I think we just hear about it more as EVERY person posts on the internet if their console breaks. LOOK at this guy in the video... he made a video.. was that even needed? NO but here we are. Oh well poor guy

Nintendo are doing the right thing getting them all fixed asap.

ive heard of about a dozen broken Wii consoles.....how many have been sold again? pfft

I'd think the causes for the supposed recent game system failures can be not only related to the complexity of the hardware of the systems themselves, but also the software the hardware of the systems rely on.

In the past, game consoles did not run any software to start games (SNES, Genesis, NES, basically anything pre-TG-16/PCE), or would just use built-in BIOS (most or all systems at or post-TG-16/PCE), BIOS being heavily tested to ensure reliability but having far fewer features than a real operating system.

I believe all the three modern game systems, XBox 360, PS3, and Wii, all run a special operating system, because each of the three have software updating features. And, like all operating systems (even Linux and Mac OS X), faults can be almost expected to happen, no matter how good the company is. Operating systems are just too complicated and unpredictable in what they might encounter, even with testing. Be thankful that Nintendo is helping out in the ways they can, I guess.

As a side note, I think the Gamecube did run an operating system, not BIOS, because it is much more functional than the BIOS in the PSX, Saturn, and Sega CD, but because the functionality is so limited, Nintendo didn't have it as hard to make it "perfect."

Cutting edge technology can't come out without few kinks in it, it's just how the world works, and you shouldn't expect anything else, because if you are then you are only fooling yourself.

If I was in that situation, I would cry... till my eyes bleed.

To everybody so far:

I know that no system is perfect. I also know that there was a time when you could buy a system, and out of the box, you expected it to work. I too eventually had to turn my PS1 upside down to get it to work, and I've also had to find that elusive "sweet spot" on the original NES to get get the game to play. I, after time, even had problems with my Genisis. Keep in mind though, these problems come from both extended usage, and an initial lack of foresight in development. System developers eventually acknowledged these issues and made corrections, but this was over time, not right out of the box. Nowadays, you almost expect your new system to have a 50/50 chance of working when you buy it, and we've become numb to that. That's what sucks. Nintendo has an amazing track record of producing machines that, percentage wise, work from the get go. I had 100% confidence in them until I saw this. This doesn't mean that I won't buy a Wii as soon as can get my hands on one, it just means that I'm a little let down about how system developers can ship us half finished products and we'll scoop them up like hot-cakes. We all knew that the PS3 needed a patch on day one, and we were okay with that. Why? I still have the same damn SNES I bought at launch, and it still works. I have a Dreamcast I bought at Goodwill for $7 that works like a charm. Why can't companies make systems like they used to, and why can't we expect better from the companies that make these systems.

Also, I know that between the time these "faultless" systems came out, and now, that things have changed. If some guy in NoWheresville USA buys a system and it doesn't work, 10 million internet users are going to find out about it. This still to me, doesn't change the fact that we should expect better from the companies that we buy from. Your thought's?

"Nowadays, you almost expect your new system to have a 50/50 chance of working when you buy it, and we've become numb to that."

Wow... that's a pretty ignorant statement. I have yet to have a problem with any system I've ever owned. And, between the 11 people I lived with for 3 years, and the dozens upon dozens of consoles between us, I believe that only 1 had a problem, and I'm pretty sure we can blame that one on a poor modding job. A few independent bloggers reporting minimal amounts of problems HARDLY constitutes a 50/50 shot of a broken console.

Additionally, you are completely ignoring the difficulty of programming modern day consoles. Yeah, SNES didn't have problems, but how hard can it be when all it needs to do is read a cartridge. Cartridge based consoles also have fewer moving parts (as do all older consoles, since new ones have adding everything from HDs to CD/DVD/BluRay drives to flash drives, to cpus, to gpus... TONS more complexity.

Are you going to complain that VoIP phones have come out with 10 different versions? Bugs are an inevitable part of programming. Anyone who thinks otherwise is just uninformed or ignorant. Yeah, you can catch some. But some will ALWAYS get by. And when you up the complexity of the system, that just increases the number of potential problems.

And get over yourself. So what if you have a few consoles from a while ago that still work. How about any of the ones that don't work? And are you going to complain about the XBox 1080 or the PS6 launching, quoting "My PS3 can still boot, why can't my new one? In my minimal research, I've determined that you have a 90% chance of failure when buying a new console."

Not sure if anyone pointed it out...

But the Dreamcast had it's problems at launch, most of them involving the disc drive.

"I don't ever 'expect' faulty hardware an I sure wouldn't be 'numb' to it if my new hardware was broken on first go. I also wouldn't sue the local council if I tripped on the pavement, because accidents and errors are characteristics I share with all those other people doing their best. "

QFE. Good point there. Disappointing for sure, but it's not like this hasn't happened to anybody else before.

It sounds like it's just ONE problem, not like the 360's

no need to get your wii's in a bundle

A) Nobody remembers Nintendo launching a system with 4 million consoles manufactured either.

B) That's what you get when you get IBM to design your shit. lol

The only problem I've had with any system I have owned thus far has been the PS2, and that problem consists solely of it taking a little bit longer to read discs on start up now than it used to when I first got it. Given that it's almost five years old now, I think that's pretty good. Or maybe I'm just lucky, I don't know.