Is that wire between the strap and the remote plastic or thread? It looks seriously flimsy, like a cat could shout at it and it'd pop.

Anyone make their own replacement straps yet? I can see this becoming somewhat of a fad

I already have some garden twine ready, for when I purchase my Wii in a week and a half.

Erm, how is this a 24% failure rate, when later you say 6% of the respondents have had their strap break?

It's obviously an issue but I just wonder how much this will continue to happen as people get used to the remote and quit flailing around like their hair's on fire. I would assume the strap is less important than keeping a good grip (the strap should theoretically never even have stress on it), so maybe the controller gloves are a better idea than many made them out to be before the system launched...

This poll also proves that 24% of people need some talcum in their cabinets. Wow, how sweaty are you?

It would be great if it was just the strap, but my actual wii-mote has stopped working. I tried to sync it, changing the batteries, pretty much everything I can think of, but it still won't work. Gotta call Nintendo sometime soon. :\

Justin42 is a wise man:
"I would assume the strap is less important than keeping a good grip (the strap should theoretically never even have stress on it)"

This poll was just silly. The assumption that only Wii owners would vote is ludicrous.

At least the system isn't failing, and it's just a silly little issue with the strap.

"The new Replacement Strip for the wiimote: the iRip !"

If Nintendo will provide new straps for money I can see why they didn't replace them with a stronger one yet.

But couldn't you just fix it with a cable tie?

I think its this high because they have multiple suppliers for the remote plastic and straps, it appears. The quality differences between straps is obvious between the 4 wiimotes i have. One of them has a nearly yellow A button! I have 2 different varieties of straps, they have different weaves in the 'cord' portion between the 'strap' and the 'remote'.

One of the suppliers cheaped out, so we see high failure rates. I'd check your straps for wear every so often until we get a mea culpa out of someone.

Sunjammer says:

Is that wire between the strap and the remote plastic or thread? It looks seriously flimsy, like a cat could shout at it and it'd pop.

Anyone make their own replacement straps yet? I can see this becoming somewhat of a fad"

Its really crappy thread, I took 6 strands out of some parachute cord "500+ lb rated" and made a backup strap complete with tensioner. I was hopeing to use the parachute cord straight up but its just a teeny bit to big to fit threw the hole in the controller. If I used it straight up I could have picked up my car with my homemade controller strap :P

Btw theres like 8-10 strings in a parachute cord, I would assume each would take at least 50 pounds the cord itself is woven and really strong so it probably takes 100 itself, so basically if this breaks and the wiistrap breaks as well "im using both" nintendo is buying me a new tv lol.

I dont see myself letting go of the remote however, friends and family will be playing, never trust the family.

Poll smell fishy. 300+ reader from Kotaku have a broken straps? Looks like we have some fanboy who wanna ruin Nintendo's reputation. Have these 300+ people send in pictures and I'll believe it.

If I'm ever so retarded, that I break my Wiimote strap through vigorous gaming I'm going to admit it here on Kotaku. And I expect all of you to give me a good thrashing.

CakeorDeath is right. We have no way of telling that all the votes are from people who own a Wii. That doesn't mean I will take precaution though. I will wait around for a third party wii remote strap to be released. I'm not as worried as some people though, cause the only other person playing my Nintendo Wii is my sister (who doesn't fling the controller like that idiot in the video).

I thought that Wii games controled with subtle movements, not huge sweeps. I haven't played one yet, so this is just what I recall Nintendo saying.

Justin42:
I checked the numbers because it didn't sound right to me either. 6% total had a failure rate, but the 74% and 26% numbers come after removing the people who do not have Wiis but answered, as well as the people who managed to not let go of their Wiimotes.

This has to have at least a 10% margin of error, though, especially with all the people who would vote either to make Nintendo look good, or bad, without ever having used the Wii themselves.

From my experience, the major issue with the cords breaking is a resolute inability to accept the fact that the $40 piece of electronic equipment you have in your hand should be treated more carefully than a garage-sale golf club.

I know people who treat their iPod shuffles more carefully than they do Wii controllers - perhaps a testament to the engrossing nature of the Wii, which is great, but also a testament to the fact that people are assuming that the product should be able to withstand any and all stress on it, however unreasonable.

By the time you're flinging a Wiimote hard enough to shatter things, you need to calm down, maybe play some Trauma Center or design a Mii.

I can definitely see this being an issue with people that aren't keeping a watchful eye on the users of their Wii (when will that stop sounding dirty?!).

I make sure to run everyone through the "safety" rules of the system, and the number one thing I reiterate is: Always play with your strap on (dirty again!), and hold onto the Wii-mote, cause it's not REALLY a baseball.

Couple of slips so far, no smashes.

Wow... misleading headline much? Going for the links from other blogs, are we?

Go ahead and play with the numbers, but man that headline is just plain bad.

Jesus god, are 24% of people polled hulking brutes or something?

You know what breaks the Wii remote strap? Swinging the Wii remote like a fucking maniac.

God damn. I mean, I play hard, but I don't play as hard as that one guy in the Youtube video who rocketed his remote at a hojillion miles an hour playing Wii Sports Tennis. There's a threshold on the Wii Remote's sensitivity, and that dude's gone way beyond that threshold. I'll repeat that: You do not need to swing the remote so fucking fast.

Jesus Christ. Here.

Did they actually do any user testing on the Wii? This is a lawsuit waiting to happen. Just wait until this happens and someone gets hurt.

Nintendo doesn't need to do crap. People playing the Wii need to stop flailing around like retards and take care of their expensive consumer electronics. You don't see anyone complaining that the tray in their dvd player broke off because they pushed the eject button too hard. Because you know better than to push the button too hard.

This poll should prove nothing more than who in your audience is a fucking retard. This is exactly why EB requires you to give them collatteral befor ethey'll let you use the wiimote, because otherwise, some idiot will whip it.

This goes double for people who are complaining that it hurts to play.

Maybe we should start shipping all consoles with a disclaimer.

"If you use this device like an utter moron, bad stuff will happen to it."

Even if the strap was made out of nothing but sewing thread, do you have any idea how hard you would have to be swinging it in order to make it break?

I'd be interested in hearing which games were being played when the wiimote went flying across the room because of a broken strap.

Realize that swinging wiimote hard and in dramatic fashion is what Nintendo has been advertising for. Remember when the first Wii's trailer came out? How bout the Wal-Mart ad? How bout Red Steel ads? The players move their hands like crazy, and non-gamers would assume that that's the way to play Wii.

So don't just blame it to the people. Nintendo is also responsible for advertising it that way.

Get a grip. Literally. And while you're at it, don't swing that hard. I mean I understand children can't grasp that concept, but as adult gamers, wow. There is no reason to get that intense into it.

Even in Wii Sports, you don't need to obliterate the sound barrier with your swing to pitch fast or swing hard or bowl hard, or golf.

Listen to Penny Arcade. Playing like that makes you a tool :)

Nini-

Unplug your Wii and plug it back in. I had something similar happen to me, and for whatever reason, unplugging the Wii and replugging it in seemed to reset whatever problem I was having.

I don't swing the remote wildly and I don't have sweaty hands but I've still managed to lose my grip once in a while. The complaints are legitimate. So far it's just been a few broken screens but what if hit some kid on the head? Could Nintendo change the firmware so that excessive movements would be ignored by the remote, forcing players to bring it down a notch?

I'd like to post something like "Oh please, my strap works fine! Try not flailing your arms like a madman."

Except, I was one of the people who said "Oh please, my 360 is working fine. Try not keeping it in an enclosed space." and then my 360 fried 5 months after purchase, and MS refuses to fix it for free...

But that said, just because you're playing a boxing game doesn't mean you have to punch the air as hard as you can, c'mon.

of course nintendo need to take a stand on this. It's a SAFETY STRAP, not a REMINDER strap.

My wife who has traditionally hated Video games, loves the Wii. With reports of this strap breakage, I'm afraid her over aggressive bowling movements are going to cause the Wiimote to go flying into my beautiful 32 inch samsung LCD and crack it. I don't want her to stop playing, nor do I want to criticize her gaming habits. What to do?

I'll defer to my poll response: I didn't buy a wii and this isn't news.
Opinion: That little wire that holds the strap together is the weakest link, Nintendo, I'm looking at you.
Goodbye.

I really don't understand how people are breaking these things in the first place. Are they physically tossing the remote and hoping that the strap keeps it tethered to their wrists? Here's an idea: Actually hold onto the remote. And if your hand is sweaty, take a second and wipe it on your pants. Seriously, how hard is that?

I think the headline of this post should be changed to "Poll: 24 Percent of People Incapable of Holding Onto Objects".

I understand the "you should not wave the wiimote this hard" points, but hell, the wii is supposed to be fun like no other gaming console, isn't it?
Waving the wiimote like a maniac may just be a consequence of the immersion it's meant to provide!

I've once read an article about a gamer that's opened his mouse and sprayed it with a special spray to improve the handling of it, hence his CS performance. I laughted at it and thought it was stupid. But now, maybe I should think about doing the same with the wiimote, in order to avoid throwing it to my poor shiny new LCD screen :(

Do you think it would really help?

At least the system isn't failing, and it's just a silly little issue with the strap.

Except for the error codes that people have been getting?

And HobbaHobba is right, which most of you have chosen to ignore. Nintendo advertises this thing like some crazy magic wand that you'll be jumping around with, swinging like a madman. Then you guys come here and put on your Nintendo Defense Force uniforms and say "UM IT's NOT NINTENDO'S FAULT YOU SHOULDN'T BE USING THEM LIKE THAT." Uh huh.

You know, this reminds me of the cracked hinges on the DS Lites a while back. I've never seen the hinge cracks or a Wii-mote strap break, and I own both and use both heavily (lovin' my Wii!). I'm assuming there's a lot of people out there who act like two-year-olds, smashing and swinging their gaming devices around carelessly until it's broken. Then they cry and blame Nintendo like a toddler would when it's their own damned fault.

This next generation of gaming is a big mess.

You have the 360, which screwed up it's head start with dying consoles. Then the PS3 which ushered in "true HD" by not being able to scale games to the various HD resolutions. Now the Wii is causing damage to property and players.

I think I'm gonna play some nice, safe, reliable Dreamcast.

@everyone who claims Nintendo is pushing for this kind of gameplay -

The advertisements show people getting into the games, yes, but not with enough force to SMASH EXPENSIVE SHIT. Find me an advertisement from Nintendo showing people whipping the remotes around at 85mph with loose grips next to windows, thousand dollar plasma-screen TVs, and the like, and then we'll talk.

The lengths that Nintendo fanboys go through to clear Ninty of any responsibility for anything anytime is pretty funny. I'm sure they'll keep it up even after Ninty admits that this is a problem by providing a stronger strap attachment.

That said, I wouldn't put too much faith in the poll -- I'm sure plenty of similarly deranged fanboys of other consoles picked the choice that they knew would set the Nintendrones into a tizzy.

"The lengths that Nintendo fanboys go through to clear Ninty of any responsibility for anything anytime is pretty funny. I'm sure they'll keep it up even after Ninty admits that this is a problem by providing a stronger strap attachment.

That said, I wouldn't put too much faith in the poll -- I'm sure plenty of similarly deranged fanboys of other consoles picked the choice that they knew would set the Nintendrones into a tizzy."

Much like your post eh?

I never saw a Nintendo ad where people were using the Wii remote like crazy - they're using it the proper way. I have a Wii, and I KNOW that you would have to be swinging WAY harder than what you see in ads for the strap to break. As far as people's arms hurting, it's all in the wrist. You don't need to physically punch or throw, just flick your wrist and you get the same result. Keep in mind the instruction manual for Wii Sports and the in game instructions tell you to swing the Wii remote GENTLY. You don't have to be hardasses and try to serve it like that dumbass did.

"Nini-

Unplug your Wii and plug it back in. I had something similar happen to me, and for whatever reason, unplugging the Wii and replugging it in seemed to reset whatever problem I was having."

Second that. It turned out to be the console locking up as opposed to the wiimote no longer working.

As for the poll, you could vote multiple times could you not (it didnt require log-in)? That in itself makes the numbers quite meaningless...

P.S. Lol @ spellcheck for the comment box :)

nini,
My Wiimote stopped working twice, once for over a day. I tried so many things that I don't remember what worked, but Sw33tp34 also said to try the unplugging thing, so it is apparantly going around.

This to me is the bigger story because we aren't doing anything wrong to make it stop working, and it starts working again just fine after doing a ton of things. Nintendo's troubleshooting section is terrible.

And as for the people who say not to use dramatic motions, you could also play most DDR style games using a controller, but why would you do that? Nintendo advertises the Wii with the dramatic motions. If I want to sit absolutely still while playing a game, I won't be playing that game on the Wii. Acting like you are actually playing tennis is much more fun than just making hand motions.

Nintendo didn't even have to include the wrist strap in the first place - it's the backup plan if you're an idiot.

Jesus god, are 24% of people polled hulking brutes or something?

You know what breaks the Wii remote strap? Swinging the Wii remote like a fucking maniac.

Yeah, I know people are crazy, but to be fair, thats how Nintendo has portrayed Wii players in nearly every single one of their ads or Wii experience videos. What are most non-gamers to think?

I agree that the ads did show people playing spiritedly, but they weren't going absolutely nuts with it. They make deliberate, and brisk motions, but that's it. The manuals keep stressing using the hardware properly, making gentle movements (something specifically kept saying "GENTLY shake the nunchuk, etc) and watching out for stuff you can hit around you.

Not taking responsibility for taking things too far and being negligent with your expensive stuff is your own fault.

And people hurting their joints or getting sore and so forth, you really are exerting yourself too hard. There's getting into the motions and then there's exceeding common sense for how much force you really need to perform the actions.

kane... be reasonable.. I agree with Ryoshi is right on this one.

Watch the Video of the man breaking the strap and then watch the nintendo commercials. At the rate that man was swinging he could hurt someone.

(noted also, there is a threshold for how fast you can throw the ball.. after a certain point you're wasting energy, time and quite possibly property/money)

I urge everyone to use just a bit of common sense.. The strap was intended for when you drop the wiimote.. Not when you throw it. It is a piece of electronic equipment not a baseball bat etc....

Actually, for all the enthusiasm Nintendo has advertised regarding people swinging the remote wildly, they're also advertising people with enough power in their grip to maintain a hold on that hulking, heavy beast of a controller. It's possible to both hold onto an object, move your arm wildly and, get this, still maintain your grip on that object! Professional golfers do it all the time, and a golf club weighs considerably more than Nintendo's white facsimile.

Do they need to look into the strap issue? I'd wager they should. Is it necessarily their fault that people are yabos that can't swing a remote without breaking something (relatively) expensive? Not hardly.

Also - Crecente, it's time to go back to high school. Your math is terrible. The headline reports 24% failure, when the article itself reports 24% of people losing grip and only a quarter of THOSE people having broken straps. It's still too many people with broken straps (if the poll itself can be trusted) but still nowhere near 24% of all Wii owners.

This explains America's decline in sporting prowess. 24% of people are just completely uncoordinated.

This is like those idiots that forced Winnebago to re-write their manual entry on cruise-control because they would set the vehicle to cruise, then go in the back to make a sandwich.

Am I the only one that weeps for the future?