CNN: “Gamers gone wild: Wii goes flying”

This is CNN’s second front page story about Wii-mote straps breaking. The Wii has only been on the front page for these two stories. I’d say CNN was trying to damage Nintendo’s rep, but then again the PS3 only made front page when somebody got shot waiting for one.

SEATTLE, Washington (AP) — Jaana Baker is no klutz — note her second-degree black belt in tae kwon do. She’s also an avid video gamer who puts out a Web-based comic called “Level 99″ in her spare time.

So how did Baker end up launching the controller of her new Nintendo Wii (pronounced “we”) right into her 37-inch TV? Like some other owners of the new game console and its motion-sensitive wireless remote, Baker took the freedom to move a little too literally.

A particularly spirited round of Wii bowling caused her to lose her bearings before unleashing what she had hoped would be a perfect strike.

“It was like a loud crack,” she said, recalling the moment the “Wiimote” glanced off her coffee table, snapped its wrist strap and hurtled into her flat-screen TV. “It was kind of surreal, actually. I thought I was dreaming at first.”

Wii sales lead competitors

The offbeat stories certainly don’t seem to have hurt sales. The market research company NPD Group estimates that U.S. consumers bought 476,000 Wiis in the two weeks following its November 17 launch. That beat Sony Corp.’s PlayStation 3 console, which sold just under 200,000 units in roughly the same period amid widespread shortages.

Some analysts, like P.J. McNealy at American Technology Research, say the Wii isn’t exactly a direct competitor with the PS3 because Nintendo purposely avoided getting into a war over which system has the hottest graphics.

Instead, Nintendo has focused on capturing customers outside the traditional niche of quick-fingered young males by playing up the Wii’s ability to get people swinging their wireless controllers like swords, baseball bats or golf clubs.

That’s why the missiles began flying. The Wii’s popular sports games, included with the console, appear to be the main instigator of lost grips on the devices that look like TV remotes, Nintendo of America’s Llewelyn said.

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