The Advocate news in Baton Rouge, Louisiana is reporting about a federal case against Nintendo that claims the company failed to follow consumer protection rules. A family has gone to court with Nintendo after their son had a seizure playing a game. Their attorneys say that Nintendo’s games contain defects that present a “substantial hazard” of serious injury or death to those that can suffer from seizures while playing games. Some people’s brains are extremely sensitive to certain patterns and flashing lights and can have a seizure. Striped clothing, helicopter blades, and strobe lights can also have the same effect.
After three days of testimony Nintendo settled the personal injury claim in the case for an undisclosed amount. That’s only the beginning though, the judge has to decide whether Nintendo knew about an unusually high risk and didn’t do enough about it. Nintendo has been putting warnings on their packages about games possibly causing seizures for years, but there are several other guidelines and rules to follow.
Nintendo’s professional witness says "Video games don't cause epilepsy or seizures. They are caused by a pre-existing neurological condition." The defense also testified that Nintendo donated funds to the Japanese Epilepsy Association to help fund research into the connection of games and seizures.
The family is going to tremendous lengths in their demands, they’ve asked Nintendo to require there to be warnings about seizures on the screen while games are in use. They want Nintendo to rank all games according to seizure risk and reformat all their games to reduce the chance of seizures. And as if this wasn’t enough they also want Nintendo to fund a nationwide advertising campaign to inform the public about seizures from games and to institute a refund program so that anybody that wants to get their money back from Nintendo games can do so.
In total there were six complaints related to seizures from Nintendo's games in 2003, down from 22 in 1999.
http://www.n-philes.com/php/epzlyeelaaauypukave.php
The bold area is what is really dumb to me. Ranking games on seizure factor? And a warning, that from the look of it, to STAY on the screen WHILE your playing a game? This family has to be joking.
I still remember hearing about this case the first time, and knowing Nintendo would win. Because they clearly did not read the warning that has to be included on all game instructions saying that there is a chance for seizures/epilepsy.
Seizure Case w/ Nintendo Trying to End
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