Japan/US Console Naming

I was just thinking about how console naming has remained consistent between the Japanese and US version of a console for quite some time. I was trying to pinpoint the time when this transition took place and think a bit about why this happened. As best I can recall it was the Saturn/Playstation era where Sega/Sony picked just one name to represent their consoles world wide (internal code names notwithstanding).

Explaining "why" this transition took place is a little more difficult for me. I suppose there were efficiencies in marketing and packaging to be realized by using one name for a console, but that doesn't quite feel like enough. After all, ad campaigns between Japan and US would still be very different even if a console had one international name. But I wonder if there was some macro trend in gaming habits or the market that also contributed to this change. Perhaps you could drum up North American interest in a console by launching the same-named Japanese version - it would be much easier for a consumer to understand "the Playstation is arriving this fall" vs. "the mega drive has launched in Japan and will become the Genesis when it arrives in the US"

Thoughts?

I've always thought that the names were different in the olden days because focus testing. That's why we still have sometimes different covers for US/EU/Jap releases. Reason why consoles are now named the same across all regions is because of internet.

Well the Genesis wasn't called the Megadrive in the US because of legal reasons.....if legal barriers didn't exist it would have been called the Megadrive in the US as well.

@Unknown_Pleasures: Really? Was it because someone else owned the name or why?

I suppose I was thinking more along a business reason or perhaps changes in the way gamers learned about products. Both focus testing and legal reasons are certainly plausible, but it feels like there would be a beefier answer.

I think you can blame/credit the internet for that one

@Rappelsiini: I don't think the details are widely known, only the fact that they weren't able to secure legal rights for the name Megadrive in North America.

The Internet. Access to information got wider and the world got smaller. There's no such thing as a regional product announcement anymore, so you'd better get your name right the first time.

@Jeff said:

The Internet. Access to information got wider and the world got smaller. There's no such thing as a regional product announcement anymore, so you'd better get your name right the first time.

More like it was all about the SKUs and how they could bolster their shareholders by unifying their brands.

it would be pretty weird to have different names for the same consoles now. 
 
for legal reason is why they had to change the names for the consoles.