Nintendo Wii Straps Recalled.

[MacRumorUser]

BBC Technology News


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6182013.stm

Nintendo recalls 3.2m Wii straps

There are reports that the strap breaks too easily
Japanese games firm Nintendo is recalling more than three million straps for its new Wii console.
The announcement follows scores of complaints about the wrist straps breaking during use.

The strap is connected to a motion sensitive controller which is used to control the on-screen action.

There have been many reports of Wii controllers slipping out of hands and smashing TVs and windows - although some of the photos online are faked.

The company has also recalled 200,000 AC adapters for its DS and DS Lite consoles in Japan.

Nintendo said the recall would not affect adapters overseas, and company executives expected only a small impact on earnings.

The strap recall affects all Nintendo Wiis sold worldwide and almost all units currently on shelves in shops. Nintendo has targetted sales of four million Wii consoles by the end of 2006.


Publicity shots show the controller without the strap

The console has been a huge hit for the company with more than 325,000 machines sold in Europe in just two days, more than 600,000 sold in the US and more than 400,000 on launch day in Japan.

No information was immediately available about how customers can return their Wii straps.

The Wii strap is an important safety feature of the controller - which is waved around vigorously in a typical game. Games for the Wii all feature regular safety messages reminded players to keep the wrist strap on.

[ChrisBrightwell]

Source?

EDIT: nvm. It's all over Google News. (ex: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6182013.stm)

Also, Nintendo has started their wrist strap replacement program (http://www.nintendo.com/consumer/strapreplace.jsp). I just submitted my request for four new straps, despite having four straps perfectly in-tact.

[risc]

http://www.nintendo.com/consumer/strapreplace.jsp

I can't seem to find anything about a recall on Nintendo.com.au though, waiting.. waiting... waiting...

[islandman]

BBC Technology News


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6182013.stm

This is unbeWiivable!

[Dunepilot]

Is this just me, or is this a non-story?

Don't _throw_ your Wiimote. Hold onto it as you're supposed to.

Reminds me of the iPod Nano scratching alerts, to which the obvious answer was to buy a case.

The media just loves to tell you any bold new product is flawed. I'll be ignoring this and will carry on enjoying my Wii.

[Dagless]

I saw some folks properly throwing around the controller in a game of tennis. If the system can survive what I saw then I'll be perfectly content if my Wii comes with the old straps.

[21stcenturykid]

The only way the straps gna break is if u let go of the remote and your blatantly not using it properly if you go doing that are you! why dont people get some common sense?:rolleyes:

[MacRumorUser]

As Quick as the breaking news is in, MRU's back with Nintendo's retort..

NINTENDO HIT BACK AT THE BBC OVER FALSE WRIST STRAP STORY

December 15th - Nintendo have just emailed Next Gen Ireland with the following statement in relation to the current story circulating about wrist straps being recalled. Apparently the story the BBC published is incorrected and Nintendo would like a few things clarified.

"

Wii Wrist Strap Statement

Nintendo is not recalling any of the Wii wrist straps for its motion sensitive Wii Remote. There is no problem with the existing wrist strap as long as the Wii Remote is used sensibly and properly in accordance with the guidelines provided by Nintendo. All parts of the wrist strap have passed product testing and quality control.

The following tips are advised for safe play:

• Always wear the wrist strap while playing.

• Keep a firm grip on the Wii Remote at all times.

• Make sure people and objects are out of the range of movement before play begins.

• Players should keep at least three feet/ one meter from their televisions and dry their hands if they become sweaty or wet for any other reason.

• Remember that the Wii Remote is responsive enough to detect minor movements – so excessive and forceful actions are not necessary. Therefore we recommend not to use excessively rapid, violent or wide swinging motions while using the Wii Remote during game play.


Consumers who break their wrist straps through excess usage or who are worried about their wrist strap should contact their nearest Nintendo Service Center voluntary exchange programme has been provided where consumers can replace wrist straps free of charge upon request.

Email: wiiwriststrap@codestorm.co.uk

Address:

Wii Wrist Strap,
Nintendo Service Centre,
CoDEStorm House
Walton Road
Farlington
PO6 1TR

Telephone: 0870 60 60 247 (Calls are charged at the National Rate to the caller)"

[Sky Blue]

Even though the original straps are perfectly adequate for normal play, we can’t control the exuberance of players.” - Nintendo representative

Translation: "We can't control the stupidity of other people"

http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/5618/wrongpo7.jpg

[bowens]

Yeah, I heard about this on the Nintendo forums. I haven't had any trouble with mine, but I think I will go ahead and get some new ones since they are free and they look like they'll hold up better.

[xli_ne]

Is this just me, or is this a non-story?

Don't _throw_ your Wiimote. Hold onto it as you're supposed to.

Reminds me of the iPod Nano scratching alerts, to which the obvious answer was to buy a case.

The media just loves to tell you any bold new product is flawed. I'll be ignoring this and will carry on enjoying my Wii.

why should the public HAVE to buy a case because their new mp3 player scratches easily?

A case shouldn't have to be a necessary item for every nano.

[Xenesis]

If something's going to be kept in a bag or pocket it's going to get scratched. Unless it's made out of pure diamond or something. Then everything else will get scratched.

And Nintendo is nipping this early. This is a good thing. That being said, people are still morons. I can understand dropping a controller, but launching it into the TV is another thing altogether.

[Gimzotoy]

My strap broke on me. It didn't have enough force to break anything, though. It just sort of fell onto the nearby fireplace. Took surprisingly little force, too. I talked about it in another thread somewhere.

A Nintendo rep told me they suspected one of their strap manufacturers wasn't following their spec. He said you could tell who made the strap you have by looking at the weave of the fabric part. He asked that I get the strap back to them ASAP so they could "research the issue." That's probably the reason, rather than some design flaw. I did order the thicker replacements, though, just in case.

[rockthecasbah]

I'm gonna be ordering my two strap replacements just to be safe, my friends can be a bit rough at times and i don't want to take ANY chances :)

[apfhex]

Funny, I've never lost my grip on the controller, but I did give a bit of a tug to the strap just to see and it didn't break. Maybe peoples idea of "surprisingly little force" is more than mine. Ordered a free replacement anyway, just in case.

[afornander]

im just using my PSP wrist strap. i swear their made out of nillon or somthin.:cool:

[Dagless]

im just using my PSP wrist strap. i swear their made out of nillon or somthin.:cool:

Nillon?

[afornander]

sorry, nylon

[gauchogolfer]

Nillon?

One hopes that's only a horrid misspelling of nylon, and not some new radioactive fabric ;).

[dukebound85]

Nillon?

nylon maybe was what he was goin for

[MacRumorUser]

We had our first Wii related accident today.

Playing Wii sports and one of us swung the controller too hard and knocked it against a cup sitting on the coffee table. The cup exploded, hot tea everywhere, cat startled, floor soaked and me in a mood :o :D

[GFLPraxis]

My high swing with a Wiimote hit the low ceiling once. Did nothing more than put a scratch on the corner of the remote.

[eva01]

i have hit my ceiling a couple times, hit the wall a couple of times, hit my hand on a desk a couple times, bruised my knee. Etc. Etc. no broken wrist straps here

[Gimzotoy]

Funny, I've never lost my grip on the controller, but I did give a bit of a tug to the strap just to see and it didn't break. Maybe peoples idea of "surprisingly little force" is more than mine. Ordered a free replacement anyway, just in case.

Mine broke the day after that original broken strap hit the internet. I, like most people I'm sure, assumed he was playing like an idiot. For example, stupid Wii tennis serve guy on YouTube. I was playing pretty normally. As a point of reference, it was nothing beyond what you see in the Wii tennis commercial. So "remote slipping during normal play" is about what I'd consider "surprisingly little force." I don't blame Nintendo. I dropped the damn thing, but I was surprised the strap didn't hold under what will be pretty normal operating conditions.

Probably telling is that of the people who have let their controllers slip, few have had the strap NOT break. Not that that's indicative of poor construction, or that it matters now that Nintendo's fixed the problem for everyone who wants it.

[seenew]

I've never had an accident with my Wii, and I've had one since launch. None of the people playing it at my dorm/house have injured themselves or broken anything, either. This is a case of stupid people being, well, stupid. It's the same reason they put warnings on chainsaws not to stop the blade with your finger, and irons not to iron your clothes while you're wearing them, or blow-dry your hair while you're asleep.

Darwinism. I hope there are some eventual fatal Wii accidents. That would be entertainment.

(I also requested 4 replacements, since they're free :D)

[ericsthename]

Come on guys... lets get serious!

Enough calling people stupid already, the fact of the matter is that accidents happen! Everybody knows you shouldn't drive faster than the speed limit, but inevitably it happens...

I've gotten really into a game before and ended up losing and tossing the controller before, as I'm sure many people have. Not chucking it on the floor, but tossing it in the air onto the couch or something.

I can totally see how spirited play could result in something like this happening, and if it is the case that theyre breaking, then why not fix the problem and get on with it?

If nintendo can admit that there was a problem and fix it, that's at least the honorable thing to do. I think car manufacturers are probably the worst at this kind of thing, then I'd put tech companies in a close second. Its unfortunate that it seems to always take either a lawsuit or a massive amount of bad publicity for these companies to get on the ball.

I just can't stand the attitude of "its never happened to me, whats with all you turds out there?"

[seenew]

And just FYI, Nintendo says it's "not a recall", just that they've made replacements available.

[bobber205]

People are being dumb....

It's not the big N's fault. I've played for many many hours and mine hasn't broken. Aren't they all equal?

[atszyman]

I, for one, would like to know how many of these breaking strap incidents also involved alcohol.

I think there is a small issue with the Wii that Nintendo didn't quite count on. The Wii actually seems more popular with adults rather than kids, which has been more of the target of video games (especially Nintendo) for a long time. I 3'-4' tall kid cannot generate the same types of force on the controller as a 5'6"-6' adult when they whip their arms around. The amount of force on the strap will be much higher for fully grown adults due to the longer lever arm acting on the controller.

I think the wrist strap issue is being blown out of proportion but I also think Nintendo didn't anticipate how much fully grown adults would get into the Wii games and thus didn't quite re-enforce the strap enough to handle a fully grown adult whipping the controller around at full steam at the end of their arm.

I will probably fill out the form to get some extra straps simply due to the fact that there will probably be more than one day in the future when the Wii is played by people in my house with alcohol involved which could only help to exacerbate the situation.

[seenew]

I will probably fill out the form to get some extra straps simply due to the fact that there will probably be more than one day in the future when the Wii is played by people in my house with alcohol involved which could only help to exacerbate the situation.

Yeah, or you could use all 8 straps, double them up, one on each wrist, and that puppy ain't going no where!

[MacRumorUser]

I've played for many many hours and mine hasn't broken. Aren't they all equal?

Only in communist countries ;)

[twistedlegato]

Just ordered two wriststrapes!:)

[dalvin200]

i've not had any problems with my straps breaking or anything..

and i think i use it quite roughly :)

what i have found is that on the odd occasions when playing wii tennis (long rallys especially), is the sliding fastener gets real loose and one time the wrist strap came off my wrist..

but i just paused the game and re-applied the strap..

anyone else found this?

i haven't ordered any extra straps as yet.. i might do though just as backup :rolleyes: