Friday, December 15, 2006

Well, It Was Bound To Happen

Nintendo has just announced that they are recalling 3.2 million wrist straps for their new Wii remote controller. The current wrist straps have a diameter of 0.024 inches and can be exchanged at any local Nintendo service-center for a new wrist strap which measures 0.04 inches in diameter.

The recall came about after several users reported having the controllers fly out of their hands during gameplay and cause damage to tv's, walls, and even people. What I can't figure out is that most of the instances where damage occurs mentions that users have lost their grip on the remote, or actually hit a person, wall, or coffee table while swinging the remote. But so far, I've only read one story that actually confirms a wrist strap breaking and the user admitted that she glanced the controller off of the coffee table during one of her moves. After contact was made with the coffee table, then the wrist strap broke. So why does Nintendo have to spend so much time and money replacing wrist straps? Does anyone know how many people who have lost control of the remotes were even using the wrist strap?

Oddly enough, all of these stories about injuries and damages have not hurt sales of the Wii console. In fact, the publicity seems to be having more of a positive effect than a negative one. The reports make it obvious that the games are so fun it is easy to get a bit carried away. And we all know that the fun factor is the most important part of a gaming system.

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