Another fun little post for tonight.
Most of you probably know that one of the great new features of the Nintendo Wii is the motion-sensitive controller that lets you really swing the controller to control the game. You can swing a golf club or tennis racket, punch in boxing, bowl, and swing a sword in Zelda. Pretty cool, although I personally have commented that this is likely to be a short-lived gimmick.
This website has a lot of the Wii commercials loaded, in case you want to see it in action.
Well, no good deed goes unpunished, and no innovation happens without unintended consequences.
For the Nintendo Wii, the unintended consequence seems to be… Wii Damage!
There is a whole website now dedicated to damage that people have done swinging that new controller around playing games! Cracked projection TVs, glasses, windows, some cuts & bruises. There is even a photo of a Wii remote that cracked the case of a TV and got stuck!
Love it.
Psychohistory 
Whether or not the Wiimote ends up becoming a short-lived gimmick, I think Nintendo has made a substantial profit from it. It also shows that Nintendo is a creative and innovativfe company that is not afraid to stray from the typical path. I would trust Nintendo with most any product it comes out with.
As for the Wiimote damage that has been talked of, I think people really should get a grip of the Wiimote better. Also if you are sweating so much that your sweat is the lubricant making the wiimote slip, I think it’s time you took a break. Oh and people should realize that you really don’t have to swing the wiimote so hard that it (if it should leap out of your hands) it could potentially shoot through a television set… Oh I have the solution! little rosin bags with each Wiimote you buy! 🙂
I agree with you Gil, nice comment.
Well, if you like the Wiimote, you’ll love my eBay auction for an authentic Nintendo Power Glove. I’m clearing out all of my original NES stuff hopefully next week.
When you jump on a gimmick like this, there is always a strong chance it doesn’t work. I think Nintendo was forced to think outside the box here, due to the technical superiority of the Sony & Microsoft products. True to Nintendo’s culture, they focused back on the gaming itself, and asked how to make it better.
Remember, Nintendo is the company that saved home gaming after the collapse of the Atari market almost killed it. They saved it through an almost religious focus on the quality of the software and the games themselves.
See my other post on wanting a Nintendo Wii… There is no question that I want one.
As for the Wiimote damage, as I say in my post, when you do a new design like this, it’s always interesting what goes wrong. Blaming the user is not a solution.
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While my damage was light, it was annoy and a bit funny. I was Wii bowling, smacked a half-ful gatorade bottle off my coffee table, it spun mid-air and deposited orange liquid on my lcd tv, xbox, dvd player, in my surround sound speakers, the carpet, the couch, and my (luckily laminated) movie posters.
Overall, it could have been worse… http://www.orangealexander.com/wd1005.html
But, I don’t blame Nintendo one bit. I am the moron here, and didn’t follow their directions about clearing a path. I have found in my online travels, that many incidences of accident are from over-zealous users.
While user is king, user also be ware. It is ultimately your responsibility to use the device properly.
Ninetendo WII can cause overheating of DLP projection-type TV particularily when Ninetendo is set to ramp up screen brightness. As the light system overheats, the bulb is damaged – a replacement is about $300.00 – suggest Ninetendo WII should not be deployed on any SAMSUNG DLP units.
Ha ha ha, it kills me that people are having trouble with their wiimote. Luckily Nintendo is going to be rectifying that problem shortly.
Wii’s are freaking dangerous. My cousin cracked his LCD a few months ago. I suggest everyone who plays a Wii pickup a screen protector. I got one from a place called tv-armor. It actually stops a wii remote from breaking the tv.
Eric
Its not only nintendo wii has a vulnerability to damage, almost all the gaming console does when its not taken care properly, take PSP for example you can slip it out of your hands very easily if you forget to wear on your wrist band by mistake. So its all a matter of how you take care of your gadget.