Just blow: Smash Bros Brawl disc problems blamed on dust
by Scott Jon Siegel 
{ Feb 4th 2008 at 11:55AM }
Brawl is uniquely affected by this problem due to the game's size, which makes it the first title on the Wii to be pressed on a dual-layer DVD. The special disc requires a more fine-tuned read from the optical sensor, which is causing problems in systems clogged with dirt and tobacco smoke. Rather than suggesting they "blow," Nintendo has set up a cleaning service for players affected. Japanese owners who send their Wii consoles, copies of Brawl and warranty cards to a service center in Kyoto will have their systems repaired within one week, and Nintendo will cover all cleaning and shipping costs.
While we're happy Nintendo is taking responsibility for the problem, we're also personally hoping that those affected kept their consoles in squalid conditions. If even small amounts of dust can affect the playability of the Brawl discs, then we're looking at a lot of impatient, unhappy customers in the States come March 9th.
[Via Eurogamer]
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 2)
Crono (NDF - Knight of the Old School) @ Feb 4th 2008 3:24PM
And photocopies of the receipt aren't freely available on the internet from the likes of E-bay and such?
Spartacus @ Feb 4th 2008 3:31PM
That's the stupidest thing I've heard in a while- there are much easier ways to provide proof of purchase of an item (SSB in this case) then shipping the item to the manufacturer.
Furthermore, Nintendo SHOULD offer to clean EVERY WII, regardless of what games I have bought, as all would be potentially affected. What happens if I don't buy SSB but in a few months I buy another, possibly 3rd party, game that is on a dual layer disc?
Joshua has a very valid point. Either there is a problem with the disc or Nintendo is simply delaying the inevitable- All Wii's needing cleaned at some point in time in order to play dual layer discs.
kftgr @ Feb 4th 2008 2:43PM
@Joshua Johnson:
Easy. Because they don't want the additional expense and load of non-SSBB customers getting the free shippingx2 + cleaning. Just imagine if all the folks sent in their Wii Sports / Wii Fit machine in for cleaning!
mattclarkie @ Feb 4th 2008 2:47PM
First disc to require the 2nd layer. WTF.
Surely a standard CD lens cleaner would work. The console can plays CDs can't it? I know it can't play DVDs, so a DVD lens cleaner is out.
Mr Khan @ Feb 4th 2008 4:42PM
It can run DVD's, stick it in and the drive will spin
But i'm not sure how those cleaning discs work, it won't read them (or CD's), but it'll run both
mattclarkie @ Feb 5th 2008 3:56AM
In order for them to work they have to read, I thought the Wii would atleast play CDs.
kftgr @ Feb 4th 2008 2:55PM
Come to think of it, if the lens is so sensitive, then dirty fingerprints might also add to the problem. So they might even clean up dirty game discs too, or else risk the consumer having the problem persist upon the system's return.
ssuk @ Feb 4th 2008 3:10PM
I read canned air and Spaceballs was the first thing that just popped into my mind...
Joshua Johnson @ Feb 4th 2008 4:07PM
There are a number of other ways you can provide proof of sale if that's why they're asking for it.
That makes no sense however as they *STILL* tell you to include your Warranty cards - a lack of warranty card would most likely get you a non-free repair. So i doubt they care about the game for that reason.
Add that to the fact that Nintendo has notoriously great customer service - I don't think they'd tell you *no* if your console couldn't read a DVD...every dealing I've had with them they've been extremely great. I doubt that's the issue.
I wish someone would take down the serials of the Wii's not working and see if maybe they were an earlier model. Or heck maybe a later cheaper model. But it really doesn't matter that much frankly - it just seems fishy to moi.
James Kochalka @ Feb 4th 2008 4:36PM
No one in my house smokes, but we do have a wood stove and it is pretty dusty. How worried do I have to be?
Mr Khan @ Feb 4th 2008 4:44PM
I was shocked to learn that Brawl was the first Wii game to require more than 4.5 GB
Definitely the one improvement from GC to Wii that seems to be most ignored. Everyone seems to forget that you have about 6x the disc space
chase @ Feb 4th 2008 5:21PM
and by tobacco smoke you mean weed smoke
chase @ Feb 4th 2008 5:22PM
actually, if you are plying the Wii, it's Wiid smoke
moominsean @ Feb 4th 2008 7:34PM
i see a dirth of 'wii cleaning kits' flooding the market in attempt to cash in on the dirty wii phenomenon.
Lee @ Mar 18th 2008 4:24PM
I bought this game the day it was released, and immediately had the disk error everyone is talking about. Made arrangements to ship the console back to Nintendo for cleaning, and they were true to their word about the 1 week turn-around time. I shipped it to them last Monday, I received it back today (the following Tuesday).
Guess what? The same old problem still happens. IT'S NOT FIXED!!!!! Clearly the issue is not dust.
j-mun @ Mar 22nd 2008 5:44AM
’didja play smash bros too much?’
’didja throw it in disgust during the sixth hour of the Subspace Emissary single player nonsense?’
’are you rippin’ three foot tubes?’
The answer is yes and no my friends. But the clear and solid answer is that Nintendo has made my Wii dysfunctional in order to protect itself from piracy!
How?
PROLOGUE
Nintendo claims that dust and smoke may affect the laser lens in the Wii, especially when reading a dual-layer disc like Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Nintendo has offered to clean the lenses for free, even offering free fedex shipping.
1. I purcahsed my Wii on day one of it’s US release. I have never had a disc read error or really any error for that matter with my Wii. This involves pulling three foot tubes, shotgunning the Wii for good measure, and the usual tomfoolery that accompanies a beersoaked 23 year old cursing at a level 1900 Tatsumya returning every fucking power serve.
2. Like every other person who gives two shits about Nintendo, Wii, or less specifically games, I purchased Super Smash Bros. Brawl (SSBB) on the morning of its release.
3. Upon popping the disc in, the Wii demanded a system update before I played the game. Like every other person who gives two shits about Wii, my Wii is wirelessly connected to the internet. I do not believe this system update was presented as ’optional,’ therefore I updated.
4. Some eighty plus hours of gameplay later, almost exclusively with SSBB, the Wii stops reading ALL discs. Now, don’t get me wrong, there was a significant amount of tube-pulling going on during the relatively-nonstop free-for-all four-player action, but I became curious as to how one game or one dirty lens would affect ALL discs.
5. Like any other fucking addict, I tried everything in my power to get the fucker to work. Nothing worked.
6. I called Nintendo, and without question and with great haste, they facillitated a guaranteed one work-week return, providing i send both my Wii and my copy of SSBB.
7. A trip to Fedex later, the Wii is shipped for free to Redmond, Washington, is received and is scheduled to be returned within 5 business days. Hasty, right?
So where’s the conspiracy?
Step by step:
If Nintendo is simply cleaning the dirty lenses, what prevents them from becoming dirty again? To my knowledge, cleaning does not imply a re-routing of the ventilation system. Therefore, I ponder: will my Wii need a lens-cleaning every 3000 hours? Will they make a home-version of their very high-tech cleaning instruments? After all, no home-based consumer cleaning instrument is recommended or even viable for the ’cleaning’ of the lens.
Next, there are a significant amount of modded Wiis floating around. In Denver alone, there are quite a few on Craigslist. For those that ain’t in the know, ’modded Wiis’ means that their components have been altered to allow the playing of imported discs (bypassing regional coding) in addition to DVDs and ’back-ups’ (pirated copies) of games.
I theorize that if someone is so passionate to modify their Wii, they would also be savvy enough to connect it to the internet, and in turn, be passionate enough to purchase (and subsequently pirate) a copy (legitimate or illegitamate) of SSBB. This isn’t so hard to imagine, as the entire world knows that SSBB is the fastest selling game in Nintendo’s epic history. I also speculate that the majority of modded Wiis would have been purchased some time closer to the Wii’s intial launch, as the modders tend to be the ’wait-in-line’ sort of folk, bringing a buddy, buying two, selling one on ebay, etc.
So, people get the game and the system update, play the game, and suddenly, some of the Wiis (mostly first-generation, according to bloggers) develop disc-read errors.
No biggie some say, as Nintendo is ’fixing’ this for free, in less that a week’s turn around. Some say that the issue is not the lens, but really a bad drive altogether. To this I inquire as to what sort of support system Nintendo has, in that they cannot produce enough Wiis to meet demand, yet they can replace hundreds of drives in less than a week?
The plot thickens. Why does Nintendo need my copy of the game to clean the lens, or even, at worse, replace the drive? Are they gonna buff out one layer of the dual-layer disc? I don’t think so.
Obviously, anyone with a legal copy of SSBB and an unmodded Wii will ship them for free to Nintendo, wait a nail-biting week, and get their Wii back, data and all ’fixed.’ So what happens to the modded Wiis or pirated copies that get the disc-read error?
Bam! Nintendo killed them, with a controlled distribution of a kill-switch in the form of a system update. If Nintendo knows how many Wiis are connected to the internet, and that almost everyone will purchase SSBB, it would be quite simple to randomly distribute a kill-switch to a controlled number of Wiis. Anyone who doesn’t ship it back can now be assumed to be in possession of some sort of piracy, albeit rendered useless with disc-read errors.
So if x percent of Wii owners get an error and y percent of those owners don’t return the Wii, Nintendo now has a good idea that they killed z percent of total piracy and that there are y pirates for every x of Wii owners.
I have to go pull another tube and wait for the Fedex guy.
Kesvalk @ Mar 24th 2008 10:49AM
I heard of some guys that got their copys running using a lens cleaner CD (hiting reset to force the console to try to read, making the cleaner spin and clean the Wii's lens).
i heard about a guy who put a folded toilet paper into the Wii to clean the lens...
i think the first option is much safer than the later...