Nintendo Sued Over Wii Wrist Strap

[Shawn Andrich]

Nintendo Sued Over Wii Wrist Strap

An Austin, Texas man has filed a class-action lawsuit against Nintendo, claiming the wrist strap is "ineffective for its intended use."

On December 6th, a Wii owner filed a suit against Nintendo for "unfair or deceptive practices" when the wrist strap did not prevent his Wii Remote from flying off his wrist.

"As a result of the defective nature of the wrist strap on the Wii remote, plaintiff's wrist strap broke on his remote causing damage to the Wii product plaintiff purchased," the suit reads. "The controller is an essential component of any video game console, and so [the] plaintiff is unable to use the Nintendo Wii for its intended purposes as a result of the broken wrist band. Accordingly, it renders the Wii console, which retails in the United States for $250, useless."

Last week Nintendo moved to offer voluntary wrist strap replacements [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/66960-Nintendo-Voluntarily-Replacing-Wii-Straps] to anyone who wanted them. Gamespot reports [http://www.gamespot.com/news/6163421.html] that the voluntary recall will not cause the lawsuit to be dropped. The original filing demands that Nintendo refund or replace the defective strap with one that works as intended, pay his legal expenses and "such other and further relief as the Court deems just and proper."

Nintendo has responded to the lawsuit, claiming it had no effect on their recall or efforts to educate users.

"We believe the lawsuit to be completely without merit. Nintendo has a long tradition of delivering high-quality products and excellent customer service, and we take all reports from our customers seriously. At the time we became aware of the lawsuit, we had already taken appropriate steps to reinforce with consumers the proper use of the Wii Remote and had made stronger replacement wrist straps available. This suit has had no effect on those efforts."

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[Bongo Bill]

This whole situation is just sick. Doesn't it say in the manual to hold on to the controller? If you're breaking the strap, you're not using the controller as intended.

 

[heavyfeul]

I wonder if he tried to get a replacement before launching the lawsuit? Seems a little frivolous to me. As long as Nintendo offers a replacement, I do not see an issue here. Sometimes, though, a company needs a little negative media attention to take real action. Look how long it took MS to extend its warranty on the launch units.

 

[Joe]

Just because they're suing doesn't mean they're gonna win.

 

[Sokaku]

That guy is going to lose so badly...

Upon using a device you should read the instructions. Before powering a game, you get a notice to place your wrist within the strap and tight it. If the game requires the Nunchuk to play, it says to insert the strap in the loop before playing. I've played a lot with the Wii and never did it ever sliped a little. I just don't see how people can be throwing around their controller like it's a baseball.

After a few complaints, Nintendo even warned users not to play so vividly with the remotes as it is not needed and usualy works even less well as the motion is going to fast for the censor.

Sueing because you lack the knowledge of use of a device won't get you anywhere.

Nintendo makes great products since their early days. Heck I can't even break my NES by dropping it off on the ground.

People are just pissed that they can't buy a PS3 and want to tarnish Nintendo's rep.

 

[Goofonian]

That guy is going to lose so badly...

here's hoping.

 

[Blaxton]

You know I'm really not concerned with the strap problem. Some tech company is suing Nintendo for patent infringement. They are seeking to possibly remove the system from the market. Patents are getting a little out of hand. I understand their function, but some are written in a language so vague it borders on Nostradamus' predictions. One day, some time, a product will come along that works like this. Since we don't have the ability to create the product ourselves we will file a patent. When the time comes for a company to put out a working version our vision... that is when we cash in.

But yeah... I don't like the law suit, but they really should have thought this through better. They were designing a product to be used in a similar manner to real motions, trying to grab non-gamers. Of course people are going to take it to the extreme. You would think they would have gone with a more cautious path. Oh well. I get to open my Wii in 5 days, and I'll be sure to be careful with my controllers.

 

[Echolocating]

Remember when that lady spilled McDonalds coffee [http://www.okbar.org/public/judges/mcdonaldsoutline.pdf] on herself?

Lawyers have an amazing way of twisting ideas until logic has no bearing on the matter.

In the McDonalds lawsuit, the coffee was found to be defective (too hot). Nintendo has proven their wrist straps to be defective by offering stronger replacements.

All I'm saying is that history has a tendency of repeating itself.

Maybe Nintendo will offer a plea bargain to the guy... like a new remote and Metroid Prime: Corruption. Heck, I'd go for that. ;-)

Here are some other interesting lawsuits [http://www.calahouston.org/best.html].

Phoenix Wright, where are you?! ;-)

 

[Meophist]

The McDonalds lawsuit had pretty good backing. Inform yourself about it before you go on about how illogical it might seem.

In this Nintendo one… Honestly, if Nintendo never included a wrist strap with their controllers, I don't think Nintendo would've even gotten sued.

 

[Echolocating]

The McDonalds lawsuit had pretty good backing. Inform yourself about it before you go on about how illogical it might seem.

I thought the link I provided was pretty informative. I'm sorry if I touched a raw nerve with you... did you have (or know someone who had) an incident with a defective cup of coffee?

 

[Meophist]

Sorry, I didn't click on the link. I'm rather paranoid about PDFs. I know of way too many situations of people talking about the "silliness" of it quite ignorantly.

 

[Blaxton]

In this Nintendo one; Honestly, if Nintendo never included a wrist strap with their controllers, I don't think Nintendo would've even gotten sued.

You know something, thats a great point. The issue would be careless people, not a faulty product.

 

[Echolocating]

In this Nintendo one; Honestly, if Nintendo never included a wrist strap with their controllers, I don't think Nintendo would've even gotten sued.

You know something, thats a great point. The issue would be careless people, not a faulty product.

I hope you two aren't in charge of motor vehicle safety...

"You see, sir, if we remove the seatbelts, we can't be sued for a faulty product. It's better to let people fly through the windshield than to have us being accused of installing defective seatbelts."

;-)

 

[Andraste]

In this Nintendo one; Honestly, if Nintendo never included a wrist strap with their controllers, I don't think Nintendo would've even gotten sued.

You know something, thats a great point. The issue would be careless people, not a faulty product.

I hope you two aren't in charge of motor vehicle safety...

"You see, sir, if we remove the seatbelts, we can't be sued for a faulty product. It's better to let people fly through the windshield than to have us being accused of installing defective seatbelts."

;-)

You know, there's probably some corporate executive out there reading this saying, "We need to get this Blaxton on board."

 

[Blaxton]

I hope you two aren't in charge of motor vehicle safety...

"You see, sir, if we remove the seatbelts, we can't be sued for a faulty product. It's better to let people fly through the windshield than to have us being accused of installing defective seatbelts."

;-)

Yeah, it does sound crazy. However, when Nintendo decided to put a strap on the product it basically made consumers believe there was a promise behind it: if you let go of your controller this will keep it from flying across the room. When people do stupid things they look to blame other people. A broken strap leads to an easy target: a faulty product.

But, the real funny thing is people DO try to sue because of damaged caused by their seatbelts, even when it saves lives. Sad but true.


I can't speak for Meophist, but I would assume he is coming from the same perspective. Nintendo was right for putting the wrist strap on, but it does create the illusion that they are responsible for miss-use. I'm not talking about from a right/wrong or, even, logical standpoint. I'm speaking in terms of liability. As I stated earlier, it allows for the blame to rest on the 'faulty product'.

The worst of it is that Andraste is right. CEOs would rather save money and spend less in order to lower recall rates... even if it kills people....

 

[Meophist]

I didn't actually mean that it would've been a good thing not to include a wrist strap. I'm just saying that if they didn't include it, the people who would've sued probably wouldn't.

However, I don't think this absolves Nintendo of responsibility. The wrist strap itself gives a sense of security. If it's faulty, it'll give the user a false sense of security, which is dangerous. The wrist strap should be strong enough to hold itself no matter the pressure under normal use.

 

[Maruza]

If he wins I think I might sue McD's for stabbing myself in the eye with some french fries, thus causing me to thrash about and spill the rest of my happy meal to the ground. I'll sue on the basis that the happy meal was deceptive practices because it did not give me happiness.

The sad part is, anyone can sue anyone for anything. People should speak up about what they are unhappy about when they spend their hard earned cash, but I'm with Nintendo on this one. This guy should just file a suit against the world for making him mad at it.

 

[ReedRichards]

That guy is going to lose so badly...

Upon using a device you should read the instructions. Before powering a game, you get a notice to place your wrist within the strap and tight it...After a few complaints, Nintendo even warned users not to play so vividly with the remotes as it is not needed and usualy works even less well as the motion is going to fast for the censor.

Sueing because you lack the knowledge of use of a device won't get you anywhere.

Absolutely right.