We’ve already told you of the gargantuan patch that awaits new Wii U owners after they plug in their shiny new consoles. There is, however, a pretty big caveat; especially for South African users.
It seems that should the download and installation of the giant 5Gb patch be interrupted, you could end up bricking your brand new console.
LA Times journalist Ben Fritz, now the proud owner of a shiny brick, says there’s no warning about turning the system off, and n option of cancelling the update. while common sense dictates that turning off equipment while it’s updating is a stupid thing to do, Fritz managed to unplug his unit during the update, leaving his console useless.
A support message on Nintendo’s US website asks new users to be patient and not to turn off the console during the update.
"The length of time it takes to perform a system update varies depending on the speed of the Internet connection used. Please be patient," it says.
"Due to the amount of new features and applications included, the system update may take an extended amount of time when performed during the initial setup (for some users it could take an hour or more to download and install). Do not power off your system during this time."
Depending on your internet speed (and the shaping you get from your particular ISP) the update could take anywhere from thirty hours (at max line speed of a 384kb/s connection) to just over an hour (at max line speed of a 10Mb/s connection). That’s at hypothetical maximums, not accounting for the sort of connection drops you’re ostensibly going to experience
Couple that with Eskom’s inability to deliver steady power, and we’ve got a local recipe for many a bricked Wii U.
Last Updated: November 20, 2012