New Wrist Strap Announced

After several reports of people's wrist strap for there remote's breaking Nintendo finally announced a redesign to the wrist strap to fix this problem.

This is actually the MAIN story on the homepage of msnbc.com right now.

Nintendo to replace 3.2M Wii straps
Customers can exchange straps through Nintendo service centers
TOKYO - Nintendo said Friday it will replace 3.2 million straps for its popular Wii computer game controllers after receiving a rash of reports that the device flew out of the hands of players.

The voluntary exchange program is a bittersweet development for Nintendo _ a costly hitch in its three-way battle with Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360, but also confirmation of its enthusiastic reception worldwide.

The Wii's signature wand-like remote controller is used to mimic the motions of a tennis racket, golf club or sword, depending on the game. But soon after the Wii went on sale last month, people started reporting cases of the controller's strap breaking as they waved it about vigorously.

Nintendo will allow customers to exchange the old straps, which have a 0.024 inch diameter, for a beefed up strap that has a diameter of 0.04 inch, company spokesman Yasuhiro Minagawa said. The worldwide exchange is expected to cost the company several million dollars.

"People tended to get a bit excited, especially while playing Wii sports, and in some cases the control would come loose from their hands," Minagawa said. "The new strap will be almost twice as thick."

The control wand is one of the unique features of the Wii, which Nintendo introduced as its counterchallenge in a fierce competition with Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360.

Nintendo is hoping the easy-to-control wand will appeal to a wider crowd of players — not just young men.

Customers can exchange the straps through their local Nintendo service centers, Minagawa said.

Wii's debuts were soon followed by reports of smashed glass and damaged television sets, while another fan apparently sprained and cut a finger on her right hand while trying to rally for a comeback victory in Wii baseball.

But the offbeat stories of Wii controllers going ballistic haven't hurt sales.

The market research company NPD Group estimated that U.S. consumers bought 476,000 Wiis in the two weeks following its Nov. 17 launch. That beat Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3 console, which sold just under 200,000 units amid widespread shortages.

Nintendo has delivered more machines so far to consumers than Sony has, partly because of Sony's production problems.

Nintendo has shipped about 400,000 Wii machines in Japan and more than 600,000 in North America. Sony readied just 100,000 PS3 machines for the Japanese launch and 400,000 consoles for its U.S. debut.

Sony has promised 2 million PS3s worldwide by year's end, while Nintendo is targeting 4 million Wii units in the same period.

Selling machines in high volumes is crucial in the gaming business because hot-selling formats attract software companies to make more games, which in turn boost console sales.

Separately Friday, Nintendo also said it would replace 200,000 AC adapters for its DS and DS Lite consoles in Japan. Nintendo said the move would not affect adapters overseas, and officials expected only a small impact on earnings.

Source:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16222369/

*yawns*
If you can swing the Wii remote with enough force to break the strap (not to mention break the TV screen), then you shouldn't be playing.
It's just common sense. If you swing that with enough power to break the screen, you're obviously gonna break the strap.
Blame the people, not the producer.

It's good to see Nintendo fix the wrist strap. I don't think any company would ever go that far to please their fans. I mean, they don't have to because the wii is selling like crazy anyways.

People would use it so hard that the wii would break off the chain.

I never expected them to go that far.

I heard one guy let go of it and it crashed into his TV. Good times, good times.

Originally Posted by Zukuru

I never expected them to go that far.

You are aware that it's fake, right?

I think I saw that on SomethingAwful forums.

It makes you look like a crazy hard-core gamer.

*Merged "New Wrist Strap Announced" with "Wii strap recall!!"*

No need to have two threads talking about the same thing (eventhough one was more on a comical side, and the other on the more serious/straight up facts side).

I've mentioned this before in the past, and there's yet another solution in helping people to not let go of their wiimotes: Nerf is joining Nintendo in making foam Wiimotes. How will this help? Two ideas come to mind:

1. The foam is made out of a substance that makes it easy to grasp, even in wet/damp surfaces (considering you won't be playing this outside, the damp surface I'm talking about is one's sweaty palms)

2. If the remote happens to fly out of the player's hand, then at least the foam will help not damage anything as much as a regular plastic model.

-BGS

I realize nintendo should fix this problem but they really shouldn't have to. Some people just get too emotional when their playing their games. I'm not saying you shouldn't get emotional during a game because everyone does. But you should have at least some sense of control over yourself.

You are aware that it's fake, right?

I think I saw that on SomethingAwful forums.

I'm sure no one saw my post.

I guess Nintendo is creating a bigger marketing opportunity for the electronic areas - namely, the television sets. How? With that flimsy wrist strap. But of course, half of the fault is from the gamers themselves. Too caught up to the game and then...

With the Wii remote being unharmed apparently, we can only assume that it is fairly indestructible. Much like a cell phone with crime deterrent. We should strap Wiimotes to the underside of the space shuttle to use as a re-entry shield. I'll call NASA, you guys mock up a power point presentation.

Originally Posted by Otaking

LOL! Nuff said.
I for one, have had no problem with my Wii-Mote at all. Dry your hands off, hold on tight, don't go totally hardcore. I'm treating it like gold as Wii-Mote's cost $99 over here =\

After having my Wii for a little over a week now, I've come to the conclusion that you have to be a clumsy idiot to have fly from your hand with enough force to break the strap, let alone crack a TV screen. I noticed that most of these accidents are happening during Wii Sports, even though it says in the manual "Swing gently." There's absolutely no need to swing as hard as you can, considering that most of the time, the accuracy/power of your show is based on timing and has little to do with how hard you swing.

Seems like just a bunch of clumsy people to me. But hey, as long as it can't happen to me when I get my Wii, I'm fine. Curse all of you who got yours. You must not live in the mideaster USA, where stores are forgotten. When there are Wii's here, there are people running in the store that just wanted to see if they have any. So they sell out in only moments around here because people are constantly checking in.

Originally Posted by Otaking

After several reports of people's wrist strap for there remote's breaking Nintendo finally announced a redesign to the wrist strap to fix this problem.

The only problem with that is that you look pretty dumb. It does save the cops some trouble should you be arrested with your Wiimote attached to you.