Nintendo replaces weak Wii straps

Publisher confirms tougher straps shipping with all new systems; offers to replace trouble-prone tethers free of charge.

Nintendo is officially strapped.

Last week, Nintendo acknowledged that it was receiving reports of problems with the wrist strap that secures the Wii Remote to users' wrists and told the Associated Press that it was investigating the matter. Today, it appears that investigation has wrapped up, as the company is offering to replace users' Wii Remote straps free of charge. The newer version of the strap features a thicker cord to keep the controller tethered to a user's wrist.

However, Nintendo said it has been shipping Wii systems with the new cords since earlier this month, so it asks that users check to see which straps they have before submitting a request for replacements (see picture above). The Associated Press is reporting that Nintendo's offer applies to about 3.2 million straps worldwide and could cost the company several million dollars.

The US Consumer Product Safety Commission's notice of the voluntary replacement program says Nintendo has received three reports of injuries that occurred when a strap broke. All of them happened while users were playing Wii Sports, and none required medical attention.

All that secures the TV-remote-shaped controller to players' hands (other than players' fingers) is a cloth strap attached to the base of the controller by a thin cord. However, numerous reports have sprung up that the cord is breaking, sending the controllers flying out of the sweaty hands of gamers and into high-priced electronics, living room furniture, and the occasional innocent bystander.

Nintendo expects to begin shipping replacement straps around December 21, and they will take between five and nine days to arrive at their destination. To request up to four replacement straps, Wii owners are asked to give Nintendo their mailing addresses and Wii serial numbers at the company's official Web site.

754 Comments

  • Kyotain

    Posted Jan 8, 2007 1:03 pm PT

    Yes! Free straps! Just kidding. I have 2 Wiimotes that have the old straps, and i was cautious with them. I then realized that half if the time that my Wiimote was in danger was when i would scratch my head with the wriststrap on. Oh stupid people, you amaze me. Honestly, i have had an INTENSE bout of Wii Boxing, sweat and all. There wasnt, however, a loss of grip. Not even when anyone in my family played WiiBowling. I love Wii.

  • majikkmushroom

    Posted Jan 8, 2007 9:43 am PT

    Accidents do happen in the heat of battle. They needed to be fixed and they are.

  • Lord_Regnier

    Posted Jan 8, 2007 3:50 am PT

    Nintendo care about their customers.

  • ov3rdance

    Posted Jan 7, 2007 5:54 pm PT

    Nintendo make $50 for every wii sold wow.

  • boggi202

    Posted Jan 7, 2007 3:18 pm PT

    i dont see any problems with these wiimotes. i have played my friends wii many times and i have never used the straps. if you play like it was meant to be played you wont break anything.

  • hot_winter

    Posted Jan 7, 2007 9:24 am PT

    See nintendo is the best company for reliability, I mean the xbox360 started to not work for like half the people near the begining because they didn't test it properly because they tried to release it a year early to get the foothold they desperatly needed, you don't hear about nintendo neglecting obvious problems with they're consoles to get a head start that they obvious don't need and now they're fixing their problem the second they hear about it for free, no matter how much it will cost them, GO NINTENDO YEAH!!!!

  • intotheshadowz

    Posted Jan 6, 2007 6:07 pm PT

    Nintendo makes $40 for every wii console sold. There has been millions sold. Now, I am pretty sure they sold 1 million Wii consoles so far. So $40 for every Wii console, that works out to $40,000,000 from the Wii alone. They'll live.

  • Sparticus247

    Posted Jan 5, 2007 4:35 pm PT

    my dad broke one of our controllers when we were playing tennis together. He got way too into it, and I even warned him about 10 times or so to slow the swings down or he'd throw it on accident or something.....well he did and busted the remote. I was mad for a second but then laughed because he gave me a look that pretty much said "oh, you were right"

  • snoopy248

    Posted Jan 5, 2007 1:47 pm PT

    People are retarded...I personally think it's their fult for hitting each other with the Wiimotes...

  • TPSISO9000

    Posted Jan 4, 2007 11:37 pm PT

    This has to be the one time in history when a manufacturer is pleased with a recall! C'mon, Nintendo couldn't get better free advertising then all these TV reports on respectable news agencies showing adults swinging these things around and having a ball. Each report, featured as top news and thrust in the face of middle America mom and dad, tells all about how the maker of all games kiddie safe is making such a cool and sought after new system thats not only the most affordable, but fun for the whole family! Follow that up with related reports of grandma trying games for the first time and how fat kids around the country who never see sunlight are sweating with Wii Sports, and what parent wouldn't see this as a top Christmas gift for the whole family. Follow that up with references to Brain Age and Nintendogs, then show the concerned faces of Nintendo offering a voluntary recall on the straps out of concern for the kids, and this is the best PR they could've prayed for. It also didn't hurt that these same media outlets only reporting of other games involves the awful launch of the PS3 with it's $600 price and people being shot over it; or the shots of Gears of War; with it's beautiful but graphic pics of blood and violence and what does generic mom and pop gravitate toward?

  • ll_jun10r_ll

    Posted Jan 4, 2007 8:35 pm PT

    i wanna see some throw the controller into their mother, their mother fall over the dog, get a bruise, and sew nintendo, when that happens i will laugh so hard

  • poopship

    Posted Jan 4, 2007 11:22 am PT

    Poor Nintendo has to shell out millions of dollars because people are being idiots. I fail to believe that these so called problems really exist. I have never had the remote slip out of my hands nor have I felt that my hands were so slippery that it could possibly happen. People are just being jerks and are either trying to make a quick buck off of Nintendo or trying to get freebees like the new controler cord. NIntendo is the most customer conscious of all the console developers and it makes me mad that these bumholes are trying to give them a bad rap.

  • funsohng

    Posted Jan 3, 2007 8:56 pm PT

    i'm not getting mine....
    i live in canada....

  • Stali

    Posted Jan 3, 2007 5:44 pm PT

    You know the saddest part of this all. The fact that NIntendo can let someone buy 2 wii-remotes and get four just by ordering them on their website for free or just buy one order a new one for free, get a free one out of that, then get a free on out that.

  • apboyer

    Posted Jan 3, 2007 5:23 pm PT

    Just got four free controller straps in the mail from Nintendo!

  • Just_Desert

    Posted Jan 3, 2007 1:40 pm PT

    This is pretty much a C.Y.A. policy, which means for Cover your ass. I think Nintendo made the right move, when I had some hands on time with the Wii one of the first things i noticed was how thin the strap was. Not saying the strap is to blame, I mean it's obvious people that have had this probably over did it with the "motion" aspect.

  • EXPLiCiTx

    Posted Jan 3, 2007 1:25 am PT

    pianistkaida you're moron for not realizing thats pure sarcasm.

  • nyohnk

    Posted Jan 2, 2007 1:39 pm PT

    my strap broke when i was flailing my arms like an idiot playing the wii, and bounced off the TV and hit me in the head and put me in the hospital for 1 week....i'm in fact suing for the big bucks.....

  • wii-g

    Posted Jan 2, 2007 11:21 am PT

    better to be safe than sorry

  • sgtmichael

    Posted Jan 2, 2007 8:36 am PT

    lol lol lol lol

  • gertish

    Posted Jan 1, 2007 8:19 pm PT

    I threw my Wii remote, though my hands were freezing at the time and I didn't have the strap on. Hehe.

  • Hildogen

    Posted Jan 1, 2007 7:02 pm PT

    Oh, c'mon. Sure some people really are stupid. But stuff happens. You can't blame everyone for having the mote slip. Stuff happens (no, not to me yet). This is definitely a good move by nintendo.

  • tdf64

    Posted Jan 1, 2007 12:16 pm PT

    nintendo is doing the right thing so they wont lose customers and make the idiots feel more dumb than what they are

  • mlwillin

    Posted Dec 31, 2006 8:43 pm PT

    I don't use the strap so i don't care.

  • Stali

    Posted Dec 31, 2006 4:05 pm PT

    I gotta say that this is a really great thing for Nintendo to do, sure it's caused by stupid people with no control or can't keep a grip, but I went over to my friends house today and one of the Wii straps were clean off the controller.

  • chapix2

    Posted Dec 31, 2006 10:50 am PT

    I think nintendo shoudn't pay the straps for stupid gamers that doesn't know how to grab the controller.
    Why don't they pay for the straps for being stupid holding the Wiimote.

  • ElHypno

    Posted Dec 31, 2006 9:21 am PT

    What a moron, I hate people who do crazy stuff and then try to blame it on anyone other than themselves. People are always trying to sue someone else over thier own stupidty. Sometimes I lay around at night thinking of a way for me to get stupid so I wouldent have these annoying thoughts anymore. Imagine someone actually thinking on thier own!!!

  • vincent4444wow

    Posted Dec 31, 2006 8:13 am PT

    the old straps worked fine i dont know why they are giving wii owners new straps but who cares there free!!

  • Supperdude9

    Posted Dec 30, 2006 10:50 pm PT

    I think that he should. I mean, any true gamer knows that if you are using another gamer's controller and you end up breaking it, you should at least buy a new one. Guess he isn't a true gamer. Show him what I said. You reading this, "friend" of theabomb? You are not a true gamer. Fess up and pay for what you broke.

  • xXtheabombXx

    Posted Dec 30, 2006 6:42 pm PT

    My strap just broke today I was so mad because I wasn't the one using it. I went to a friends house to visit him because he was back for college and I brought my Wii. They were playing baseball ( I was in the bathroom) and another one of my friends was swinging the controller, but he was doing it one handed. I guess from what they said he let go of the controller and it snapped the wrist strap and smashed into the wall. The worst part is that it broke the battery cover so now I have to tape it and hope I can get a replacement battery cover. What makes it even worse is that he didn't really seem to be sorry about it and he even tried to blame it on me. He still hasn't even offered to pay for a replacement battery cover if I end up having to buy a new one.

  • ReggieNametaker

    Posted Dec 30, 2006 8:15 am PT

    Mine snapped but ive tied it back together. I cant be arsed getting into so much fuss over a friggin' strap.

  • Imperial_Colone

    Posted Dec 29, 2006 10:36 pm PT

    wii will wii will rock you

  • chickmagnet_1

    Posted Dec 29, 2006 4:56 pm PT

    I am very happy that Nintendo fixed the problem as quickly as they did. This just proves how awesome of a company they are. However, this also is a very sad day in gaming. Will we no longer see people with tv's with holes in them? No more broken windows, tv's, ceiling fan lamps, computer monitors, busted eyes, broken arms, etc etc?

  • ra7krz

    Posted Dec 29, 2006 10:25 am PT

    it isnt hard to hang on to, and i havent broke mine yet makes me wonder how hard people swing that thing lol

  • thardus317

    Posted Dec 29, 2006 7:59 am PT

    I just got my Wii yesterday and I can honestly say that the controller isn't difficult to hang onto.

  • Kbs64

    Posted Dec 28, 2006 5:46 pm PT

    At least it didn't take Nintendo along time to fix the problem (Wii straps)

  • berserkermonkey

    Posted Dec 28, 2006 5:22 pm PT

    neeeed new topic

  • SweetPandaLove

    Posted Dec 28, 2006 8:36 am PT

    i stick by my opinion...if you throw a Wii controller...you don't deserve to own the system

  • edhc44

    Posted Dec 27, 2006 11:58 am PT

    TombaYuri
    "Maybe BILLNYE6983 is actually posting in a third world country and was forced, perhaps at gunpoint"

    Now who's being plain ignorant (you could've used these words to address to BILLNYE6983 and it would have worked just fine) is you. And nobody is pointing a gun to my head as I write this. And if this is your idea for a joke, there must be something really wrong with your sense of humor...

    But anyways, the guy is completely retarded, at least that you got right ^^

  • too_dze

    Posted Dec 27, 2006 11:46 am PT

    There is a moral to the story. We all learned it in probably the first or second grade. Do not throw things at people or expensive entertainment equipment. I may be stretching the moral a bit, but we all get the gist of the moral.

  • Supperdude9

    Posted Dec 26, 2006 10:33 pm PT

    Well, those straps are costing Nintendo (as the article reads) several million dollars.

  • Tetsumori

    Posted Dec 26, 2006 9:39 pm PT

    "that's because nintendo is taking care of its customers unlike sony and its psp."

    Over a strap?

  • Supperdude9

    Posted Dec 26, 2006 4:34 pm PT

    "wow lets lynch mob Supperdude9 for the crim of what i like to call super ignorance, go to hell jerk "

    I can feel the love in this room. But what I'm saying is that give Nintendo a chance. We'll show you our stuff. I'm also giving the PS3 a chance, despite it being called a "bust" by Time mag. I mean, I gave the X-Box 360 a chance, and look now, it's doing great. Of course, I am a Nintendo faithful, I will admit, so I am a little proud that Zelda proved that Nintendo still has it. But in all fairness, Gears of War looks like it kicks major arse, same with Resistance: Fall of Man. I will give the consoles their due. Yes, the Wii has some extensive problems, but then again, what console doesn't? Remember the problems that the 360 had? Or, to bring you up to date, the probelms that the PS3 has right now? They will or have been addressed, so it will take time. Maybe you should know the whole story before you call somebody ignorant. Or maybe you're ignorant yourself. After all, it is easier to just label somebody and be done with it rather than getting the facts straight. So in that case, I take back calling you "ignorant". Happy Holidays.

  • zaqu

    Posted Dec 26, 2006 4:19 pm PT

    i wonder if anyone has thrown a ps3 controller yet

  • nippon00

    Posted Dec 26, 2006 1:38 pm PT

    that's because nintendo is taking care of its customers unlike sony and its psp.

  • NJTsunami

    Posted Dec 26, 2006 1:11 pm PT

    This is just funny...to quote Green Welling LLP:

    "Owners of the Nintendo Wii reported that when they used the Nintendo remote and wrist strap, as instructed by the material that accompanied the Wii console, the wrist strap broke and caused the remote to leave the user’s hand. Nintendo’s failure to include a remote that is free from defects is in breach of Nintendo’s own product warranty."

    Correct me if I am wrong, but why would the controller leave the person's hand if the strap broke? According to all the warnings in the instructions and on the screen while playing that Green Wlling is referencing, it clearly states to not let go of the remote. It isn't Nintendo's fault that some people decide to swing the remote around by the strap, throw the remote like a baseball or are ramming their hand into lights while playing a game. Once again, people are trying to blame their stupidity on someone else.

    " The lawsuit also seeks an injunction that requires Nintendo to correct the defect in the Wii remote and to provide a refund to the purchaser or to replace the defective Wii remote with a Wii remote that functions as it is warranted and intended. " Hello Green Welling. If you actually did your homework, you would know the Wii remote isn't defective. It works fine. It is just the strap that people are having some issues with because they are using it in ways that go beyond the instructions included with the Wii. It isn't Ninendo's fault if people are using its products incorrectly...its the people you state you are protecting and your client's fault for incorrect use. Also, if you didn't already notice, Nintendo instated a program to replace all the straps. Perhaps your should sue Nintendo for the sore arms consumers are getting by having to use their muscles to play a game.

  • StonedFox324

    Posted Dec 26, 2006 11:04 am PT

    BILLNYE6983 lost me at hitler can everybody please stop talking about the attention slut?

  • nathanbandy

    Posted Dec 26, 2006 9:50 am PT

    go www.wiihaveaproblem.com its hilarious

  • TombaYuri

    Posted Dec 26, 2006 12:12 am PT

    I'm sorry, I am going to post off topic here, but BILLNYE6983 has reached a level of ignorance AND severe retardation that I have only seen in but a few poor subjects. I can only hope for his (or her) sake this his (or her)'s post is just an extremely bad joke taken too far or something that BILLNYE6983 typed on a Bacardi binge. Or perhaps I have missed something all together! Maybe BILLNYE6983 is actually posting in a third world country and was forced, perhaps at gunpoint, to post something so foul to read and so pointless to take seriously, in order to make some kind of deeper political or religious statement. Whatever the cause, I would highly advise BILLNYE6983 to either stay in school or repeat primary school as many times as needed. There's no shame in failure, just do your best every time. I would also advise BILLNYE6983 to stay of "the pipe".
    ~TY

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