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Wii Classic Controller faces US ban

Nintendo appealing judge's decision.

Dark blue icons of video game controllers on a light blue background
Image credit: Eurogamer

A US judge has ruled that the Wii Classic Controller, WaveBird and CameCube pads cannot be sold in the US.

The ban has been put on hold while Nintendo appeals the verdict, which the platform holder is expected to do immediately.

However, Nintendo has been forced to fill an escrow account with royalties pending the outcome in order to avoid halting sales, according to Bloomberg.

Anascape won the USD 21 million lawsuit for patent infringement covering six types of motion simultaneously.

Both the Wii Nunchuk and Wiimote are unaffected, and Sony and Microsoft previously settled differences with Anascape to avoid similar problems.

Nintendo can carry on selling the Wii Classic Controller while the appeal waits for its conclusion, mind you, and stopped offering GameCube or WaveBird pads in the US some time ago.

Anascape's lawyer had said the company was eager to enter the gaming peripheral market but felt Nintendo had completely "clogged the channel".

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