Lawsuit of the Day

Lawsuit of the Day: We are not happy with Wii

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The Wii is a gaming console that has challenged the image of gamers as couch potatoes. Using a remote control with motion sensors, player actually goes through the motions of swinging, throwing, dancing, hitting, and punching (depending on the nature of the game) to get their on-screen character to do the same. Most people love the wii… except when an exuberant swing sends the remote control flying into a $2,000 flat-screen TV, ending the game and smashing the screen.

Many have heard horror stories about remote controls being sent flying. Nintendo added safety straps to their remotes, to keep them attached to players’ wrists. But a Colorado woman claims the straps are defective, allowing controllers to “crash into TVs, walls and children,” and has filed a $5 million class action suit, citing a video game review from IGN.com. From Courthouse News Service:

The named plaintiff claims the wrist strap broke while her 11-year-old son used it properly, and the device flew into her 52-inch flat-screen TV, smashing it. She claims hundreds of other consumers have reported property damages and personal injuries from the failed wrist straps.

The complaint cites the editor in chief of IGN.com, who received a promotional game, and claims he “personally witnessed and observed the following while the Wii video game was being used in its intended and advertised manner: ‘so one of the girls in particular really was having a good time and really got into this game, and she was going for the full arcing motions likes you see in those commercials …’ and ‘before you knew it this Remote, with strap on, and I made sure that bad boy was strapped to her wrist, because Nintendo’s warned me so many times. It actually flew out of her hand anyway, broke, out of her hand, the strap actually ripped, it went like this, flying at mach speed I think, BAM!, hit our wall, put an indent in our wall.”

The complaint cites Nintendo’s instructions for the controller, including, “The key is to pump the Wii Remote and Nunchuck back and forth in your two hands as rapidly as possible without abating” and “Swing hard to make sure you clear the net!”

Nintendo should probably reword that, “Pumping your wii remote as rapidly as possible, but not at mach speeds.”

And Nintendo thought it had its hands full with controller patent infringement suits.

Wii Remote Out of Control, Says Class [Courthouse News Service]

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