Nintendo Slapped With Wiimote Strap Lawsuit Once Again

GameCyteSean writes "GameCyte is reporting that a new class-action lawsuit has challenged Nintendo's Wiimote straps once more. Interestingly, the suit was filed by the same lawyer who led the original 2006 attempt, and now argues that Nintendo hid records of broken TVs from the Consumer Product Safety Commission. From the article: 'This doesn't seem like a spurious accusation, either. Attached to the court filing (PDF) as a matter of public record is the very evidence Nintendo allegedly tried to hide: actual, internal Nintendo documents (PDF) where customer service reps received complaints of cracked televisions and broken Wiimote straps — and the corresponding Monthly Reports that Nintendo was compelled to file with the CPSC as part of their agreement.'"

Comments

__TIME_TAG__

[whtmarker]

what is with all the references to __TIME_TAG__ on the front page?

Re:No wonder American manufacturing is screwed

[Pinckney]

And yet compact fluorescents are moving onto the market with little resistance.

Re:No wonder American manufacturing is screwed

[plasmacutter]

And yet compact fluorescents are moving onto the market with little resistance.

actually I remember hearing news reports about child safety groups trying to launch a lawsuit because of the mercury in those things.

Re:Get a life

[theaveng]

By your reasoning the recalls on cribs where children get caught & choke to death are not the fault of the manufacturer. After all the bars were put there to hold children inside, and they achieved that goal. If the kid's head got stuck while he was trying to escape, then tough luck - the bars did their job of keeping him imprisoned. Anything else is incidental.

I disagree.

I think manufacturers should be held responsible when their designed products fail. If a game requires dropping the controller to register an input, and the strap fails causing you to break your toe when it lands, then Nintendo should be held responsible for that strap failure. The only time I think Nintendo should be "let off" is if the strap had been abused (the aforementioned chewing), but it the strap is still in like-new condition then it broke through the fault of the engineer, not the customer.

This is why another famous toy called "Jarts" was pulled off the market. That game was fine so long as everything worked okay, but if a gust of wind caught one of the jarts, they could land on a player or spectator and cause bodily harm. The Wiimote has the same flaw of potentially injuring a player or spectator when the strap fails during normal course of gameplay.