Nice shoop.

But one of the best things about the Wii is that I can play one-handed with a smoke in my other hand and a beer in my lap.

Meh, serves 'em right! Silly smokers.

"Quit smoking! It's bad for your health and your Wii."

The next anti-smoking campaign slogan.

Yes I agree, because I give my Wii shottys day in and day out...

That's pretty cool of Ninty to clean the systems for free.

The best irony is that in order to get one addiction you need to give up another addiction.

If every game did this, we could have a possible cure for smoking addiction on our hands.

Nintendo seems to do alot of stuff for free these days...
Awesome.

heh. i like it how Nintendo do things for free.

but then again we should EXPECT FREE SERVICE.

after all, we pay for their wages, we give you our money for these luxuries, so when things go wrong because of some unforeseen problem that nothing to do with the customer, they should provide free service!

Its just nature, I'm sure you would get the same free service quality from all the console makers, right?....right?

:3

Would a regular lens cleaner work for video game systems? I have about 3 different ones that I've collected over the years and always wondered if they'd work.

I do realize that a lot of Wiis have been gathering dust, but this is plain silly!

@scotty:

I've seen that avatar somewhere before Scotty...

SOMEWHERE.

AROUND.

Japan? Quit smoking?

HA!

You missed the obvious joke instead of going all California on us; Your Wii is getting dusty :P

;)

"smokey"?

Ok smokeing is bad, so instead alchohol rubbed in shouldnt be as bad.

Can´t wait for a new script in the tobacco's boxes: "Smoke can be dangerous for our health and any videogame devices, Wii especially"

@BD: There's lots of different Prinnies, y'know.

With the money people save by cutting the smokes, Nintendo could implement a proper online experience for a nominal fee! AMAZING! SOMEONE HIRE ME NOW!

umm...don't tell the US government?

I'd love to see people stop smoking because of their Wii, NOT because of their health.

@scotty: That's a good way to build up customer loyalty (I learned that in one of my college classes).

@BD: but scotty has a stylish hat.

I think the free of charge cleaning is so they can implant some sort of diabolical device to control our minds... wait nevermind Nintendo is helping to stop smoking they are Heroes.

I was just wondering how big Smash Bros actually is.. 8 gigs (DVD at MAX)? Heh.. Why else would they give 3 FREAKING characters the same exact same smash and leave out ______(insert fav character not in brawl)!!

@Tzero7: I though there was No More Heroes..

tsk tsk, second hand smoke is evil.

Ok so in other words. The next time I'm at a friends house blow as much smoke as possible in the general direction of the nearest Wii. Gotcha.

So I thought the PS3's Blu-Ray drive was supposed to be so much more sensitive than DVD drives like in the Wii? No?

Why aren't there a bunch of PS3 games failing for this same reason?

@BD: Shoop da Whoop! *insert gif if Miyamoto chargin his lazer*

@xpnet: haha nicee.

My stepdad has gone through like three DVD players and two PS2s and doesn't believe that him smoking constantly right in front of them has anything to do with it.

Are you kidding me? Is Nintendo's excuse really "it's a dual layered DVD?" Seriously? In 2008?!! Next-gen indeed.... You know you're console's in trouble when the 360 does something more reliable than it.

Guess I have to dust the Wii off every now and then. Especially since it's been collecting it like crazy.

I can't believe that no one has yet called bullshit on this. Let me be the first, then; bullshit.

I seriously doubt the problem is smoke - much more likely it's a manufacturing error in the discs or something wonky with the Wii that they're going to fix while the "clean" them.

If it is smoke, it's Nintendo's problem not the smoker's - this is hardly the first consumer device to use "ultra-sensitive dual-layer DVDs" after all, and lord knows my Aunt has had the same DVD player for 10 years and gone through 5475 packs in that time with nary a wheeze from the machine. Sure she's on O2 and has just 1/2 a lung left, but her DVD player is just fine.

@ARboom: Um, pretty every DVD drive has a harder time reading dual-layer discs than single-layer discs

As for the "superior" 360, need I remind you of the "Please insert this disc into an Xbox 360 console" errors? Guess what, that's because the 360's having trouble reading the dual-layer disc.

@ARboom: haha, love when trolls step out of their caves to say something completely irrelevant to the topic.

here's the bottom line, if you smoke heavily next to hardware that utilizes a disc reader, it's likely that your hardware is going to have some residual effects.

Nintendo is offering to clean your systems for FREE if they happen to be suffering from a problem as such. This has nothing to do with "next-gen" or "reliability"

it has to do with keeping your own damn care of your own damn console. For fucks sake.

also just to match the outlandishness of your post. ?!?!?!? !! ??? ?!!! ?!!! ?!? !? !? !? ?!?!?! IN 2008?!

@Blanku: yeah, I guess that would be a plan, if you hate your friends enough to repeatedly expose yourself to second hand smoke just to screw up their Wii. o_O

@weatherman:

I dunno, unlike the 360 or PS3 the Wii's disc drive is Slide-in and so is open to the particles in the air. I have heard that people in Japan can smoke quite voraciously so I wouldn't be surprised if that was the problem. The question is has anyone who doesn't smoke reported the problem still?

@ weatherman:
cybernetic-dvd-grandma!

Nintendo Shouldn't replace them, Teach those Smoker right ;)

As it is the only real way for anybody to clean their Wii lense is to somehow modify it. Most current lens cleaning disks are either CD's with audio telling you what to do, or DVD's doing the same thing. You'd virtually have to make a Wii 'game' to do it, and then if it was one working via a fluid on some cloth system then the fluid would come off on the foam on the front of the disk slot. You could mod it to play DVD's and CD's though, and take out the foam cushions though.

That is too bad....seriously, as a gamer....and a smoker I feel for the people. I don't smoke in the house for a number of reasons...one being the build up that accumulates on EVERYTHING, and how bad it must be for electronics when it starts doing the same inside the things. But at least we know weed smoke is alright, you know - seeing as it has medicinal properties and such.
-.-

Obviously a joke...but I always wonder if heavy amounts of weed smoke are going to eventually harm my PS3....seeing as weed can be more "resinous" if you will.

@MechanisMs: @JeffPaine:
shhhh it's okay, no console is perfect. that was kinda the point.

@weatherman:

/agree

If this was the 360 or PS3, people would be trashing it. If it is Nintendo .. it is the "smoker's fault".

I remember a machine you had to blow into at one time before that .. oh yeah.. NES.

Come on, you only need to use you vacuum cleaner and force some air to clean the wii, or use a fan and let the wii receive some air...

@iToke:
I've wondered the same thing. My advise is to just turn your head off to the side, especially if it's when you're taking advantage of a loading screen. As long as it doesn't go right into the vents I don't think it will hurt it.

@iToke: I'm sure marijuana smoke is much more harmful to electronics than tobacco products.

I don't smoke myself (tobacco or pot), but from what I've heard of vaporizers, using those should be a LOT less harmful both to your lungs and your electronics

@EnigmaNemesis:

For the record I do believe it is a combination. Nintendo probably using cheap lenses that are susceptible to this stuff, and smoker's as well.

Just saying is all.

I'm going to call BS.

There have been reported problems with the lasers in some of the initial Wiis for a while now and up to this point there have been no DL-DVDs to fully test those lasers abilities.

Nintendo is just looking for a cheap way out of the situation that doesn't involve accepting responsibility for their actions. There are systems that eat dust much better than the Wii (which is almost a completely closed box, by far the most dust-safe of the bunch) that can read DL-DVDs (the STANDARD for everyone else) just fine. This is a problem with the lens itself. It will take people voiding their own warranty to prove it.

I'm not calling Nintendo evil for this practice as we've seen it from everyone else for years (360 RROD / PS2s TERRIBLE lens for over 1/2 their iterations) but we've learned to expect more from Nintendo.

@JeffPaine:

"I'm sure marijuana smoke is much more harmful to electronics than tobacco products."

is that so? And what are you basing this on?

MS gives a game for free for some hiccups in Xbox Live over Xmas and gets bitched at because its not the game the people wanted. Nintendo has a cheap laser and offers to repair your console for free when it breaks under the stress of casual every day smoking and dust and they are awesome and get praised for it. Interesting.

@KirbyMorph:

Haven't you figured it out by now. They can do no wrong in the internet.

True Story!

@KirbyMorph:

Not to divert the conversation but XBL did not encounter 'hiccups' it had a full-on crash.

While I don't think what they offered was unfair I do think it was a bit absurd to continue to bill customers (I was billed during the outage) for a service that wasn't functioning at the time. I also believe it was only logical for people to expect at least a free month from the ordeal ontop of anything else they were offered.

wait, nintendo offers a FREE SERVICE for one of PEOPLE'S problems, and people complain?

Well, I don't smoke, so I don't have to worry about that, dust on the other hand....hope that this doesn't happen, cause I want to play Brawl eventually.

I find that picture highly amusing.

I'm sure once they've cleaned everyone's lenses of cigarette smoke, and the game STILL isn't playing right, they'll blame global warming. And then George W. Bush. And then same-sex marriage. etc etc ad infinitum.

Hey Nintendo, how about you actually run some quality control and stop blaming environmental factors for your complete and utter descent into hubris?

@detraya:

If you make an electronics device for a Japanese audience that can't handle smoke then that's a Nintendo problem not a people problem. I've been to Japan. They smoke more there than anywhere else I've ever been and they're not going to stop anytime soon. When I was flying back from Japan to New York some dude got arrested for smoking on the plane.

Hmm, hope my Wii plays Brawl okay.

@NeoAkira:

Well I think it is proven that marijuana smoke is more resinous than tobacco smoke, maybe that is not true tho? I mean I know they both are...but technically I always thought weed produces more resin and tar.

as for the due saying to blow the weed AWAY from the PS3....dude, bongs man....clouds of smoke...lots of smoke...there is no escaping the smoke!!!!!

@KirbyMorph: Well actually people are bitching about this, too.

@NeoAkira:

the PS3 is slide in to buddy -_-