Nintendo To Investigate Wii Strap, Controller Issues

With the Wii console due to be released in Europe tomorrow and already out in other major territories, Nintendo execs have acknowledged media reports of uncoordinated gamers causing damage to televisions, furniture and even fellow players. As quoted by the AFP from an appearance at the Foreign Correspondents Club in Tokyo, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata spoke to Japanese reporters on the issue, saying that: “Of course before the launch of the Wii hardware Nintendo had a number of tests on the durability of everything, including the strap, but our understanding right now is that even beyond our expectations people are becoming more and more excited playing with the Wii." He also commented that "we are investigating" possibilities for a solution to the problem. Legendary Nintendo producer Shigeru Miyamoto also commented on the problem, saying: "We are encouraging people to understand that you really don't have to be so excited, but rather you need to understand the control and then you're going to be the best player. We are looking into the situation to see if there are additional methods to encourage people to kind of calm down so they would never throw away the controller itself." Despite on-screen warnings before games to use the strap on the Wii remote to secure it to a player’s wrist, many reports involve gamers who ignore this advice – with controllers flying off to cause damage. In some cases, however, the wrist strap has snapped due to excessive force. The only “additional method” so far offered by Nintendo to reduce the problem is a special Wii glove, meant to avoid sweaty hands from exacerbating the issue.