and were sure the name was Revolution and someone showed me the Wii logo, staring at the capital W and two small ii’s in that light grey colour and I would have said, as cool as Revolution is, the name is going to be Wii. I have that feeling (I had when we first saw the name Wii) just looking at BEEM. Not saying I am right but core gamers and techies don’t have that gut instinct, that inexplicable fact of knowing something without knowing how you know it, but you just know it. That is what I am getting. And I am going to laugh my ass off, in tears, when Nintendo’s tells us the name and it was nothing even close to what people on the internet were peculating. What tools we all are lmao.

  9. Raph

    I find the logo image story to be highly dubious. Somehow, this guy “came accross” a logo jpg on the server. Come oooon… this doesnt sound plausible at all.

  10. Surely http://www.nintendobeem.co.uk would be taken but its not, you can go ahead and buy it right now.

  11. gaming guru in the temple

    nothing will ever top the marketing genius of wii that was some well thought out marketing as soon as i seen it i was like WOW this is going to be big

  12. Luke

    http://whois.domaintools.com/165.160.13.20

    Got the ip from pinging in cmd.