Nintendo Sued Over Wii Wrist Strap

An Austin, Texas man has filed a class-action lawsuit against Nintendo, claiming the wrist strap is "ineffective for its intended use."

On December 6th, a Wii owner filed a suit against Nintendo for "unfair or deceptive practices" when the wrist strap did not prevent his Wii Remote from flying off his wrist.

"As a result of the defective nature of the wrist strap on the Wii remote, plaintiff's wrist strap broke on his remote causing damage to the Wii product plaintiff purchased," the suit reads. "The controller is an essential component of any video game console, and so [the] plaintiff is unable to use the Nintendo Wii for its intended purposes as a result of the broken wrist band. Accordingly, it renders the Wii console, which retails in the United States for $250, useless."

Last week Nintendo moved to offer voluntary wrist strap replacements to anyone who wanted them. Gamespot reports that the voluntary recall will not cause the lawsuit to be dropped. The original filing demands that Nintendo refund or replace the defective strap with one that works as intended, pay his legal expenses and "such other and further relief as the Court deems just and proper."

Nintendo has responded to the lawsuit, claiming it had no effect on their recall or efforts to educate users.

"We believe the lawsuit to be completely without merit. Nintendo has a long tradition of delivering high-quality products and excellent customer service, and we take all reports from our customers seriously. At the time we became aware of the lawsuit, we had already taken appropriate steps to reinforce with consumers the proper use of the Wii Remote and had made stronger replacement wrist straps available. This suit has had no effect on those efforts."