Nintendo News | Production Problems For the Wii?

By Jorge Ba-oh 30.08.2006 29

According to PCGames, and translation from GoNintendo, some problems have arisen in one of the Wii's production plants for the Wiimote controller and nunchuck component.

The website reports that in a factory the team visited, a production staff mentioned that mass production of Wii-related products has been a complicated and difficult task. There are a range of problems, from buttons being less responsive then they should, strange noises from within the controllers and others being easy to damage. The factory is testing samples and is working with Nintendo of Japan to further test the devices.

If these issues can't be resolved soon then there could be significant problems with Nintendo's launch, with a delay or potential hardware shortages. Whether the issue applies to other factories in production is unknown, but with the problems being button and casing issues, there seems to be a good chance of progress resuming soon.

Stick with C3 for updates.

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aww, nintendo are bad enough with release dates anyway

I trust nintendo's quality standards, and I hope this isn't a large-scale problem.

I'll cry if I have to watch the Wii slip to an early 2007 release.

I hope it isn't a large scale problem either, and Nintendo wouldn't release shoddy hardware on the market *cough* DS Lite cracks *cough*

This is possibly why they're keeping their release dates confirmation till quite late.

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TipsyRabbit said:
Ill cry if I have to watch the Wii slip to an early 2007 release.

I agree, i really hated the wait for Res EVil 0, yes i know it was capcoms fault

( Edited on 30.08.2006 12:05 by Angus )

Guest 30.08.2006#6

Can we trust the source though? Some chinese journo from a PC games site gets to check out the factory where the PSP and the Wii-remotes are being produced? Doesn't sound too trustworthy to me.
Hmm, I'm not getting a Wii at launch anyway, in fact, I'm still not sure if I should get one at all when I can play the next Zelda on the Gamecube.

I was listening to a podcast the other day and the guy said he was playing with the Wii's final dev kit and he said the controller was a little heavier (but not heavy enough to weaken you hand) and it was very resposinve and it looked quite finished (and the game he played was Monkey ball) i'm sure if this problem even exists it will be on a very small scale.

Silence is the loudest noise we could possibly hear.

Well they aren't going to send faulty equipment to development companies, and they'd make sure equipment used for demo's works, so it doesn't make a difference if noone playing the equipment has reported any issues..

This is precisely why they didnt give us a release date.

They want to make sure things work FIRST.

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True, Nintendo may not be selling faulty or hardware not being entirely up to their standards, but that could mean delays - when the worst case is on.

The Devkits could have been prodused in small units in other (Japanese?) factories, so you can take that as granted.
I hope they fix this problem soon, too, because I do not want the Wii being delayed.

Every console is produced in China, so that's not quality-mark - positive or negative.

I find your lack of faith disturbing!

Be gutted if the launch is put back but I think that the problem (if it does exist) is an easier one to sort out than say a problem with the console itself. It would be devastating for Nintendo to release after Christmas anyway. They need the Christmas sales in order to be successful. I think it will be fine.

Woooooooo!!!

TipsyRabbit said:
Ill cry if I have to watch the Wii slip to an early 2007 release.

I'd jump of a cliff


Mike Gee of iZINE said, "...The Verve, as he [Richard Ashcroft] promised, had become the greatest band in the world. Most of the critics agreed with him. Most paid due homage. The Verve were no longer the question mark or the clich�. They were the statement and the definition."

Sounds like a good reason to not get a Wii at launch to me.

Kangaroo_Kid said:
Sounds like a good reason to not get a Wii at launch to me.

Fine by me, means less hassle trying to get one on launch day


Mike Gee of iZINE said, "...The Verve, as he [Richard Ashcroft] promised, had become the greatest band in the world. Most of the critics agreed with him. Most paid due homage. The Verve were no longer the question mark or the clich�. They were the statement and the definition."

I hope Nintendo don't skip on quality to get enough units out for Christmas.

The Lite has had some problems too, what's happening Ninty?

Sniff...

Tom Barry [ Reviewer - Editor - Resident Sim-Racer @ Cubed3.com ] 

One of the major reasons why Nintendo manufactures it's products in China is in order to keep production costs low thus the ability to charge the consumer at competetive prices. Nintendo products are usually accompanied with quality from the get-go as is evident with the Gamecube..... The reason for the "cracks " and yellow screen with the DS Lites was clearly because Nintendo was rushing production to get it out there in order to meet with high demand. (These minor defects were not a problem with the DS "Phat").
However this news does not strike me as a major setback because as jb said it seems as if the problems are with the buttons more than anything else. If they were having problems with force-feedback and the accelerometer then maybe the we should be worried, but it doesn't seem to be something that Nintndo can't handle.
By the way i've seen the final dev kit controllers for the Wii. To be honest they're mauve in colour, heavy handed and quite ugly. They only function like the Wii controller but the final controllers will look and feel 10 times better. Smilie

I trust Nintendo, I know that they are going to give us their best harware possble.

I have to wait to comment atleast until I hear something official. This could be speculation or Wii bashing. I've read too many of those kinds of articles, mainly on Nintendo fan sites. Now I do not put stock in every article that I read.

is this article coming from a reliable scource?should we worry?if nin delays wii it will be f*** crazy.

NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

This is the worst thing to happen to them! All it would take for Nintendo to WIN this gen is to get good working consoles out before XMAS.... b-b-but.... NOW THEY'LL LOOOOSE!!!

Sorry for jumping to conclusions, this has been a public announcement from your local C3 (other) Sonic nut. Thank you for your time.

EDIT:

Meh, who knows, this could simply be a report that was made months ago & only just got out. Smilie I dunno, something like that. I'm sure Nintendo will get on top of things, although they say they don't want to, I think they REALLY want to win this one Smilie.

By the way. To those doubting the launch... Shame on ya! Smilie You gonna let Sony get the headstart? No... 'course not...

( Edited on 30.08.2006 19:47 by Sought The Poltercow )

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I absolutly trust Nintendo and all of there products they make. In a way, it is kind of good that Nintendo is takeing its time. Recall that Microsoft hurried and produced the 360, and a lot of them broke down. So, if Nintendo takes its time, we will get a soild piece of tech.


The former top user was Keven! You'd probably give birth to yourself 1000 times over until you sprout wings to fly away into the fading sun, that or you'd just turn into a lesbian. Who knows @_@ - L, 12/06/09

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!SmilieSmilie

I can't wait any longer! Damn faulty hardware...at least Nintendo aren't doing a Microsoft and selling faulty hardware...

*cough*DSlitecracks*cough*

Smilie

Even if this is true I don't think it wil delay the launch.

XBL Gamertag: James2t3

One thing that was not mentioned in the article is Quality Control in manufacturing. When a company sends a product to be manufactured they also send design specifications and a percent error value. Statisticians test a sample of the products to make sure that the defects in the product fall within the margin of error. The industry average is between 3 to 5 percent. However companies can set their own percent error value to be greater or less than 3 but it should be less than 5 in most cases. If a company sets their percent error to be 3 % and the sample that is tested has defects that are higher, 4%, the production is stopped and the process is analyzed and steps are taken to correct the problem. This is why the production problem is not happening with every Wii controller. The sample that was tested had a higher percent of defects than what Nintendo wants. Furthermore no matter how well Quality Control works products will always have defects. The job of the Quality Control personnel is to keep the defects to a minimum. This is why there were cracks in the DS Lite and this is also why there were problems with the first Xbox 360s that were shipped during the Holiday season, 2005. Therefore the production problem with the Wii controller is not as much of a problem as it sounds. It could be that Nintendo has set a low error margin, 2%, for the manufacturing of the Wii controller and the test samples have been higher, 3-4 percent. I doubt that this will force a launch delay but it could lower the number of consoles available at launch.

( Edited on 31.08.2006 05:00 by patjuan32 )

I dont mined as long as it's released before christmas in the UK. Dont know whether to get a Wii for christmas or on release.

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