Nintendo Urges Wii Players to Hold On Tight

Even as Nintendo trumpets strong sales of its Wii gaming console, it's warning gamers about the dangers of flinging Wii remotes at expensive, breakable gear.

One thing’s for certain: Nintendo is very pleased with the debut of its Wii video game console, announcing that independent sales figures collected by the NPD Group show that the Nintendo sold for 55 percent of all video game systems sold in November. Although NPD’s figures show the Wii moved 70,000 units a day for the first seven days of availability represented in the data, here’s a funny note: the top game system sellers for the same period were actually Nintendo’s DS and Game Boy Advance handheld systems, which respectively sold 920,000 and 642,000 units during November. the figures back up Nintendo’s earlier claim to have sold 600,000 Wii systems during the system’s first eight days of availability in North America; the company also claims to have sold nearly 400,000 systems since the Wii’s introduction in Japan.

But here’s another amusing bit about the Wii’s initial success: once the console (ahem) hit the North American market, reports and photographs began to surface claiming that flying Wii remotes were damaging or destroying home items, electronics, and even expensive flat-panel televisions. It seems some users get a little enthusiastic playing Wii Sports,Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess—at least one Web site is chronicling some reports. One oft-cited cause of flying Wii remotes is in Wii Sports, where players are letting go of the innovative wireless remote in the title’s bowling game, rather than releasing the "B" button.

Although Nintendo is downplaying the issue, it has published a customer service advisory warning users to always wear the Wii Remote’s wrist strap, grip the remote firmly, and allow give themselves plenty of room for play—at least three feet away from their TV. Additional information shows users how to connect the NunChuck secondary controller so it’s secured with the wrist strap.