MEGATON: The story behind the meme
It was a big week for Nintendo and the gamers that enjoy the company's offerings. Was it a "Megaton" week? That's subjective. But it's interesting to note our culture's understanding of the term, and not just for Nintendo related announcements. So where did the Megaton meme come from? Wikipedia explains:
"Megaton is a meme among Nintendo fans that resulted from a vastly over-hyped rumored announcement around 2002. Individuals on the Gaming-Age Forums uncovered an article from Japanese magazine JUMP! that mentioned in one of its pages that Nintendo had a very big announcement to make... such that it could make their GameCube console a bestseller worldwide... Eventually it came out that the Japanese magazine that had reported the Megaton in the first place had merely been hyping up an unannounced game... leaving Nintendo fans with something of an anticlimax."
To this day, Nintendo fans, gadget jockeys, and internet users still draw on the term "Megaton" in reference to potential industry-shaking news. Though the idea behind the word will most likely never live up to the hype, the expression is here to stay.
