Nintendo misses out on Wii.com

Nintendo insisted that it has no plans to buy the Wii.com domain

Nintendo seems to have shot itself in the foot over the name change to its next-generation Wii games console, because it does not own Wii.com. 

The Wii.com domain was bought in August 1994 by Willamette Industries of Portland, Oregon.

However, the web address is not currently in use because Willamette Industries only uses it to link to its Weyerhaeuser.com website. 

"Nintendo has not been in touch to buy it from us," said Robin Johnson from Weyerheuser, who is listed as the administrative and technical contact for Wii.com.

The development of the games console was carried out with the working name Nintendo Revolution, but was changed last month to Nintendo Wii (pronounced we). 

Despite there being no Wii.com website currently online, Nintendo insisted that it has no plans to buy the name.

"Wii.com is owned by Willamette Industries and to my understanding we are not planning on using that website," said a spokeswoman for Nintendo.

The games firm released its financial results this week, including a future sales prediction as part of the announcement. Nintendo expects to sell six million units of the Wii console by March 2007.

Nintendo is also updating its handheld platform in Europe with the launch of the DS Lite on 23 June for around £100. 

The original Nintendo DS has sold more than four million units across Europe and 16 million units worldwide.

The company described the DS Lite as a "premium alternative" to the current handheld console.