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3.2 million Wiimotes recalled
Author: Ryan GarsidePublished: 15th December 2006
The results laid before you of what can happen when a Wiimote snaps.
New Wiis will be shipped with the new straps from hereon in.
Here's the info you need to contact Nintendo if you want to replace your wrist strap, courtesy of forum member BioSniper:
REPLACING YOUR STRAP:
UK residents should contact the Nintendo Service Centre
Phone: 0870 6060247 (National Rate)
Email: wiiwriststrap@codestorm.co.uk
Address: Wii Wrist Strap, Nintendo Service Centre, CoDEStorm House, Walton Road, Farlington, PO6 1TR
Wii owners outside the UK should visit the Nintendo website for country specific information
Original story: Nintendo is recalling 3.2 million Wiimotes, reports emerged this morning. The controller, and specifically the strap snapping, has been involved in a number of accidents which has resulted in injury and damaged property.
On top of this recall, Nintendo also wants 200k DS and DS Lite AC adapters sent back. The Wiimote recall will affect the whole world, whereas the DS Lite adapter recall only affects Japan. What that means is if you’ve got a Wii, then Nintendo wants your controller back. There’s no information on how to return the Wiimote as of yet and in all honesty this is probably just a precautionary move by Nintendo to try to stem the lawsuits that are heading their way after all of the injuries and accidents. Will most people send their Wiimotes back? No.
Wii accidents have inspired the website www.wiihaveaproblem.com. The site is a blog filled with reports of people smashing windows, lamps, and other valuable items. Here is an amusing extract from the site:
I was sitting in the bedroom of our apartment while my girlfriend and her friend were playing Wiisports in the livingroon. Not a problem, right? Wrong. Lets just keep it simple. Booze + lightweight girls + Wii tennis = a problem. Her friend swung the Wiimote way too hard for a serve...even missed the ball on the screen...but managed to make contact with...well, I think you'll be able to tell by the pics!"
Since the announcement on the BBC a Nintendo spokesperson has told Eurogamer that this is not in fact a recall and that the straps are perfectly safe. They say the current Wiimote is: "perfectly safe and has passed all the required safety tests". All a bit confusing at the moment - why offer to replace something if it is perfectly safe?
An embarrassing episode for Nintendo, which will taint yesterday’s triumphant announcement that they had sold 325k Wii’s. Will you be sending your Wiimote back? Let us know in the forums.
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Comments (27)
Stats: 0.160 seconds
So it may not be any kind of recall at all!
Don't circumvent the swear filter, it's there for a reason. - Hex
^^ I wasn't trying to circumvent it... :D must be broke... Can't even remeber what I typed now to be honest.
Also it's not a recall of any sort, they are sending replacement straps in the mail, check Engadget for more info, they have a form from Nintendo on their site.
Some people have been getting the thicker straps though, so it seems a bit hit and miss.
edit:
The Engadget link is only for US people. I don't think there's any word on how it's going to work in other areas yet.
Dude calm down no need for such harsh words in your post lol *pats will on the head*
There just covering there arses as you bloomin well know every damn yank will sue em if they break a lamp, stupid yet true.
morgan.
Dude, nobody's sending anything anywhere (except Nintendo), they are just gonna send a new strap in the mail... probably, as my esteemed colleague pointed out earlier, the UK plans have yet to be revealed.
If this was Sony you would all be slagging them off left right and centre and swearing at Sony. But because its Nintendo your all ok with Nintendo making a unsafe product as the strap fails.
Nintendo can do no wrong even recalling 200k DS power supplies.
not a recall of the Wiimotes AT ALL - just offering new straps if you want them.
::edit:: Ahhh yes. From the console section of the forums the link to the beeb: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6182013.stm
Farlington actually is about 5 miles from me.. Maybe I should go a knocking for new ones? ;)
QFT
So anyone from the UK that has the old Wiimote strap, regardless if it's broken or not, should email wiiwriststrap@codestorm.co.uk with your Address.
Hope it helps. :)
But the strap doesn't fail, and even if the strap wasn't there at all it's not exactly unsafe, to people that can understand it's a games controller and not a bowling ball or whatever.
While we're at it, I can't see the problem with recalling 200k power supplies either. I believe the problem was that "they might get too warm", as opposed to "several have exploded into balls of fire". :p
But all the videos I've seen have shown people being complete idiots with their controllers. I've not had the controller slip once, let alone come flying out of my hand.
The product itself isn't unsafe, it's how people are (mis)using it.
Small world, im over in Portchester. south coast Bit Meet anyone?
Took about thirty seconds to fill out. Props to Nintendo for accepting that this was an issue (for a very small percent of people, mind you) and doing something about it.
Its good that something is being done for all the Wiitards.
I generally play with my Wii with a flick of the wrist rather than the full arm. ;) I just requested replacement straps as a precaution, especially since my hands tend to get VERY sweaty when gaming (which is odd, since I pretty much otherwise don't sweat at all, ever)
On a more serious note, Nintendo has had a very large positive upswing. They have a certain amount of maneuvering room. Sony has just been getting slapped around by their own retarded decisions. Rootkit? UMD failure? PSP getting decimated by DS? A 500-600 dollar console? If Sony had executed these things better, they would be in better shape, would they not?
Here's a better analogy. Let's compare Sony and Nintendo to Spartans in Halo 1. In the first Halo, there were shields and health. Shields come back, and that's a buffer-zone more or less. Health doesn't. Nintendo is safely at max-shields, max-health, carrying an overshield. They can do some crazy stuff and still be fine. Sony has lost their shields and getting pummeled in their health-zone. They can only take so many hits before they go under. The good news is that, by doing something positive, they can regain health, like the health packs laying on the ground, except smaller. Then, once they regain their health, their shields will regenerate automatically, which is to say, they will slowly regain their manuevering room which was lost in the transitional period between the PS2 and PS3.
It's just the way the market works- like one huge Halo: Combat Evolved deathmatch.