Blog

Australian IT JOBS : Sydney IT jobs, UNIX jobs, Linux jobs, Java jobs, ASP jobs Linux.conf.au Linux.conf.au
Technology news and Jobs arrow Our Blogs arrow The BeerFiles arrow Wii have to say it, we were right
Wii have to say it, we were right PDF Print E-mail
Written by Stan Beer   
Friday, 22 December 2006
In our story, of December 18 2006 "Nintendo strap replacement an admission of guilt", we postulated that Nintendo could be facing some legal issues after initiating its Wiimote strap replacement program. For that, we were scolded by some Nintendo fanboys. Nevertheless, we were right - Nintendo has been slapped with its own strap.

According to a CNET report, law firm Green Welling has lodged a class action lawsuit stating that "Nintendo's failure to include a remote that is free from defects is in breach of Nintendo's own product warranty" was almost inevitable.

The irony of it is that Nintendo stands to be brought down on this issue by its own honorable and responsible behaviour.

A less responsible company would have admitted nothing and stood by its product. Nintendo, however, virtually admitted that the star attraction of its new wildly popular Wii console was a potentially unsafe projectile by offering to replace the restraining wrist straps on 3.2 million consoles.

While the Nintendo gesture is indeed admirable, the inescapable conclusion is that Nintendo itself believes its original straps were not good enough. Neither does it help the company's cause legally to give belated advice to players not to let go of the console or dry their sweaty hands before playing. It just adds to the case that the controller is potentially dangerous in the hands of over enthusiastic players.

There have been some suggestions that the other console makers could face similar lawsuits. In short, these suggestions are nonsense. Neither the Sony PS3 nor Xbox 360 controllers are potential projectiles and neither require restraining straps.

This is not to say that the problems that Nintendo faces with the Wiimote are anything more than a small hiccup in the future success of the console. In fact, the company is probably lucky that the issue surfaced so early before anything really serious happened. With new straps in place, the next 20 or 30 million consoles sold should cause no further problems. {moscomment}


Get stories like this delivered daily - FREE - subscribe now
When you subscribe get a 12 months license for LiveProject
Valued at $99 USD


LiveWire - Desktop alerts Download the FREE iTWire desktop alert widget LiveWire - Desktop alerts


Del.icio.us!
 
< Prev   Next >
The Beerfiles IT BLOG BeerFiles is an in-your-face and sometimes irreverent blog concerning all things to do with IT, technology, people and the media from the point of view of a hard boiled technology journalist and commentator.

BeerFiles posts

Contact , Register , Advertise with iTWire , Links , Register , About iTWire , Feedback , Post your jobs , Events , iTWire site map , Start Blogging
Industry Releases , Submit your release now , Start submitting to iTWire , How to post video