Nintendo Recalling 3.2 Million Wii Wrist Straps

http://biz.gamedaily.com/industry/feature/?id=14754

Ouch, that has to hurt. Feel kind of sorry for Nintendo since the Wii is causing lots of trouble at the moment. Not so much the console itself, but the many lawsuits being thrown their way by careless gamers that don't use the system as it was intended.

I've seen a fair number of posts and articles about people abusing the controller, themselves and others for fun so they can brag about it online!!!.

Well, I kind of think it was a risk in the first place.

Hmm contrary to M$ and Sony it seems that they're at least making a profit with alone selling the consoles (90$ per unit shared with mongering) due to this article (german): http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/82616

Heh, that cord does look a bit weedy. I still find it hard to believe someone's managed to accidentally put one through a TV screen, though - a CRT TV, anyways.

Any word on when stores are expected to get the new controllers for replacement? Did Nintendo confirm as to when shipments for the new controllers are expected to hit retailers in North America?

Stupidity should be banned. Are they recalling all or just replacing broken ones?

They've organized this recall pretty nicely, it looks like. Just give them your serial number and address, then they'll send you up to 4 wrist straps without question!

Most companies would probably do the same (it's just a wrist strap!) but there are also many that would ignore the problem and/or charge $5 for said wrist strap replacements just because they can.
Then there's the other weirdos who would have you send in the old wrist strap before replacing just because they're run by a tiranical bureaucracy.

Sure, Ninty didn't test their wrist straps with maniacs who just want to cause trouble in mind, but they are still being smart about this. As long as the crazy media doesn't make things up, it's just a nice free offer for a wrist strap that some people may pay attention to but many just won't. Nice, relaxed and friendly.
They can keep things working, and it doesn't cost them nearly as much as various analysts are predicting.

yeah you are right good call. Wonder if the new strap is toughened though? Also is this a case of "any publicity is good publicity"?

Nintendo consistently make this claim, and it wasn't true for previous consoles where they made the claim, so I doubt it's true this time either.

Ironically, it was predicted one year ago that this exact issue was going to occur and that Nintendo should of taken it more seriously back then.

@Gabriel
Hmm obviously i don't know but it does make some sense to me as they really have nothing inside what's really cost intensive. They've invested in R&D for the controller but avoided anything else which makes a console costy so i guess it could be true.

Actually 360 is making a profit now with the premium pack and maybe making a small loss on the core system.

Wii is supposed to me costing about $210 without the wimote.

Of course, its hard to say how reliable the sources are, but thats what I was reading in recent articles.

It's only really sony that are making a big loss, allthough the 360 initialy was costing MS a fair bit on launch, so I doubt they have made up the numbers yet.

By the way are there any infos about a higher revision beside of better wrist straps where they've worked out some first issues? I have no idea how Nintendo generally deals with such things. Do they make real revisions and announce this or are these more silent updates which they don't announce?

My own take is "what are these idiots doing with the controls anyway?". But then I remember the ad where the kid was whipping the control around (her?) head...

I've seen it in real how a boy lost the controller whilst playing baseball and trying to strike the ball. But he wasn't using a strap - maybe it broke before?. Anyway the controller flew quite some meters till it landed in some game packages without killing someone. I think it can happen if you're hands are sweating.

If I had some spare cash I might actually buy this Nintendo console - only my second since the SNES (I'm not a fan).

I imagine having a few beers and inviting my mates over for a tennis tournament using the motion sensing controllers (nice idea that the controller has a built-in speaker for the tennis raquet sound). Great party idea and a good bit of exercise!

Aye. Even multi-player games on the SNES were a right laugh. Some of the best gaming experiences I've ever had.

Ok, so the wrist-strap problem is solved, now for Nintendo to reinforce the plastic in the Wiimote to prevent said new wrist-strap from ripping the plastic holder right off the thing because some people just don't get it.
(really wish Nintendo used your active myNintendo account for street/phone details, hate re-entering all this crap everytime I do a support-message)

I took the straps off my wiimotes. I find they get in the way, and I've never had the lest bit of slippage when playing.

In other news, Nintendo's stock is at a new high of 31.10!