BBC program claims Nintendo ‘knew games caused seizures’

Last Monday BBC Three aired an ‘Outrageous Fortunes’ program
that claimed some of Nintendo’s games can prompt epileptic seizures,
and that the company knew about the problem.

Nintendo said that they were aware of the UK broadcast television
guidelines for frequency of flashing lights and patterns, but that they
do not cover computer games. Although Nintendo voluntarily implemented
its own internal guidelines, they were not based on the broadcast
television guidelines.

In addition, games for Nintendo’s Gamecube system come with an information booklet, which includes a seizures warning.

“The notion that Nintendo would knowingly include in its games material
that it knew could cause seizures is ridiculous. There is nothing more
important to us than the health and wellbeing of our players” a
Nintendo spokeswoman told the Observer.

The program apparently also cited warning measures which the company
has now discontinued to avoid damaging sales, such as the issuing of
lists of high risk games.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,6903,1194036,00.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/tv/outrageous_fortunes/nintendo.shtml
http://www.indiemagazine.co.uk/cgi-bin/news.cgi?id=2490section=1

Source: The Observer, Indiemagazine.co.uk, BBC Three on BBCi