The word console is less fun because it's not a brand that somehow got ship-of-theseused into no longer being a brand. Such things are exceedingly rare. Getting a brand name to become the product name is common, but to have the brand that originated that disappear in the process is not.

Console is just a generic term, it originated in architecture, where it meant "bit that protrudes out of the wall". It took on the meaning of "cabinet" and eventually started being used for the part of a machine that would have its meter readouts and its control bits and bobs. A gaming console is a console because it's... A machine. In an alternate universe we call it a "contraption". Has the same effect.