Nintendo to investigate Wii strap failure

I really think people are just over doing the motions needed and acting crazy when playing really... If you can't hold onto the remote while the strap is on your just retarded.

"additional methods to encourage people to kind of calm down,"

This guy think its a joke or something, My son almost broke broke my neighbord plasma Tv and I was going to be liable for it and this guy think that shipping deffective products is a joke, what an asshole.

If only the Wii had a DS-style microphone they could require people to take deep breaths or repeat calming mantras before they bowled.

I guess they aren't realizing that their straps are actually BREAKING. The strap around the wrist is fine, its the tiny string between it and the remote that is causing problems.

Nintendo, do something before mine breaks =(

"Malfunctioning" is the absolute wrong word to use here. Clearly the wrist strap wasn't designed to withstand the force that some of these idiots are using. Let's get a grip here, folks. Don't be a moron and your strap won't break.

Soon parents will be scolding their children:

"Johnny, I've told you a thousand times, NO PLAYING WII INDOORS!"

On a completely unrelated topic, known Tennis enthusiast Ten Iz accidently let go of her tennis racquet, hitting her partner.

The International Tennis Association are now investigating possible malfunction in the tennis racquet...

On a similar note, Paul Ball, a famous bowler accidently released his ball a bit too soon, causing it to go and hit the benches. Estimated damages go for around $6,000 USD. Police are investigating the bowling ball for manufacturing defects.

i tried breaking my wrist strap the other day, throwing the remote as hard as i could in every which way i could think of (bowling, tennis serving, tennis swinging, baseball, boxing, just plain throwing it) and it stood up to all of my attempts. so i am really at a loss as to how people are doing this, they must repeatedly lose control of the controller. then again it could be a small scale problem with a number of wrist straps, i just havent seen it.

#4

My friend, Nintendo Main consumer are kids and the only thing kids do right is act crazy, and even if you act crazy its not suppost to snap,remember this things are suppost to be tested before being relesed to the public, I bet that the ones who where testing it where a bunch of old men rided with arthitis.

I would pay $15-$20 for a kit that consisted of:

4 replacement wrist straps that look the same as the original, only this time completely nylon, or nylon/Kevlar, and four little metal tubes with a tool to clamp them onto where the strap connects to the wiimote.

Well it seems to me that there is technically no tension between that little strap and your wrist band unless you let go of the remote. There for you can swing your remote as hard and to your hearts content but if you let go of the thing, which none one should be doing, there isn't any tention and therefor the string won't break.

What boggles my mind is that we have people out there throwing their remote as hard as possibly and when the remote slips from their hand from such high speed the cord snaps and they wonder why. The strap, in my eyes, is there for one purpose, in case you let go of the remote on accident thus preventing it from fallin on the ground and breaking it.

I guess what we need is someone to make a glove with velcro attached to it with the other velcro on the remote. Maybe then people would be happy? Yet then I'm sure will have some sort of story about how some kid forgot to take the glove off and highfived his friend and scratched his friends hand all up! *sigh*

"additional methods to encourage people to kind of calm down,"

I think that was misquoted it was:

"additional methods to encourage people to kind of calm the fuck down,"

Actually, metal tubing would most likely fix the problem as it would remove any hard plastic edges in the area where the strap connects making the strap last through a lot more repeated abuse.

This just in, Nintendo sends a letter out to quit eating greasy foods before partaking in Wii games.

and
"This guy think its a joke or something, My son almost broke broke my neighbord plasma Tv and I was going to be liable for it and this guy think that shipping deffective products is a joke, what an asshole."

Wow, they let people like that reproduce!!!!!! No wonder it was his kid who is one of the ones who lost control. Seriously though, how many thrown remotes were actually broken wrist straps... I wouldn't be surprised if people who break their TV's from not using the wrist strap actually just cut the strap cord to try to sue!!!!,,,,
I have had no problems when I try to throw my remote like that, and I have never accidently let it slide out of my hands..... so lose some weight and quit sweating so much with your greasy KFC!!!

"kids" aren't breaking straps, 18 - 25 year olds that play sports are throwing the damn thing like they would a 80 mph fastball.

The accelerometers max out at about 3 Gs. They're wildly, astoundingly, amazingly, unbelievably outside the ranges the wiimote can even vaguely comprehend.

If there's anything Nintendo didn't expect, it's that people would make so much noise about their own stupidity.

"1. "additional methods to encourage people to kind of calm down,"

This guy think its a joke or something, My son almost broke broke my neighbord plasma Tv and I was going to be liable for it and this guy think that shipping deffective products is a joke, what an asshole."


YOU THINK NINTENDO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR CHILDREN! WHAT AN ASSHOLE!!!

Azesino:

You don't need a wrist strap for a baseball bat, a tennis racket or crickett bat, items capeable of doing far more damage, so you certainly don't need one or a damn Wiimote. If your Kid's dumb enough to nearly break a television with one of these he's probably dumb enough to break one with pretty much anything.

I bet you're one of these people who blames everyone else for everything that goes wrong with the world, never once looking for answers slightly closer to home. I know: Hows about you get Nintendo to come and hold his hand while he plays ? Stop blaming other people for your own Child's failings.

Especially to the first poster, I'm sorry if anyone thinks that this is a widespread problem with the Wii, but if you have suffered some kind of damage from this it's your own damn fault. I know about 20-30 people who own a Wii, and only one of them has had a problem...a guy who admittedly was not holding on to his remote at all and it slipped out of his hands and hit his ceiling. As for myself, I'm about 20 hours into Zelda and have probably put 10-15 hours into Wii sports, including getting fairly animated with Boxing and bowling, and have experience absolutely no issues. I think the key is USING THE WRISTSTRAP AND HOLDING THE CONTROLLER FIRMLY. For all of you "I want to be a victim" types out there, I'd love to see where in any of the literature with the Wii it says "flail around like an idiot and don't bother securing anything to your person." Take some responsibility for your actions and teach yourself/your kids to calm down a bit, and I think this will all be fine. Until then, stop whining about it.

If these straps are the worst thing to happen to the Wii, this things going to be an even bigger sucess than the nes.

But you already need a license... or a state ID to play Wii... at Gamestop.

Zing!

Hmmm, people are getting "too into" or "too excited about" a game with no depth?

Wii Sports can be played with small wrist movements while sitting down. I've done it for hours on end. If you want to get up a move around, cool, but don't blame Nintendo for your putting too much power behind your swings.

Nintendo should strengthen the thread between the strap and the remote but definitely shouldn't be liable for any damages caused by people who can't control themselves.

It seems as if Toyota needs to be held liable for every car crash. Or Black & Decker needs to be held liable if someone accidentally gets his or her tongue stuck in the Dustbuster. Or Hoover needs to be held liable if it sucks up a hundred dollar bill and shreds it up. Or Nintendo needs to be held liable for someone accidentally slipping with the stylus and poking someone in the eye. Or Sony needs to pay for your Playstation 3 because the USB cord is too short and yanked the system off the table.

Point is, Asezino, you really need to get a grip on reality.

To everyone that said, that you need to calm down and not throw 90 MPH fastballs with a remote:

I AGREE! If I had someone come over and try the Wii, I would see how they act, and if they are of mild intelligence then I would reiterate that it's not strength/speed to play, and to firmly hold the remote and not let go.

The second I see some asshat tries to do something faster/harder than is needed, I take the remote away, tell them to get counseling, and remove them from the premises, permanently.

Winnar!!!! That was a good one fanbot

who's liable for a defective father and son?

If a person doesn't let go of the remote, then the straps should be fine. Why anyone would let go of the remote in the first place is beyond me. If your kids are letting go of the remote, then that is not Nintendo's fault.

Nintendo have nothing to answer for. They provided the wrist strap to protect the wiimote, that's it. I first played the Wii last night (Aussie) and it was everything that it was made out to be and more. Awesome. But even in the excitement of trying all the new stuff, especially tennis - I never tried to go nuts with the thing.

My mate was a bit animated with it, over-exaggerating movements, but once we got used to it, we were fine. I don't see how you can throw your wiimote against a TV unless you let go. Logic says that if you throw something at your TV, you're going to braeak it.

Hey, let's sue the laws of gravity.

Nylon cord is so cheap and ridiculously strong, seems like a weird shortcut to use crappy string, when they could have just prevented this by using nylon fibre.

well if u guys agree that the users need to " calm down" i think nintendos needs to " calm down" the actors in thier rediculously over-the-top Wii ads depicting people doing the SAME THINGS we are complaining about here.

plus..u have to remember nintendo has a huge child user-base..and like someone said earlier...kids get really into physical activities and will likely let a wii-mote lose pretty easy...

so YES it IS nintendos fault for ...

a) advertising the wii in such an over-the-top manner in the first place

b) not recognizing that young children with LOTS of energy will be playing this system.


i do believe some people just go overboard...but to think NONE of this is nintendos fault is ludicrous.

Ugh. Straps don't just break. Straps SHOULDN'T break if you're not letting go of the Wii remote in the middle of some bionic man swing. I really wish people would take responsibility for their actions. Just once. There are so many safety warnings with the Wii. They nag you before and during games. How much more do people need?!

The next lawsuit will be "There problems in the world, let's sue GOD, he made it!!"

I'm sure you can see the numerous flaws in this argument, I still won't be surprised when I see it on joystiq in a few months.

"You don't need a wrist strap for a baseball bat, a tennis racket or crickett bat,"

So when's the next tennis match going to be played in your living room? Do you routinely swing real cricket bats around in front of your TV?

The fact is these items do go flying all over the place in real life, despite the best efforts of the participants to hold onto them, but they don't routinely go flying through televisions because the games are played outside.

On behalf of the rest of the human race who are not perfect, I would like to personally apologize to those in this thread who have never dropped anything in their lives for being the bumbling idiots that most humans apparently are to you. Because, you know, people do drop things, whether they mean to or not.

That's why the strap exists in the first place. And, at least in enough cases for Nintendo to acknowledge the issue, it is not always doing its job.

The need for an ID at Gamestop is so you don't walk away with their wireless controller....

The only thing this will lead to are 'health and safety' screens being displayed more frequently and for a longer duration... if only to get people to calm down from having so much excitement.

Wow, is this board filled with Nintendo apologists. Nintendo should have designed their product to withstand the range of operating conditions users will use it in. The wiimote is meant to be swung around while imitating sports in an indoor environment. Players use while swinging it as hard as in a real sport, but their strap doesn't withstand it. Ergo, the strap isn't strong enough.

Tennis rackets and baseball bats don't have straps, but they're used in wide open locations where there's nothing in range to be destroyed. Nobody plays tennis in their living room because everybody fears breaking something. The Wii is made to be used indoors in front of a TV, so it needs to be safer to swing around. Nintendo recognized that and created a strap, but their strap is too weak to hold the wiimote in some situations.

I really don't see how you can blame stupidity in this case. Everybody lets go of stuff they hold sometimes, so that's not stupidity. Wii Sports simulates sports, so it's not surprising people swing as hard as in real sports -- that's not stupidity, that's the whole point of the game. That the strap cannot hold under this situation seems to be indicative of a poorly tested strap. Nintendo is to blame here, not users.

"29. "You don't need a wrist strap for a baseball bat, a tennis racket or crickett bat,"

"So when's the next tennis match going to be played in your living room?"

This evening when my girlfriend and I re-match at Wii-Sports after she roundly whupped my ass this morning !

"The fact is these items do go flying all over the place in real life, despite the best efforts of the participants to hold onto them, but they don't routinely go flying through televisions because the games are played outside."

You're right, they just go flying into the other participents heads. If you let go of a tennis racket and it goes into your mate's head, you don't blame the company that made the damn thing for not mollycoddeling you enough though do you ?

Malfunctioning strap? More like malfunctioning people.


Anyone remember that little girl playing Wii Sports Golf? She had no problem holding onto the Wiimote. She was like 3 or 4 years old.

The majority of people don't have problems with the wrist strap at all. There's literally like 10 people out of 1.2 million who are such spazzes that they break their strap (and it's not a fluke, it has to be the result of repeated spazzing out)

You can blame Nintendo all you want but really its all up to what the person does with the remote and their actions. No matter how far Nintendo went with the quality of the cord or what sort of prevention they did, I'm almost 100 percent positive that we would still be seeing people complain about the straps breaking or the remotes swinging back around and hitting their hand extremly hard. Nintendo put out many disclaimers and warned many people about the proper use of the remote, wether the user is willing to listen to their advice is up to them. It all boils down to user error. Nintendo didn't make a remote that leaps out of peoples hands. I'm not even one for backing up companies when they try to explain some off the wall reason for their product mishaps but this one is just ridiculous!

Hehe, personally I love how Fanboys on Joystiq couldn't make a proper metaphor to save their lives. Crashing my car? Tongue stuck in a dustbuster? Vaccuming a $100 bill? Those aren't even close to what is happenign with the wiimote straps. First, None of those things happened because of a defect with the product. Second, Besides the car crashing, those aren't happening frequently to many different people.

Here is a metaphor that fits for you car crashing. It's like Crashing your car because the firestone tires you have are defective, or watching your laptop explode because of the defective sony battery inside, or letting your wiimote slip out of your hand and the defective strap breaks allowing the wiimote to crash into your tv... oh wait!

Wow, Pag. You're more astounding than the "apologists" you criticize.

"The wiimote is meant to be swung around while imitating sports in an indoor environment. Players use while swinging it as hard as in a real sport, but their strap doesn't withstand it."

AS HARD as in a real sport? ...uh. Right. Obviously, you haven't read the instruction manual of Wii Sports WHICH CLEARLY SAYS:

"Swing gently."

For each and every sport:

http://trigames.net/pics/jstennis.jpg
http://trigames.net/pics/jsbasebowl.jpg
http://trigames.net/pics/jsgolfbox.jpg

There's a 50-50 chance you'll come back with a, "But who reads the manuals anyway!?" People who aren't stupid. Don't bring back the "I'm going to sue for hot coffee spilled on my lap" mentality. Please.

"nintendos needs to " calm down" the actors in thier rediculously over-the-top Wii ads depicting people doing the SAME THINGS we are complaining about here."

Show us one Nintendo made advertisement where someone actually uses the same amount of force as the moron who threw his Wiimote into the wall while serving in Wii Tennis.

Way to go Alex, calling something "defective" when it doesn't support improper use. My metaphor stands, first of all; second of all, I wonder if you'd be saying the same thing if someone lets his Sixaxis slip when trying to do crazy juke moves in NBA 07 and not holding onto the controller properly. If you'd blame Sony for that, too, then something's wrong with your inane thinking.

People are not wearing the straps, loosing the remote out of their hand, then cutting them to make up for their stupidity IMO.
I got one of those strap type things on my digital camera, after years of use its never broken. Even if I actually try to break it I bet I couldnt without the use of scissors or a knife.
Go on, try pulling apart a shoelace and see if you can snap it.

Here's a thought:

A version 2.0 strap that connects to a random head piercing. I would say testicles, but then the Wiimote may hit the floor. I mean, if you safety chained the thing to a person's eyebrow ring then nobody (outside of the masochist crowd) would be that Wiitarded.

So, MrCHUPON, I assume you always read everything in the manuals of everything you buy? And that nothing in those manuals ever slip your mind? If so, I admire you. It's too bad the vast majority of people aren't as perfect as you are.

Products should be designed with the assumption that people won't read the manual, nor even read the warnings on the screen. They must also be created with the knowledge that even dumb people will want to use the product. Not to do so is doing a poor work as an industrial designer (or as a game designer -- nobody should ever have to read the manual for a game).

Would you hold a car company blameless if somebody crashed their car and died because the seat belt broke? After all, they were stupid to crash the car in the first place...

Pag - sorry to say mate that you are what is wrong with the world these days. Whos fault is it? Cant be me?!? Quick blame someone other than me...
Everyone is looking to blame someone other than themselves.
From your car crash analogy you saying then its not your fault if you crash a car because you didnt take a test to get a license? Isn't that paramount to not reading the instruction manual of a product.
Is it the fault of manufacturer that you couldnt be arsed to read it?

Translation: LOL DEM YANKEES CANT HOLD REMOTES!!!

But seriously, how should it fly off if you're holding the remote? This has been blown way out of proportion.

I seem to remember when we all used wired controllers. Remember when people would knock over consoles by pulling on controllers? We didn't go crying about Nintendo then, did we?

Pag,

So all companies in this world should assume people won't read the manuals? Do you realize how idiotic that notion is? I know you hate bad metaphors but here is another one for you...

...GE releases a refridgerator and since the customer doesn't read the manual and isn't perfect, they assume you can store ice cream in the refridgerator over the freezer and then when the ice cream melts, the customer complains even though in the manual it would specifically tell them what temperature the refridgerator is and what items should be stored in there.

Manuals are made to cover the companies from situations just like this and Nintendo makes it clear to swing gently. If you want to accurately and faithfully recreate Wii Sports using the Wiimote, why now put down the Wiimote and go outside to a tennis court or baseball field. How realistic can playing Wiisports be since I don't have a 14 lbs bowling ball in my hand or a 35" bat in my hands. You need to adjust to the Wiimote because it's not real lift. You won't see Major League Baseball abandoning real baseball bats for Wiimote because the two are not the same thing so don't treat them the same.

Unbelievable that people want to get mad at Nintendo for your own fault. It's very simple, don't let go of the Wiimote. They make gloves that should add some more traction and grip to your hands to use it with the Wiimote, try that.

Oh well, I see you're all against companies taking user errors into account when designing products. No point in arguing further. I hope I never have to use products or games designed by you in the future...