Wii U retail impressions?

[TheLump]

What about this retail impression:

http://techforums.nintendo.com/message/78303

no TV output!!

The Blue Blinking Light of Death (BBLoD)! Althought the console appears to be fine, just the HDMI/Component output (the people experiencing this are able to power up using the gamepad and play on that - but no output to the TV!)

Something tells me they were in a rush to get these things on shelves for Black Friday...



So glad its all a dress rehearsal for the Europe launch ^.^

 

[TheLump]

It seems someone accidentally got into the Debug menu system of the WiiU and has ability to reset any admin accounts or delete them completely. Source: (NeoGAF thread: I think I either hacked the Wii U Miiverse or I am stupid.)

If this is even remotely true, I would not trust Nintendo with any of my information. This happened for someone accidentally, I shiver to imagine what true hackers would manage to be able to do should they target the Nintendo systems.

Update on this: According to nintnedo this was a mock up menu system that was accidentally left in and not live in anyway. Its now been removed.

 

[Nesh]

Update on this: According to nintnedo this was a mock up menu system that was accidentally left in and not live in anyway. Its now been removed.

Oh man!! They really launched in haste!
They forget stuff that shouldnt be there, many report consoles that are bricked out of the box, a 3GB(or is it 5GB?) firmwear update, account locked to the specific console its been created on....so many things wrong

And surprisingly there is almost nothing about it in Youtube and media outlets.... so far it didnt show any signs that it came with a bang.
Remains to be seen if this will eventually be a worthy successor of the Wii

 

[TheLump]

Oh man!! They really launched in haste!
They forget stuff that shouldnt be there, many report consoles that are bricked out of the box, a 3GB(or is it 5GB?) firmwear update, account locked to the specific console its been created on....so many things wrong

And surprisingly there is almost nothing about it in Youtube and media outlets.... so far it didnt show any signs that it came with a bang.
Remains to be seen if this will eventually be a worthy successor of the Wii

Its actually a 1GB firmware update - its just slow as hell.

But yeah, lots of other things which need sorting out in the coming days/weeks. Looks like they launched a few weeks early to me - probably in a rush to get Black Friday in. They would have been better off with a global 30th Nov launch in time for Christmas really, but I expect the NoA board members were very keen on cashing in for BF.

 

[BRiT]

For those that don't know, the first case I heard of the Wii U bricking during the update process was by Ben Fritz. He's a reporter for the L.A. Times. So I'm sure it'll hit the major news outlets.

There are additional reports all-over of systems being bricked just by having their internet cut out during the download.

 

[Laa-Yosh]

So is this the worst console launch in history?

 

[Grall]

There are additional reports all-over of systems being bricked just by having their internet cut out during the download.

...That is why you don't start writing to flash until the whole firmware update has been downloaded, Nintendo... Jesus. It's amateur hour over there in Kyoto.

 

[TheLump]

So is this the worst console launch in history?

Not really. Not quite on the levels of RRoD yet. Or Saturn's zero-software zero-notice approach.

Once we know how many systems have failed (and if its over the 5% acceptable consumer failure rate) then we'll know how big of a problem this is and if it will/has impacted the launch.

Its selling extremely well and the majority of reviews/reports are good.

I'd say, 24 hours after launch is a bit early to say either way

 

[TheLump]

...That is why you don't start writing to flash until the whole firmware update has been downloaded, Nintendo... Jesus. It's amateur hour over there in Kyoto.

Serious question; how do you know that's what has happened? I'm not an expert on this sort of stuff.

 

[liolio]

So is this the worst console launch in history?

IMo the worse launch in History was the 360 one, with the long unwinding of the RroD disaster.
But this one is not one of the smoothest either
Anyway I could not see a WiiU left yesterday when I shopped at Wallmart (for food).

 

[Laa-Yosh]

I still believe that the whole RROD issue was blown out of proportion, and at least the system lived up to expectations.

In the case of Wii U, it seems the system is actually less powerful than the 7-year old Xbox360 and costs 50% more. Its software is unfinished and fails to provide functionality that's considered basic (no DLC??).

Hardware failures are more of an annoyance because they can always replace them, and yes even software can be upgraded, but if the system design in general is flawed than there's no help.
The Xbox is able to keep up with both the PS3 and the Wii U as it seems, and manages to produce stuff like Halo 4 or the new Forza as its swan songs, because the design was strong enough. This system however will fade away within a year if even current game ports can't perform well and by this time next year it'll have to start competing with the nextgen platforms. And this time there's no replacement for the motion controls, this touch screen thing is obviously not going to be enough.

So the only thing left is the 1st party software... and we've seen how far that got the Gamecube.

 

[Grall]

Serious question; how do you know that's what has happened? I'm not an expert on this sort of stuff.

If the console bricks spontaneously while downloading a firmware which is interrupted, logic dictates that the existing firmware was modified in some manner; or else the console would have continued functioning.

 

[AlphaWolf]

I still believe that the whole RROD issue was blown out of proportion, and at least the system lived up to expectations.

RROD wasn't really a launch problem, it took a while to manifest. My launch console lived 18months.

 

[liolio]

RROD wasn't really a launch problem, it took a while to manifest. My launch console lived 18months.

Well it was a massive one, not to defend Nintendo own shortcoming but the whole thing was due to an even more anticipated launch.
The unwinding was indeed long, really long. The impact was imo dreadful for MSFT. I hope proper data will get leaked once the gen is all over. I can tell for France, when the 360 launch, MSFT was not that much of loved brand with people (fb...) complaining about how they gave up on the first xbox, their monopole, etc. but still they were somehow given credit for what looked like a potent system. Once the Rrod, first rumored, etc. got confirmed, hell broke loose, at least on the internet.
MSFT must have done studies and I wish that at some point info are leaked.

 

[AlphaWolf]

The point is it wasn't a 'launch' issue to the scale that nintendos wiiu has been. People were not talking about it for quite a while. It didn't manifest until well after the holiday period as a significant issue. Wii:U is having a much worse 'launch', it might not end up costing Nintendo as much as RROD cost MS, but we'll need to wait and see.

 

[swaaye]

Does the firmware update fail on its own or are the problem people pulling the plug instead of being patient? Wii had a launch firmware update too that took about 20 mins. I remember it. It bricked some consoles too.

 

[I.S.T.]

If your net connection has a hiccup, things could go wrong as well...

 

[Delta9]

So is this the worst console launch in history?

it's the worst by far

I knew it wouldn't compete with PS360 ,but to be a total disaster in just about everything was unexpectd

 

[Sigfried1977]

I still believe that the whole RROD issue was blown out of proportion, and at least the system lived up to expectations.

I beg to differ. My private 360 red ringed on me right away. We've also had to replace around 10 systems here in the office thus far, and as far as I know none of the privately owned systems of my colleagues have survived their first 2 years. The failure rate of the 360 was unprecedented. No small feat considering how both the PSone and the PS2 weren't exactly built to last either.
That said, we've also had to replace quite a few PS3s. Not nearly as many, but I'd still call the situation unacceptable.

 

[swaaye]

Yeah I too have talked to people who have told me about needing several replacement 360s. I do have a friend with a launch 360 though, but I know it has not seen much use.