# Nintendo new logo (2006)

> Nintendo launched a new logo in 2006. New logo.

## Key facts

- Brand: Nintendo
- Launched: 2006
- What changed: New logo.
- Why: Nintendo adopted a grey logo following the launch of the Wii, in line with the console's new image.
- Industry: Gaming
- Logos: https://rebrandlog.com/logos/nintendo-2006/before.svg (before), https://rebrandlog.com/logos/nintendo-2006/after.svg (after)

## The rebrand, explained

Some rebrands arrive with a launch film and a manifesto. Nintendo's switch to grey arrived so quietly that the press only caught up about two years later. In a news story headlined Nintendo switched logos two years ago, ComputerAndVideoGames.com reported that the company had been using a grey logo since the launch of the Wii, in line with the console's new image. Nintendo told the site this had been the case on both hardware formats since their releases.

The details show how gradual it was. The Wii boxes carried the grey logo, while DS packaging used a black version. CVG pointed out that Official Nintendo Magazine had already been printing the grey logo for around 18 issues, so attentive readers had been looking at it for well over a year without much comment.

The shift became official news when Nintendo of Europe told publications to use the grey logo instead of the old red one. Pure Nintendo reported the announcement and a follow up the next day saying the grey version would stay for at least two years. Nintendo's own note was blunt: the former red logo could still be seen in various publications, and anyone who had not already switched was asked to use only the current grey one.

The story in both reports was colour: red out, grey in. That was enough to provoke a mild debate in CVG's comments, where one reader noted that the logo had dropped colour even though Nintendo's games stayed colourful, and another simply said they had noticed and did not care.

Both readings miss why the move made sense. Nintendo tied the change to the Wii's new image, and a neutral logo lets the hardware and the games carry the colour instead of the corporate mark. It was also a very Nintendo kind of rebrand: no agency reveal, no speech about values, just a quiet internal decision that showed up on boxes and in magazines until the industry noticed.

The weakness is that grey is a colour of absence. It made the mark feel calm and premium, but it also stripped out some of the warmth that had made the red Nintendo logo instantly recognisable on a shelf. Telling the press it would hold for at least two years also hinted that Nintendo saw it as a chapter rather than a permanent identity.

In short: Red goes quiet for the Wii era.

## Other rebrands of Nintendo

- [Nintendo (1975)](https://rebrandlog.com/rebrand/nintendo-1975/) 1975

## Sources

- https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q8093
- https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nintendo_gray_logo.svg

## Cite this

Rebrand Log, "Nintendo new logo (2006)", https://rebrandlog.com/rebrand/nintendo-2006/, last updated 2026-10-20.