The string which attaches the remote control handset to the player’s wrist has been breaking, sending the device flying into television sets, computer screens and completely innocent by-standers.

The Nintendo Wii (pronounced “wee”) is this year’s all-but-unobtainable must-have Christmas present.

Sets which retail for £179 have been changing hands on the internet auction site eBay for up to £1,000. More than 50,000 machines were sold in the first 12 hours of its launch last week - about one per second.

But since its launch in America on November 19, users have been reporting bizarre accidents, many involving the remote control unit known as the wiimote.

Unlike previous computer games, players do not sit stationary in front of a screen. The wireless-operated wiimote is designed to detect the users’ movements allowing gamers to play games such as tennis, golf and bowling by moving as though they were playing a real game.

Internet sites such as wiihaveaproblem.com feature photographs of people with black eyes, bruises and dislocated knees as weel as broken windows, light fittings and ceiling fans allegedly caused by over-enthusiastic use of the devices.

After initially denying there was a problem with the wrist strap Nintendo announced today that it would be exchanging free of charge the straps on all 3.2 million wiimote controllers already sold.

The weak point was identified as the 0.06m thick string which attaches the wrist band to the device. The string on the new straps will be nearly twice as strong at 1mm thick.

The upgrade is expected to cost Nintendo several million pounds. Nintendo spokesman Yasuhiro Minagawa said the original strap “turned out to be insufficient in its strength for some customers.”

He added: “People tended to get a bit excited, especially while playing Wii sports and in some cases the control would come loose from their hands.”

Among then was Jaana Baker from New York whose wiimote flew out of her hand during a bowling game, bounced off her coffee table and smashed into her 37in plasma screen television.

Despite, or, more likely, assisted by, the publicity surrounding the flyaway handsets, the Wii has been a runaway success.

Unlike its rival Sony which launched its own Playstation 3 at roughly the same time, Nintendo has stuck to simple interactive games and aimed the Wii not just at already committed gamers but people who have never played a computer game in their life.

In some ways it is closer to the first television games than the latest story-based adventures.

The manufacturer appears to have been aware of the potential problem as the instruction manual includes a safety warning of possible “console/screen damage”, presumably caused by users hurling the remote control, or themselves, around the room.

Nintendo has set up a special hotline on 0870 6060247 which British users should phoned to obtain their replacement strap.

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