Let this be your official warning that if you're buying for your kids, or think you're receiving a Wii U for Christmas, when you plug it in, just let it be, because the day one update to Nintendo's Wii U, that, if interrupted, bricks the console, isn't going anywhere.
Why ship a console with such an issue? Why not fix it? Well, Nintendo is in the process. But that fix isn't coming until next year.
Speaking with Gamasutra, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime said the update won't be built into the system until early 2013.
"Nintendo developers want to make sure that the very best product is available to consumers," said Fils-Aime. "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."
I've tried a comparable excuse with several college professors as to why my papers weren't not quite up to snuff. They didn't buy it.
Even it is similar to "what's happened with other consumer electronic products," that still doesn't excuse the issue. Maybe Fils-Aime's mom never asked him the fabled question every parent loves to ask, "If so-and-so jumped off a bridge, would you do it too?" Don't get dragged down to lower levels, rise above, Nintendo!
Nintendo president Satoru Iwata had previously apologized for the gamers' inconvenience, noting he believed customers "should be able to use all the functions of a console video game machine as soon as they open the box." But words only go so far.
Suffice it to say, if you find yourself with a Wii U come this holiday season, just go roast some chestnuts or something while the system updates, otherwise you're in for one primo holiday headache.
