So, as most of you know, breaking Wii straps are a serious issue for Nintendo. The breaking Wii straps combined with the excitement that overcomes gamers/non-gamers while playing games like Tennis and Bowling has led to many injuries and damage to HDTV's and items in the house. Is Nintendo to blame? Is the gamer/non-gamer to blame?

Nintendo motion sensing technology is a brilliant idea. Allowing people to simulate activities in games using the Wiimote and Nanchuk is fun and very cool. Nintendo is targeting non-gamers just as much as gamers but failed to realize that they are asking gamers and non-gamers to "simulate" motions that in some sense are violent. Tennis requires fast and violent motions right along with bowling. Are gamers getting carried away while trying to simulate an overhead serve or the underhand motion of bowling? Anyone who has played Tennis or bowling will distinctively throw their arm forward with force.

If Nintendo was expecting gamers (and especially non-gamers) to “consciously” think about every movement they make, then their thinking was severely flawed. Or maybe their thinking was not flawed and they knew the dangers, which is why the strap was added in the first place (let alone bad straps). Nintendo has been under tremendous pressure to bounce back after getting whipped in the last generation and when they realized the potential issue with the Wiimote, they decided to add a strap and hope things did not get out of control. What should have been done is to add a high quality thick “elastic strap” that will give a little without breaking under force. This could have kept the issue down to a minimum, but instead they choose to be cheap about the Wiimote strap on a console that costs 249.00 (They are even making a profit – from Day One). Even if the cost of a high quality strap cost them a few extra bucks, they could have eaten the cost OR simply added the cost to the console. I do not think a SINGLE consumer would have had an issue with playing 259.00 for the console.

So now we have lots of broken straps along with lots of damaged TV’s, household damage (Pictures, PDA’s and more) and even personal injuries. The damaged TV’s and injuries are the biggest problems for Nintendo who is now being sued. I love the Wii! It is a great console solely because of the Wiimote and Nintendo should have been very VOCAL about the potential damage and injuries that can be caused by using the Wiimote while gaming. Nintendo does have a tiny warning about excessive motion in their safety manual, but “excessive” is a relative term when talking about simulation:


This needs to be changed to give examples so it is very clear on how to use the Wiimote safely and gamers/non-gamers also need to use caution, "ALWAYS". In my opinion Nintendo does not deserve to be sued but they need to start an awareness campaign and also “attempt” to come up with a fool proof strap.

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"True adaptability involves changing ones self to meet ones environment, not changing ones environment to meet ones needs" - Species8472

As a owner of a Wii, i can say, if it flys away from you, you are either A. Dumb B.Not wearing the strap or C. Not wearing your strap properly

While I can say that the people who use it so hard that it breaks aren't really thinking right, you can't really blame them. You aren't really gonna be thinking about how hard you are swinging the controller, just how much fun you are having and what you are gonna do next. My hat is off to Nintendo though for the fast reaction to this and making new, thicker straps.

This has been happening so frequently you figure nintendo would have seen this coming through testing etc.

Here's the current damage list from wiihaveaproblem.com, exluding non-damaged things like comics and videos:

» Broken Straps 40
» Televisions 20
» People 17
» Broken Controllers 17
» Lamps 6
» Walls 6
» Ceiling Fans 6
» Wiis 5
» Dishes 3
» Laptops 2
» Windows 2
» Fireplaces 1
» Remote Sleeves 1
» Stereos 1
» TV Stands 1
» PDAs 1

lol... new and improved replacement straps FTW (but I bet people will still find a way to break that)

I've only seen the remote fly once so far, and he wasn't wearing the strap. If I hadn't seen so many examples, I'd have been skeptical about them breaking, but while Nintendo hasn't admitted to a mistake for legal reasons, they are replacing them at their expense. on top of that they'll end up paying out some in lawsuits over the destroyed equipment. I wonder how much they will end up losing over this.

Nobody will be able to get a viable lawsuit against nintendo because they have more than enough warnings in the literature AND on the software itself!
Myself, I get pissed off having to see a warning before each game starts...
but that's just me

Most of the warnings are about wearing the strap. In the manual it has the blurb about not letting go or using excessive force, but they should have had that with the warnings about the strap in the game. Don't get me wrong-- I think nintendo should be covered by this. But with the way the US legal system works, there's a pretty big chance that they'll be liable. Most likely they'll settle a class action lawsuit out of court.

I would really, really appreciate the option.