After several reports of personal injury and numerous reports of WiiMotes flying through the air and causing property damage, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission reports that Nintendo is voluntarily replacing the wrist straps that come with the WiiMote with stronger “enhanced” versions. There are an estimated 3.2 million straps to be replaced. Despite many press accounts to the contrary, Nintendo is not recalling existing straps. They are simply replacing existing straps upon request.
In a separate announcement Nintendo announced it was recalling some 200,000 AC adapters for Japanese versions of DS and DS Lite portable game systems.
Dale’s Comment: I’m happy to see Nintendo get out ahead of any possible lawsuits on this one. Numerous blog posts and podcasts have already started speculating about the inevitability of lawsuits if Nintendo doesn’t provide a more robust WiiMote wrist strap.
[Dec 20 Update: Well, as you can see from the related posts below, it only took 5 days from my original posting for a lawsuit story to emerge!]
Sources: Nintendo’s Wii Strap Replacement Form | GameSpot | Next Generation | GameDaily.biz | CNet Blogs | CNN Money | ABC News (AP) | Guardian Unlimited | Times Online | Playfuls.com | Washington Post (Reuters) | EuroGamer | Forbes (XFN) | BBC | PC World | Red Herring | GamaSutra