Wii U Owners Bummed Out By Huge Firmware Update

Kotaku - That's a progress bar 1/8th full after 30 minutes—a four-hour process at this rate—for the Wii U's infamous firmware update, said to be 5 gigabytes (according to Geoff Keighley of GameTrailers TV, and repeated by numerous others). Sony, you are officially off the hook with the PS3's interminable, poorly timed and mandatory system updates.

[-Mezzo-]

5 GB is pretty big, could take hours to download, even on great connections.

[Abash]

What the hell could be in those 5GBs of the update? O_o

[Max Power]

Mario?

[SnakeCQC]

probably zelda too

[guitarded77]

It took me about an hour and 20 min to download... I have basic cable internet and can't believe it downloaded so quick. Anyway, really enjoying NSMBU right now, it feels nice to play a Nintendo console again since I got rid of my Wii a long time ago. Wii U ID = guitarded77 if anyone from n4g wants to add me.

[DaCajun]

What is Kotaku smoking because I want some of that, it took my connection 50 mins to DL then install. people must have some seriously slow crap out there.

[andibandit]

Porn

[Feralkitsune]

The firmware and programs.

[darthv72]

maybe its better for me to wait. That way, they will have units to stores with the new update already applied.

i dont mind giving up my place in line for those who are chomping at the bit for one.

[Motorola]

They shipped the console without an OS gg.

[GraveLord]

That is unacceptable. WTF was Nintendo thinking?
But hey, probably most of the casuals won't even download it.

[Rayansaki]

Console has no online features without that patch. It's pretty mandatory even for casuals.

[Phil32]

The console was obviously manufactured months ago before the OS was finished.

[V0LT]

Took me 1 hour to d/l and 5 min to install it on a 50 down / 5 up plan.

[f789790]

That's Nintendo's servers being slow then. It should have been way faster.

I'm betting some people are getting crap download servers that everyone is leeching off of.

[Godmars290]

Isn't this update bigger than memory capacity of the low-end Wii U model?

How...how does that even...what?

[Blackdeath_663]

i know right. nice to see "next gen" consoles getting off to a good start geez. (sarcasm) i knew this would happen if people rushed next gen

[shutUpAndTakeMyMoney]

lol 8gb model is really 3gbs so good luck..

[f789790]

Seriously, wtf was Nintendo thinking with 8GB? Horrible.

[DragoonsScaleLegends]

I can download 1 GB in 6 minutes sometimes even 4-5 minutes so it wouldn't take me that long! So it would take me around 25min to download unless since so many people are downloading at once it is slowing nintendos servers down a bit.

[showtimefolks]

It's a one time thing guys do it once I am sure future updates won't be 5gb.

I hope ms and Sony are paying attention to wiiu launch and learn to make a smoother launch for their respective systems most likely fall of 2013

[dazzrazz]

10 Mbps = 1 hour and couple of minutes, of course if u constantly download at that speed

[ProjectVulcan]

Assuming as well of course Nintendo's servers aren't getting killed by everyone downloading it at once.

Oh wait. They will be. DOH!

[YoungPlex]

Your absolute correct! It's to the point were it has become nearly impossible in creating a Nintendo Network ID. Hopefully it slows down by tonight... The update did add a significant amount of content worthy of the 5gigs. Mii-verse and the Wara-Wara plaza are freaken amazing!

[guitarded77]

Exactly... see my post above, it took me about 1hr and 20min. It's never fun to download updates on day 1, but it was very fast for the size, and the added features of Miiverse are worth the time. It's fun to post and comment with people about the games you're playing. Now if Nintendo could just implement an overarching achievement system, it will be amazing for a social gaming feature. The handwritten post feature is really cool.

[DragoonsScaleLegends]

I've got a 30 Mbps speed and sometimes it fluctuates to 40-50 Mbps. Time Warner internet is kind of all over the place were we live.

[SilentNegotiator]

Can you blame them? 5GB is terribly unreasonable for a single firmware update. People with the basic system just lost over 60% of their internal memory!

[DaCajun]

Yea they should have allocated some extra separate storage for this firmware update besides the 8GB and 32GB they advertised on the box knowing full well they were going to do this.

[Snookies12]

Hah, I was wondering when I'd see someone bring that up. The fact that it takes up so much space is really unacceptable...

[Quetzll]

No need to install games because of high disc read speed. No need for large hard drive unless you're downloading games. Cloud service, likely future possibility, would take care of that. Hard drives, cheap ones everywhere.

[kneon]

5GB does seem huge, I expect it's a complete firmware update and not a patch. Hopefully they weren't stupid and did design the system to allow firmware patches, if not they are going to annoy a lot of people every time they issue a firmware update.

[Godmars290]

Doesn't the base/already installed OS already take up a lot of space?

[DragoonsScaleLegends]

Yeah I wouldn't care about it being twice that but the console doesn't come with that much memory to start with so I agree.

[kewlkat007]

That is very big for an update..especially with those with slow connections.

I haven't opened mine yet...I did get the 8GB, I will be using a 1TB hdd..etc for space..

[kupomogli]

1TB hard drive. So technically your Wii U cost maybe $375 or $400?

People don't think about all these missing accessories and features. All they see is a low cost system.

[Quetzll]

yep. i see a low cost system and i see cheap externals everywhere. i could get fully set up with two or three brand new games for under $500.

can't ask for much more from a console's launch. that's about as good as launches get right there.

[Deku-Johnny]

Yeah but you don't have to get a 1GB one, I'm probably just going to get 300-500GB hard drive for mine so it won't cost too much, it's better to have the option to have as much or as little memory as you want.

[kewlkat007]

True, there is no way the WiiU would even come with a 1TB drive...having that much space for me personally, I don't mind buying it. black Friday deals I could get it for under 80bucks for sure.

[barb_wire]

Well, if you're talking Black Friday deals OfficeMax has a 2TB ext HDD for $65 - that's bargain right there

[s45gr32]

Well the problem is Nintendo should of come at the very least with some sort of free cloud service. It just crippled the shoppers who bought the 8gb wii u model by forcing them to buy an external hard drive. So instead of $300.00 you are looking at $380.00 or $400.00. It also shows Nintendos' incompetence in this day and age to have a mandatory patch before you mess around with the wii u. The PS3 nor the Xbox 360 did not have this. I worry so for I was looking to purchase a wii u; sadly that won't be the case until it gets its act together.

[Ilovetheps5]

It took me about 45 minutes. But yeah, it was pretty bad getting the system and not being able to use any online features straight away.

[mcstorm]

Tbh that just like getting a ps3. If you buy a ps3 now you have to wait for its updates before you can play it and then if you want gt5 as your game its even longer.

But that is now part of gaming. Updates are there to help the console run better and offer the user a better experience.

[WeAreLegion]

The PS3 is shipped with the latest firmware update. If you went and purchased a PS3 new somewhere, right now, odds are...you may not even have an update. Worst case scenario: You have to sit through a five minute update.

[kreate]

I bought a ps3 some days ago and I logged on straight to the psn without updates. U want me to go buy another one just to double check?

Version I bought was the assassins creed bundle w 500gb hdd super slim ps3.

[Perjoss]

Oh man, I remember that GT5 install, 1 hour and 20 mins for 11 gigs, that the hell was that all about. A 360 takes about 10 mins to install 6.5 gigs, that GT5 install should have taken 20 mins tops, are the blu ray drives really that slow?

[s45gr32]

Updates should of stayed in PC only and it would be nice to have background updates and patches. Meaning let me watch a movie or play another game while the game I want to play is being updated or patch. Also for the system. Might as well stick to PC because the user has more control of updates and patches i.e. the developer does it for you, you do it via mods, or you let steam do it for you all running in the background.

[C0MPUT3R]

You got to be kidding me.
.
What happens when the firmware goes over 8gb eventually?
.
They should of had a 16gb & 64gb.

[Dovahkiin]

Of course they should, it's not a mobile device. It's a games console. Very bad choice.

[kneon]

Has it been confirmed that the firmware is stored in the same storage space? Maybe there is separate storage not visible to the user.

[Deku-Johnny]

I think Nintendo announced that it uses the same memory which is a shame, when I first heard about the update I thought that it might have separate memory for it but the units were packed and ready to be shipped ages ago and they were still working on the applications within the firmware update in the past couple of weeks, that's why they didn't announce how big the update would be because nobody knew.

[kneon]

If that's the case then selling an 8gb unit is just stupid. How much of that 8gb is actually available to the user?

It sounds like you should treat an 8gb unit as having no storage available to the user since the firmware will likely only grow in size over the years as they add features.

[girlwithturn]

Some kind of next generation experience. Or PR-action for ex-pc-gamers.

[SKUD]

Ouch. It happens.

[TheCagyDies]

It took me an hour.

[monkey602]

Damn my poor internet only allows me 20 gigs a month this is a killer!

[DarkBlood]

close to me as ive only 25 gb per month anything over that is a dollar per gb

[kesvalk]

only 20gb limit!?

where do you guys live? cuz i live in Brazil and not even here we have bandwidth limitation.

[DarkBlood]

canada for me and as far as i know its the cheapest package i can afford at this moment and choose to keep it that way for the time being as i dont really go crazy on the internet lol but i beleive theres a even cheaper package then the one i posted above 15 gigs i think

[omi25p]

Ive also got unlimited internet for a set price in the UK.

[monkey602]

Ireland, our broadband is dirt!

[Gondee]

that should be illegal....

[Merrill]

I'm in Canada, with Bell and I have 50up and 50 down; no limitations.

[gorebago]

gran turismo 5 anyone?

[Rockefellow]

That was an optional install that was localized on-disc. It was substantial in size, but it only took 45 minutes or so.

This is much worse. It eats up people's bandwidth and is required to even use the system.

[gorebago]

it's not going to kill you, only take up some time so it's not the end of the world.

[Deku-Johnny]

If this update eats up your bandwidth you need to talk to your ISP.

[Hicken]

Nice try, comparing an optional game install- which can be done incrementally, by the way- to a critical firmware update that's NECESSARY to even use the system online.

That makes PERFECT sense. Cuz, you know, if I delete my GT5 install data, I can't play the game or get online with my PS3 anymore...

Wait a minute. I CAN still get online! I CAN still play GT5.

So how is this similar?

[gorebago]

first world problems. be glad you can even have this annoyance.

[gorebago]

first world problems

[tweet75]

people who get the basic console with 8 gb will they even be able to have any free space after downloading this. Nintendos storage issues are the only thing I dont like about wiiu.

[mechlord]

Havent u heard? there is no 8GB console; After all said and done, you get some 3GB and thats all.

I think this is why they are having a problem; i think the console is flashing the bytes as they come from the internet, because not everyone has 5gb to temp store the firmware. Thats the only explanation i can see...why else would a console brick for basically downloading files? (The brick happened before the actual installation)

[kewlkat007]

Well if you look at the Wii game pad it took at least i hour to download, then it said install, which took 10 mins or so.

[GreenRanger]

It'll take me six months to download 5 GB on my crap connection.

[omi25p]

So by the time it will have downloaded there will be 4 "new" Mario games for you to play.

[Yodagamer]

Hopefully it's only a one time deal, i'm sure nintendo waited so it could polish the experience, but darn thats a big file size

[kupomogli]

If they waited to polish the experience there wouldn't have been a day one firmware.

[TooTall19]

Or they could have included it on a disk.

[s45gr32]

No that is retarded.

[dkgshiz]

5gb firmware update?! Thats extremely big and to have it on launch is just asinine. Only the most diehard Nintendo fans would defend this. People with internet caps are sure to be pissed. Very poor launch in my opinion.
@CommonSenseGamer...well for one those are individual games...not the console as a whole. So those are truly optional. MGS4 only had big updates for MGO which in a sense was practically an entirely different game. PS+ you are getting these games for "free" so downloading them should be no biggy since you most likely already expected that. Buying a brand new console and to come home to a nice 5gb update is entirely different and to have this on launch is a bad move. Clearly you're one of the Nintendo diehards I just mentioned so I shouldn't need to keep dragging this on any further.

[CommonSenseGamer]

yeah, Nintendo fans must be up in arms over this...oh wait, what about the big downloads for MGS4 and GT5 when they hit the scene. Oh, and all that PS+ content like RE:5 that comes in at 4+GB. Honestly, non Nintendo supporters paint this as being the end of the world when they happily put up with downloading large files themselves.

[sinncross]

Wow... comparing a firmware update that is needed to have the entire hardware running at optimal settings to games that have installs/ or downloads which affect only that one game makes no sense whatsoever.

[AsimLeonheart]

MGS4, RE5 and GT5 do not brick the console if the console gets accidentally turned off. Moreover they are not part of the console feature and just for the game. WiiU update is crucial for accessing full features of the console and may brick the console if the update process is interrupted. Since the update size is very large, it is highly likely that it will get interrupted in one way or another. It is a poor decision on Nintendo's part and cannot be justified in any way.

[sashimi]

Yeah expect those are optional game installs or digital games(is there a method to getting digital games without downloading them lol? apple to oranges) on a system that comes with a 160GB standard harddrive lol. Where as this patch is mandatory for online features.

Nintendo: Here have 8GB of flash memory (troll face)

When in reality you only get like 2GB or so assuming theres no future update lol
Guess people will end up buying an external hdd sooner or later for all those game updates that so many games have nowaday, what a scam and its a home console too.

[CommonSenseGamer]

The argument has gone from the download size to being because its necessary. I mean really, you want to be an early adopter expect a few hiccups along the way. If you want to avoid all this hassle then wait. No one is forcing anyone to buy a WII-U right now.

[mechlord]

Just answer this: Have you heard of any PS3 that bricked because you were downloading any of these updates or even the firmware itself? No? then, how conceited can u be? cant u accept the simple fact that Ninty F**d up?

Really? 5GB of firmware update on Day One and to boot, there are models with just 3 GB of usable space? (Yeah, the 8gb model only has 3gb of really usable space)

[Redempteur]

don't get me wrong i find this mandatory update so huge to be disgusting but the update in not 5gb but over 1.3gb.

it's still a alot and it take time because as usual nintendo servers are crap but hey ...

[hduce]

It took me about 45 minutes to download. I get about 126 megs per second with Comcast. I also have a wireless AC standard router which gets a higher throughput than your standard wireless N. It is a huge update but it brings a lot of functionality to the Wii U.

[nikoado]

Can anyone confirm how much space left on the 8GB sku after this update?

[WeAreLegion]

Roughly 2.5 Gb for me...

Yeah. I'm fairly pissed off.

[spike]

Took me two hours

[deletingthis34675334]

5GB is my entire internet bandwidth a month. I hope not every update is this size. There is no good reason for it to be. The PS3's firmware updates are around 150-200MB respectively and I can download them on a public WiFi like I always do. This is ridiculous.

[videoxgamexfanboy]

5 gb update? Pfft whatever....I just downloaded the Free Diablo 3 starter addition last nite at 7gb. I played about 4 rounds of COD BO2 and poof!!!! It was done. 5 gb firmware will be no issue to me. I've read tons and tons of a certain consoles fanboys defend mandatory installs by saying things like " just go make a sandwhich or something during the install" so I say to those complaining....GO MAKE A SANDWICH!!!

[medziarz]

the people that bitch about it just bought the Wii U, the sandwich people are too busy with their PS3s to care about a me-too console by Nintendo

[izumo_lee]

I hear this update is so that Nintendo network is operational. One would think that the OS would already be available once one gets the system like when the Xbox360/PS3 were first launched.

So the 8GB/32GB models HDD did not already include the OS pre-installed? That is just strange & not well planned out if you ask me.

[DJ]

What the heck?? Even 1 GB takes me a while to download. But 5 GB??

[ShaunCameron]

What firmware update? I didn't have to go through that upon setup. And I still got a good 25GB to work with. But then again I had trouble hooking it up to the internet. So ended up skipping that part.

[Mikeyy]

Really, you don't even have it hooked up to the internet and you tell us you where never prompted for a firmware update.

/forehead

[ShaunCameron]

I tried to hook it up to the internet. It just kept asking me for some ISP security code that I don't even know. So I said forget it.

[Bathyj]

Wow. Thats a bit crappy. I normally dont whine about updates, but thats pretty big for a brand new console. They really couldnt have built that into the machine? I doubt they made that whole patch AFTER the machines were manufactured.

And isnt the WiiU only 8gb? Not alot of room to play with for the future. Seems really short sighted.

[kupomogli]

It's more like Nintendo's way of suckering people in that they get this much memory, but then once they buy it they realize that all that memory is eaten up by a firmware update.

[Trekster_Gamer]

WTF?
Could they not have shipped with this already in place?

Typical Nintendo!

[MegaLagann]

I know people aren't going to believe me but it literally took me about ten minutes for it to download. Maybe because I did it later in the day? Probably my only guess...

[Voyevoda]

That is ridiculous to have everyone dl that big of an update. They couldn't have had that already installed with the console's release?

[deafdani]

The update actually isn't even 1 GB in size. I know it because I checked the storage I had BEFORE doing the update in system settings. It said I had 25 GB left.

I did the update. It took a bit under 2 hours to download it, and I'm on crappy 2 MB connection (actually, my download speed is a bit under 2 MB).

After the update was downloaded and applied, I checked the space available again. IT WAS STILL 25 GB.

This means that this update isn't actually even a GB in size! The fact that I downloaded it in so little time (considering my atrocious connection speed, that is), only proves this further.

So, I have absolutely no idea how this was blown so out of proportion, but it's definitely not a 5 GB update. Not even close.

[mechlord]

What you really need to check is what your net consumption tells u. Any firmware for any hardware maker that is worth its salt...(maybe this is the problem?) wont sit completely on the hard disk, on a visible partition or on the same partition your savedata and files are. Thats why you only see 1Gb on your operable partition

[deafdani]

While that's true, it doesn't change the fact that I downloaded the patch fairly quickly. I download a lot of stuff all the time, and 5 GB's take me at least 7 hours, and that's on my PC. There's no way I could download so much data in less than 2 hours on my PC, let alone my Wii U. That's why I'm pretty sure it's not 5 GB.

[BananaEatingSquid]

It honestly wasn't that bad for me. The updated started.... I went to take a shower... and when I came out, it finished about five minutes later.

For my friend and his crappy internet connection, though? Different story.

[gpturbo81]

only took an hour for me. nothin to piss and moan about

[josephayal]

I updated my Wii U before the console launched and it took 9 Hours

[DigitalAnalog]

This may be a stealth approach to dealing with future "pirates". Think about it, buying the vanilla console would have no online features. This will pose a big problem to those who would like to hack into the system especially if they needed to go online just to open up the features.

And for every update Nintendo implements would be a step forward in placing harsher security measures on the system. I forsee the next-gen consoles would do something similar.

[RFornillos4]

i'm pretty sure future releases of the console would skip this part (will come pre-installed). once Nintendo realize people are clamoring for this, they will either have it shipped with a disc you can run to install, or pre-install them on future stocks of the console.

i believe one reason for this is that they didn't want to have the reviewers pre-empt info about the console's features (as reviewers got them about a week before launch).

[OneAboveAll]

Stupid move to ship the Wii U with such low storage space whether it's 8 or 32GB. The competition comes with bigger drives.

[ziggurcat]

leave it to kotaku to get a jab at sony in any of their articles despite the fact that:

a) they aren't as "interminable" as they're whining.

b) poorly timed? hahaha they happen at the exact same time every time there's a system update - usually very late monday evening or slightly after midnight. if they can't get their s**t together to figure out that pattern, well...

c) they're not all mandatory updates, you clods. and wii/X360 have had mandatory updates as well, so where's your little crybaby temper tantrum over those?

[Thepcz]

i may be stupid but i dont even know what the bother is with all this hard drive space talk. i mean, the original wii had zero space, didnt it? yes. did that hamper the consoles ability to play or enjoy games? Well, i own one and can answer that- no.

People are only annoyed because nintendo are now offering hard drive space, but are using up much of it to store their own data, not the data you want. people should be happy there is hard drive space at all.

plus, did you know you could add a TB of your own hard drive space, if it turns you on!

but, i can see why the massive download size would annoy people. i can also understand why it might even scare some, as its been reported it can brick the console if the download is interrupted.

i know for sure, i would never be able to download that firmware using my internet connection. it took me around 12 hours just to download a psn game that was around 1 gig. so 5 gigs would simply never happen.

[mrbojingles]

It's like 1.5GB and took me about one hour total. Not that bad, but still sucks

[KontryBoy706]

they should have NEVER made an 8GB console. Period. People with that model just lost over have of their storage. What's going to happen when the next update comes? Can they guarantee you will be able to keep your current 8GB Wii U for the whole generation along with patches and updates? I bet you when the PS4/720 comes out there will be a revised version of the Wii U with bigger internal drives for the same price or cheaper. I'll wait until then to buy one.

[Fel08]

As long as they don't release an update every other day like SONY does, I'm cool with it.

[Relientk77]

This would take forever on my connection

[wadukadoo]

Bunch of cry babies. Would you rather they not update the console?