Giant Day-1 Wii U Update Will Ship with Consoles in Spring

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The massive Wii U update won't ship with the console until Spring 2013.

The Wii U's launch, though hauling in a respectable amount of sales, was anything but smooth. The first experience most users had after unboxing and setting up their Wii U was of a massive firmware update that provided most of the Wii U's online features.

Users experienced issues with bricking their console when applying the update. Its sheer size meant long downloads for users, who restarted their consoles, thinking that their consoles were experiencing freezing issues.

"Nintendo developers want to make sure that the very best product is available to consumers.

"That creates a dynamic where our developers are working on elements until the very last point possible. That's why the system update was required on Day One - and this is quite similar to what's happened with other consumer electronic products," said Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime in regards to why the day-one update was necessary.

The good news is that the Wii U will start shipping with the firmware update installed. Unfortunately, this won't actually happen until Spring 2013, meaning that anyone who decides to purchase the console from now until then will be forced to sit through the long update. Hopefully, the glut of horror stories from day-one buyers who bricked their consoles will reach any potential buyers and prevent them from foolishly shutting off the console during the update.

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Catherine Cai
10 Comments Comment from the forums
  • alidan
    kind of expected, you need to put it in from ground up, sucks for eairly adopters but thats the price you pay. you beta test it for us.
    Reply
  • ddpruitt
    the glut of horror stories from day-one buyers

    Don't you mean one or two issues from morons?

    You could should the Wii down in the middle of the download, I did a couple of times without issue. On the other hand when the update was being applied you shouldn't shut it down, just like every other firmware update for every other device.
    Reply
  • Fokissed
    ddpruittDon't you mean one or two issues from morons?You could should the Wii down in the middle of the download, I did a couple of times without issue. On the other hand when the update was being applied you shouldn't shut it down, just like every other firmware update for every other device.Perhaps it was the unusually large amount of time it took to perform the actual firmware update. There was little progress indication so the console did seem frozen.
    Reply
  • TheViper
    Update download time are much quicker than it was just after midnight of the US launch. I mean, that should be obvious.

    And only a few less than tech savvy people that unplugged their Wii U while it was installing (not downloading) the firmware had bricked consoles.

    1 big popular name in the industry bricks their console and suddenly that means tens of thousands ended up with bricked consoles? This whole thing is the very definition of blowing something out of proportion.

    At least you aren't saying it was 5 GB's anymore.
    Reply
  • TeraMedia
    meh. Did the original XBOX360 and PS/3 require updates like this on day one? I don't have either, but I don't remember seeing news articles about it.

    I'm surprised that Best Buy hasn't started marketing "ready-to-play" Wii U's, where they've applied the update for you and also provide a warranty through the store in case you have any problems. Seems like a no-brainer vs. the unhappy Christmas morning scenario. One ad on TV during prime-time programming would sell it. Then again... who wants a console that has this problem to begin with?
    Reply
  • techtre2003
    I'll take a big update over a RROD any day.
    Reply
  • photonboy
    Bricking:
    Many devices can recover from a reboot (or power failure) interrupting an update. I'm very surprised Nintendo didn't do this.

    Luckily this can be fixed in SOFTWARE, something I expect they're already arranging.

    I also don't understand why the update wasn't simply downloaded in the BACKGROUND, prompting a REBOOT request when finished.

    All said though, the Nintendo Wii-U is a very interesting product. I even thought of buying one but the lack of an internal hard drive is a deal breaker for me. What were they thinking? A small amount of FLASH MEMORY? I guess you can add a USB hard drive but that seems to be just for accessing data and won't be for game installations.

    I can understand keeping the cost down (the screen controller is expensive) but they should have at least allowed for people to add a 2.5" Hard Drive for game installations. I have no interest in inserting a DVD every time I switch games.
    Reply
  • beardguy
    I was prepared and so it was no big deal. Bought the Wii U, brought it home and played it for a few hours BEFORE I connected it to the internet at all. Once I was ready, I connected to the internet, was prompted to update, then I went to bed and let it update all night.

    In the morning, the update was complete. It can be a pain in the ass, but this story has gone mainstream and so I would hope most consumers would be smart enough to plan ahead. Also, the idiots that bricked their Wii U's should have read the giant message "DO NOT TURN OFF" while it was updating.
    Reply
  • TheViper
    photonboyBricking:Many devices can recover from a reboot (or power failure) interrupting an update. I'm very surprised Nintendo didn't do this.Luckily this can be fixed in SOFTWARE, something I expect they're already arranging.I also don't understand why the update wasn't simply downloaded in the BACKGROUND, prompting a REBOOT request when finished.All said though, the Nintendo Wii-U is a very interesting product. I even thought of buying one but the lack of an internal hard drive is a deal breaker for me. What were they thinking? A small amount of FLASH MEMORY? I guess you can add a USB hard drive but that seems to be just for accessing data and won't be for game installations.I can understand keeping the cost down (the screen controller is expensive) but they should have at least allowed for people to add a 2.5" Hard Drive for game installations. I have no interest in inserting a DVD every time I switch games.Actually, you can install games to the external HDD and the firmware update ban be installed in the background.
    Reply
  • kryzzay
    Pfft I had no idea of the update until I turned it on. Yeah it took a while to download but so what. When I bought GT5 and installed it and then saw it needed to download 2.5gb of updates I was pretty shocked but again at least you know it's for the best. What idiot shuts down the console during an update?
    Reply