Nintendo Denies and Confirms Sunlight Issues

Nintendo has been confusing gamers by issuing two contradicting statements, regarding reported sunlight interference with their Wii sensor, within a very short space of time.

Following the Nintendo World event, some visitors reported that sunlight hitting the Wii sensor bar rendered the console unplayable and that they had witnessed such an occasion during the event. Responding to these stories Nintendo quickly declared: Our testing thus far shows no great risk of light interference when playing a game that relies on the pointer and sensor bar. That seemed to dismiss the issue until, a day later, a Nintendo spokesman suggested that direct sunlight can confuse the Wii sensor bar. The company representative compared the problem to being unable to watch television in strong sunlight.

This latest statement suggests that Nintendo does not plan, at least in this generation of its hardware, to address the issue and that gamers will have to find creative ways of setting up their console in order to avoid direct sunlight, something which any self-respecting gamer does any way. This however, can also become an issue for the new gamers Nintendo is trying to attract while it may also hinder the functionality of demo kiosks.

We will have to wait and see how severe the problem is in real-world situations before we can fully comment on Nintendo's plans to leave the sensor bar as it is.