Nintendo to replace 3.2M Wii straps

[Ian]

Go Nintendo!

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financia ... 183U80.htm

Nintendo said Friday it will replace 3.2 million straps for its popular Wii computer game controllers after receiving a rash of reports that the devices flew out of the hands of overzealous players.

The recall is a bittersweet development for Nintendo -- a costly hitch in its three-way battle with Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360, but also confirmation of the enthusiastic reception worldwide.

The Wii's signature wand-like remote controller is used to mimic the motions of a tennis racket, golf club or sword, depending on the game. But soon after the Wii went on sale last month, people started reporting cases of the controller's strap breaking as they waved it about vigorously.

Nintendo will allow customers to exchange the old straps, which have a 0.024 inch diameter, for a beefed up strap that has a diameter of 0.04 inch, company spokesman Yasuhiro Minagawa said. The worldwide recall is expected to cost the company several several million dollars.

[ItalianJob]

I've found this : http://www.nintendo.com/consumer/strapreplace.jsp

[Ian]

That's still a piss poor way to attach the strap. I don't know why they didn't find a way to attach the large part directly to the controller.

[dodecahedron]

well, they don't want to redesign the product and production lines, do they ?
the new straps don't seem all that much more robust than the old ones...

[JamieW]

Assuming the same material and construction, when you double string diameter, you quadruple its strength. This string should be 2.4 times stronger.

[dodecahedron]

mm...well i'm no structural engineer and i haven't studient material strength so i don't know about that...i'm not sure it's 100% accurate.
but if that's the case it should be 2.7777777777777777777777777777778 times stronger.
still doesn't seem strong enough for Wii-cracked up teenagers dangling their controllers hysterically through the air.

[JamieW]

Double diameter to 4x strength is a pretty standard rule ratio dealing with this. And yeah, an increase of 2/3s would yield about 2.8x strength, my mistake.

[ItalianJob]

New remote control for female on the french market

[Justin42]

If you play the system correctly, the strap should never even HAVE weight on it. It's like a fail-safe (erm, poor word choice?) in case you let go of the controller. It's the spazzes who fling it around at 300mph or use the strap/controller like a yo-yo that are having 99.9% of problems...