Nintendo to investigate Wii strap failure

This always bothers me when people can't take responsibility for their own actions. Sure, the wrist strap could have been made stronger, and possibly should have been. However, that still doesn't go around the fact that people are letting go of the friggin' controller when they shouldn't be. As previous posters have pointed out, there are plenty of warnings that caution to use it gently and ensure nothing is next to you when playing. A company's (or anyone's) liability shouldn't cover those that can't heed warnings or common sense.

"""Don't bring back the "I'm going to sue for hot coffee spilled on my lap" mentality. Please."""

Bah, the coffee in question *was* defective. 100% of people who try to drink coffee that hot fail or are badly burned. Hundreds of cases were recorded of people being severly burned and permanently scarred from dropping the coffee on themselves.

At least nintendo provided a wrist strap that the average consumer has difficulty breaking and won't have a problem with.

OTOH, tennis rackets, bats, golf clubs, etc, usually have a grip wrapping of some sort, not shiny smooth plastic. But then, they sell grippy Wiimote sleeves, if you have trouble holding on, buy some!

@Mr.Chupon

The strap is breaking. It is defective. It isn't just breaking in one or two cases. It is breaking in a good amount of cases. Your metaphors hold no water at all. Not even the one where someone gets over excited while playing with the Sixaxis controller. Now if people were expected to use the Sixaxis controller like the wiimote, and Sony did not provide a strap or provided a strap that breaks in multiple cases, Then YES, Sony would be partially at fault due to their lack of foresight or faulty straps.

You need to realize that the product is not working as expected. What is the point of having a wrist strap if it doesn't stop the wiimote from flying into TVs? The Strap is breaking - Sometimes under extreme use, sometimes under normal use, and probably never under gentle use.

@Doug Kaplan

You can't expect 100% of the user base will read the manual cover to back. It is a video game. Some rented/used video games don't even come with a manual. In those cases are the companies not covered by their "swing gently" warnings? That isn't even the case. Where in the manual does it say, If not swung gently, the strap may break? It doesn't because the strap is there as a failsafe in case some people do get over-zealous. The failsafe is failing at its only job.

I dont even use the strap, and I've never once let fly the Wiimote. Rayman, Zelda, and some Wii Sports have been my gaming staple since launch.

"28. who's liable for a defective father and son?

Posted at 1:30PM on Dec 7th 2006 by jron 0 stars"

We are. Because natural selection and God would have weeded out all the dumb people if we weren't busy helping them survive their own idiocity. It's humanities fault that we let dumb people not kill themselves off.

The wrist strap is a fail safe when the Wiimote is used as it should be according to Nintendo. Honestly, if you read the instructions in the manual or in the game if you rented the game, you will see it mention no where to swing or throw the Wiimote as hard as you can. If you use it appropriate (even if you mimmick the people in the Wii advertisements), you never should get to the point where you even need to wrist strap to save you from the Wiimote launching out of your hand. I agree with the majority of posters here when I say it is pathetic that you can't control yourself or your children.

An airbag is a failsafe if you drive recklessly but if you follow the rules of the road and the drivers around you do as well, you should never need it.

I know you hate metaphors but they work.

It's not really over-excitement...it's just that some people are too stupid to hold a controller.

Anyone who thinks it's okay to let go of the remote deserves a broken TV.

I don't mind metaphors. Metaphors are good tools when used properly. The problem is they are being blatently misused in these comments. To add on to your Airbag metaphor. The airbag fails to do its job and you smash your head into the steering wheel. Who is at fault here? The faulty airbag? You? Or the drunk driver that slammed into your vehicle?

If they expected everyone to swing the wiimote gently, why even have the wrist strap in the first place? I'll go ahead and tell you why, because the strap is there IN CASE someone does get a little too excited and a wiimote slips. The case is some straps are breaking while performing this task, and because of it, windows, tvs, pdas, and other items are breaking. Personally, I would never lose control of a wiimote, I doubt many reading this would, but I still think Nintendo is responsible for making faulty straps that fail to do the one and only task they were made for. Even if all they are responsible for is recalling the old straps and making stronger ones.

Aex said " the strap is there as a failsafe in case some people do get over-zealous. The failsafe is failing at its only job."

QFE. The failsafe shouldn't fail. Apparently, it does. That's why I'm going to put a failsafe on this failsafe (using fishing line).

@Bobbler
I got one of those strap type things on my digital camera, after years of use its never broken.

Is your camera strap the same as the wiimote strap? My camera's strap is twice as thick as that of the Wiimote, and it wasn't designed for something meant to be swung around, only the accidental drop.

No, the proper airbag metaphor for this situation is this. If you are driving 90 mph and slam into a tree, the airbag deploys but does little more than give your face something nice to hit before it slams into the steering column, breaking your neck.

If your swinging your wiimote as hard as humanly possibly (outside of the guidlines of proper use for the device) and if flied out of your hands, the strap cannot be expected to hold under those circumstances. The strap is there to keep the wiimote from flying around the room under normal operating conditions, not under extreme duress.

I think the Wii-mote strap is just there so that I can let the remote dangle when I high five my friends after a Madden touchdown...

I'm guessing straps are more likely to fail:
Under extreme duress.
If a person has a habit of spinning the Wii-mote while dangling from the strap.
When a person fails to run the string through the nunchuk, letting the sharper plastic edges rub the cord.

Alex, your metaphors just don't hold up. You say that the airbag not deploying properly is the same as the Wiimote strap breaking. Let's break this down, shall we?

The Air bag is DESIGNED to protect you in a crash. You bought the car specifically because they bragged about their side curtain airbags. If it fails to deploy and you are injured, there was a defect in the way the Air bag WAS DESIGNED to operate. It is the car's fault.

The Wiimote is DESIGNED to be used gently. They have a gazillion different places where they remind you of this. The strap is designed for the remote slipping out of your hands DURING ITS GENTLE, DESIGNED USAGE, not to save the remote if you use the Wiimote is a fashion it was NOT DESIGNED to be used.

These are completely different. The strap is not there to protect you from usage that the Wiimote wasn't made for! What is so hard to grasp about that concept?

And to say that Nintendo is liable because people don't read the instruction booklets? That is simply just ridiculous. You obviously haven't been around the world long enough, have you? The world is full of this. Do you know there are products out there on the market, like bathroom cleaners and such, that specifically state ON THE CONTAINER: "It is against the law to use this product in any way that is not its intended purpose." 95% of the people using the product will not read that. But it's there. And that's all it takes to not be at fault. So if you use your Drano to create explosives or whatever and blow your hand off, you are at fault. Not Drano.

Again, you can only have a point if things are defective in their intended functionality. Not if they are defective in a way they are not designed to be used.

@60

Instead of letting the Wii remote dangle for a high five, I highly recommend doing "the fist" to your friends while still clutching the remote like a racket/club/bat/whatnot. It's very satisfying, and you don't have to let go of the remote and grab it again. Your hand's already in a fist anyway.

@almost everybody else

The strap is definitely not designed to withstand you wrapping it around your wrist and then throwing the remote as hard as you can. I only use it if I need to let the remote dangle so I can grab a ringing phone or a lonely beverage that wants into my belly.

@Crono141 - That would be a defective airbag since they are designed to expand at over 180mph. Thus 90mph is within normal range to prevent one from flying thru the airbag into the steering wheel.

This will be my last post on this subject. Nintendo isn't perfect. They make mistakes. They did not make the strap strong enough, either by accident or by purpose. This is thier fault and they are responsible for it. Either, they underestimated the amount of force a person could generate swinging the remote, or they just didn't care and decided to save a few pennies by going with a cheap strap. The problem is not people getting a little crazy swinging their wiimotes around, the problem is the straps are breaking when they should not be.

Nintendo wouldn't be investingating the problem if they were truly certain they were 100% not at fault for it. Nintendo slipped up, they know it, I know it, You know it. Now how they handle this situation will show how good of a company they really are.

Oh God. Now I gotta face the consequences of idiots not knowing how to handly a controller. These guys are already the reason why Nintendo puts disclaimers/warnings at every freaking screen before the game actually begins.

What bothered me about Wii Sports was the fact that I could only play the fitness portion once a day, because Nintendo believes anything more is bad for my health.

I already removed the wrist strap from my remote, but I won't be able to remove restrictions placed in game.

ooooh! oooh! ooooh! Metaphores are fun! Let me play!

1) I bought an MMO and can't return it now that I know it requires a monthly subscription.

Oh....and I didn't read the box.

2) I press too hard on my LCD screen to point out something to an observer and now there is a permanent mark.

Oh...and I didn't read the manual

3) I start messing around in my PC's registry and and now my computer won't boot.

Oh....and I didn't read the manual

4) I smoke and got lung cancer.

oh....and I didn't read the surgeon general's warning.

5) I hit my friend in the nards with a nerf bat and it really hurt him.

oh....and I didn't read any warnings on the box

6) My baby was cold so I wrapped her in tin foil and put her in the microwave.

Oh...I never read the manual.

7) I drank a red bull and jumped off a cliff.

oh....and it didn't give me wings.

8) and finally....I read some of your comments here and am now stupider.

oh....You'll be hearing from my lawyer soon.

Alex,

The Wiimote wrist strap IS NOT defective, it's the person using it. If you use the Wiimote as you are instructed to in the MANUALS and warning screens, you will not break your Wiimote wrist strap. It's that simple.

Go ape sh!t with the Wiimote and of course the wrist strap will break.

Guess what, when I use a rubber band and put it around something that is too big for it to fit around and the rubber band straps, it doesn't mean the rubber band is defective, it means I was being to excessive with how I used it. Seriously Nintendo DID NOT make a defective strap, they made a strap that is more that practical for what it is being used for. Honestly, they didn't even need a strap if you used it correctly, the fact that there is a strap at all is the fail safe, it doesn't need to be stronger.

my wiimote strap ripped yesterday (12-6-06) and shattered my sliding glass door, have pictures and will upload aftermath video to youtube when i get around to it.

Read My Name Idiots.

@ Derbeste - LOL @ 6 and 7

okay i'm 14 my mom got me a wii and my sister and her boyfriend who are both 21 have all played it and they get really into it. After reading this I tryed diferant ways to try and break the little string and NOTHING worked. so how people are breaking the strap is beyond me and just seems moronic. Also there are multipel warnings before you start playing to keep the wrist strap on and to use it gently... people are just dumb