Elebits renamed for European release

32 Comments by Ludwig Kietzmann Jan 8th 2007 2:55PM
Filed under: Culture, Nintendo Wii

European Wii owners will be hard-pressed to locate a copy of Elebits when it launches in PAL land this Spring, mostly due to the fact that it'll be called Eledees. As in, "LEDs" or possibly "Eledees, can I buy you a drink?"

A quick and shamefully shallow internet search reveals that the word "bit" could be considered derogatory British slang, hence prompting Konami to drop it from the game's title. Right below "biscuit arsed", it reads:

Bit: Noun. A woman. Abb. of 'bit of fluff' or 'bit of skirt', generally a person viewed sexually. Derog.

Well, thank goodness they caught that one. Countless many people would have been left disappointed after learning that Elebits doesn't involve you lifting up skirts with a gravity beam. Expect that game from some other Japanese developer sometime in the future.

[Image: Penny Arcade's surprisingly relevant Just for the Elebit.]

Tags: Elebits, Eledees, Katamari, Konami, Penny Arcade, PennyArcade

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(Page 1) Reader Comments

Monsterbeard: Jan 8th 2007; 3:33PM

Eledees, can I buy you a brightly lit screen? Oh ho ho!

Henry: Jan 8th 2007; 3:48PM

I have lived in the UK all my life and never have I heard ANYONE call a woman a 'bit'.
I have heard of 'bit of skirt' but realistically, I can't imagine anyone relating that to Elebits.
We'd better change the name of The Legend of Zelda because people could think that leg-end refers to a woman's hips! God forbid!

crono141: Jan 8th 2007; 3:52PM

LOL,

The Leg-end of Zelda

Bwahahaha.

cyberfrog: Jan 8th 2007; 3:58PM

No offense, but this doesn't make sense from a platform called the wii, hehe.

David004: Jan 8th 2007; 4:08PM

Doesn't the Wii mean several "bad" things in several launages? Yet they still named it that lame ass name.

Hans Gruber: Jan 8th 2007; 4:11PM

They had to take the Mega Drive off the market and remove all reference to 16bit because of the omnigamous undertones

squid: Jan 8th 2007; 4:28PM

You know, it does seem a bit of an overreaction, but I can think of countless Engrish translations that equated to insults and vulgarities in the U.S., and thinking 'why didn't they just ask somebody what that meant in English?' I recall quite a few people saying that when the Wii's name was revealed. Even if they are overdoing it a little bit (hehe) here, it's nice that they actually checked.

Jay: Jan 8th 2007; 4:34PM

I thought it was because of similarity to this co>

http://www.elbitsystems.com/

fishtub: Jan 8th 2007; 4:38PM

They're probably going to get new voice overs too... I don't like the voice acting in the game.

nayfnu: Jan 8th 2007; 4:43PM

Just to add to Henry's comment above, I'm English and I've never heard it used in this context either - in fact, in the Black Country (erm, part of the Midlands, don't worry about it) "bit" is a term of affection on a par with "love" or "sweetheart".

Certainly no-one complained about the childrens' TV programme "Wizbit" which aired in the 80s. Well, except about Paul Daniels, who's just plain creepy.

AdamW: Jan 8th 2007; 4:47PM

Never heard bit in that context.

Heard of a bint, but not a bit.

And finding out that it's derived from Arabic and not from a combination of two offensive terms for women totally killed my whole day.

Whitster: Jan 8th 2007; 5:17PM

I echo #2 in that I have never heard of the word bit being used to describe a woman.

theCardinal: Jan 8th 2007; 5:22PM

That is so tenuous. No one here would have noticed or cared if it was called Elebits.

Wil: Jan 8th 2007; 5:24PM

I think joystiq just guessed the reason it was changed. If not then the publisher is an idiot.

Comment 8 seems more reasonable.

James: Jan 8th 2007; 6:13PM

JOYSTIQ, please update this story. 'Bit' has absolutely no negative conototation for us brits, NONE AT ALL.
This unconceivable tenuous link is just making joystiq look really silly to all your loyal readers in the uk.

Jonesy: Jan 8th 2007; 6:58PM

nayfnu god that was a blast from the past. Wizbit god how disturbing lol (anyone not from the UK have a search on youtube for wizbit).

But seriously this renaming business is silly, never heard of anyone being called a 'bit' lol.

Think the Wii itself (and some accessory names, Skid proof gloves spring to mind) have worse meanings over here!

Dale: Jan 8th 2007; 7:06PM

Bit is not derogatory, in the slightest... nor is it in common use other than the phrase "bit of skirt" (bit meaning a singular article or a piece). Did Konami actually claim this is the reason for the rename?

I'm getting tired of the pointless renaming of games for the UK market. Nintendo are terrible for it - the renaming of the recent Mario basketball and football (soccer to your foreigners) titles was a waste of time and money on their part.

Anthony: Jan 8th 2007; 7:18PM

In french "bit(e)" means "dick"...

Breserk: Jan 8th 2007; 7:32PM

Anthony is right. Bit sounds like the French word for dick.

However, Ludwig is a comical genius and I shall bow to his honour. "Eledees, can I buy you a drink?".. Hahaha!

ratk: Jan 8th 2007; 8:12PM

The problem wasn't due to the word 'bit', but rather due to the word 'bits' which in UK slang is an euphemism for the genitals, male or female.

Shagi: Jan 8th 2007; 10:05PM

in your mouf!

FatOprah: Jan 8th 2007; 10:30PM

Well Austin Powers would refer to his "bits and pieces" in reference to his genitalia. His bits being his penis, and pieces being his testicles. Or vice versa. And he was british. Therefore this story is true.

Kyouryuu: Jan 9th 2007; 1:18AM

I kind of like "Eledees." It's a corny little in-joke about LEDs. The problem with the name "Elebits" is that it's not very descriptive. The first time I heard it, I thought of tiny anthropomorphic elephants. Of course, once you play the game, it's obvious that the "Ele" is referring to electricity. It's just ambiguous without investigating further.

Of course, so is Head-On.

Apply directly to your forehead.

AL: Jan 9th 2007; 4:19AM

As an English chap, let me just point out that unless it's in a context very close to those definition examples, bit does not have any dodgy meanings. I do like the 'Eledees' joke though :-)

Bennyishere: Jan 9th 2007; 4:27AM

Hey, give Itagaki some rest...

tom: Jan 9th 2007; 5:45AM

was gonna say i'd never heard it in that context either.. but now I'm beginning to suspect that Joystiq made up that whole bit of the article just to get a rise out of any british readers.

Oops.. i just said some thing a bit rude!

Oops, I did it again!

Blay: Jan 9th 2007; 7:11AM

I just would like to add the fact that "bite" (pronounced bit) means "dick" in french, it could be another explanation :D

Neccy: Jan 9th 2007; 7:18AM

I swear these monkeys look up in some old dictionary the word and then translate that into what i can only imagine is insane bullshit.

No one in the UK like myself is going to complain over "bit" becuase thats just stupid, like above i've heard bit of skirt used around a bit, but in all honesty the last time someone said that was about 1950.

I actually find it more annoying for them to be changing game titles for different regions, that actually pisses me off more.

However i will look past this one, as i think Eledees is pretty clever, i guess they could of done much much much worse.

Nameless: Jan 10th 2007; 2:17AM

So wait, they're worried about that when the name of the console the game is ON is a synoynm for PISS, among other things?

tracked: Jan 14th 2007; 12:37PM

I have heard of the word bit. You know like "Man i want a bit of skirt" of " i want a bit of her" meaning to have sex with someone.

But this is rich coming from a game console for a console called Wii.

Elle Dee: Feb 14th 2007; 2:02PM

ha ha, my web name is Elle Dee cos my initials are L.D and ive never had such a slagging since now over this game, never mind the current name but the old name "Elebits" im gettin so many burns like! x

MV: Dec 8th 2007; 7:05PM

Ele-dees nutz!

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