Nintendo finally confirms how you pronounce NES
It ain't nessecarily so.
A debate for the ages has finally been settled: Nintendo has at last confirmed how you pronounce "NES".
The Nintendo Entertainment System was the company's first home console, released all the way back in 1983. It was host to video game classics such as Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda and Tetris, and paved the way for the SNES and beyond.
But how do you say NES? A quick poll of the Eurogamer office turned into a half hour argument between 'Nez' and 'Ness' camps, with someone else who won't be named insisting on enunciating each letter 'Enn Eee Ess'. Awful.
Perhaps for the best of all involved, Nintendo has stepped in to lay down the law. The answer? "Ness."
Wario Ware Gold, out now on 3DS, includes a museum of old Nintendo consoles and in the NES console's description it specifically states its pronunciation.
I roped in Digital Foundry's John Linneman, who is fluent in Japanese, to make sure: "It says 'ne su'," John told me, "so 'Nes' rather than 'Nez'."
If it had a dakuten - the little dots that change the sound of Japanese characters - it could be "ne zu" instead. But it doesn't. So it's an S sound, not a Z.
Next up: how do you pronounce PUBG?