Nintendo Sneaks Out Wii U, 3DS Firmware Updates

With a Nintendo Direct scheduled for tomorrow morning (Friday), Nintendo has pushed out a firmware update for both Wii U and 3DS ahead of whatever announcements are coming.

Wii U’s update brings the hardware to version 2.1.0 and addresses the following, according to Nintendo:

“Further improvements to overall system stability and other minor adjustments have been made to enhance the user experience.”

It’s a similar vagueness on 3DS, which moves to version 4.5.0-10U:

“Further improvements to overall system stability and other minor adjustments have been made to enhance the user experience.”

Based on user reports so far, not much has changed, but maybe we’ll learn more tomorrow?

This is good! More updates are always nice.

Time to pull out my 3DS, update, and put it away. Can't put P4G down now

Was hoping it would make it all run faster :/

I really hope this fixes the system freezing. I haven't touched it since my Nintendo Land locked up.

Hooray for vague changelogs.

Bananas v2.0

Friday?

@Fawkes said:

Friday?

Getting the Wii U one right now.

@Nightriff said:

Time to pull out my 3DS, update, and put it away. Can't put P4G down now

But today is TUESDAY Patrick. How can tomorrow be Friday?

version 4.5.0-10U

Is that a software state or one of the launch codes?

@BoomSnapClap113 said:

@Fawkes said:

Friday?

BREAKING NEWS! TOMORROW IS FRIDAY! :D

Already updated both. No changes I can see on either. TVii is still disabled on Wii U. :(

Suspicious me is fraught with suspicion. You don't have a twelve-hour "emergency maintenance" that brings down just the shopping features, then bring everything up with a new firmware update that's required to use the store, if all you're trying to do is implement minor stability improvements.

IT'S FRIDAY ALREADY??

The Wii U update is supposed to make the load times a little better.

From GoNitendo: http://gonintendo.com/?mode=viewstory&id=192242

@wsowen02 said:

@BoomSnapClap113 said:

@Fawkes said:

Friday?

Jeezt, now I'm waiting for Jelly Bean on my GS3 and an update for my 3DS.

A bit hard to sneak out a 625MB firmware update. heh.

Man, Patrick is way, way, way off schedule this week it seems.

Wii U and 3DS: Now with more bananas.

did they improve the load times for the wii u? cus man they're atrocious.

I've heard that the Wii U is a few seconds faster in transitioning load times.

A word of warning. Like.. a huge word of warning: Once the firmware update starts downloading, DO NOT CUT THE POWER OR THE WIFI. Seriously. Somehow futzing with the wifi to make it faster caused my U to hang, and pulling the power caused the system to brick even though the download was only at 10%.

Nintendo was good about warranty replacement, but when they say don't cut the power THEY MEAN IT.

@Athenor said:

I've heard that the Wii U is a few seconds faster in transitioning load times.

A word of warning. Like.. a huge word of warning: Once the firmware update starts downloading, DO NOT CUT THE POWER OR THE WIFI. Seriously. Somehow futzing with the wifi to make it faster caused my U to hang, and pulling the power caused the system to brick even though the download was only at 10%.

Nintendo was good about warranty replacement, but when they say don't cut the power THEY MEAN IT.

That's weird, my internet went out multiple times while it was downloading. I even turned off the system (it was at 42% downloaded) until my internet connection was restored and it just kept downloading from where it left off.

I do however recommend NOT turning the system off during installation, that can do some damage.

@Athenor: That goes for anything you update firmware on. Computers, routers, phones ...

Hey, if it actually helps the system not crash so much, I'm ALL for it.

I don't even get how the load times can be this bad on the Wii U. It has more RAM than any console ever (that it doesn't have to share with the OS) and the disc drive is supposedly thrice as fast as the PS3's atrocious 2x Blu-Ray drive.

All it seems to do is block flash carts. The DSTWO and some R4i cards that were compatible with the 3DS are blocked for now.

@Phatmac said:

IT'S FRIDAY ALREADY??

cue Rebecca Black ...

The system is updating its Friday in Japan. YOU SHOULD KNOW THIS GUYS COME ON. We know everything. We're the internet.

@ManU_Fan10ne said:

@wsowen02 said:

@BoomSnapClap113 said:

@Fawkes said:

Friday?

Its Friday somewhere...

The update crashed my Wii U, which was about halfway into the download and now it keeps crashing every time I try to update it. I already know that we are not suppose to unplug it, but I had no choice but to do so. Download bar wasn't moving, just that loud sound that I know too often now.

It's funny. Nothing happened when I had to install the day one patch, and this is the one that locks it up. Ugh.

@JJOR64 said:

The Wii U update is supposed to make the load times a little better.

From GoNitendo: http://gonintendo.com/?mode=viewstory&id=192242

Doesn't seem like an improvement at all. :-/

Maybe very, very slightly.

Naturally, it feels like Friday today, because tomorrow is a national holiday (in Finland)! Patrick is already getting ready to celebrate the Finnish Independence Day on the 6th of December! Yay for Patrick! :)

yeah it took me all of 5 seconds to update. I don't know what the hell it did.

this took an hour to download, 10 minutes to install, and nothing was immediately apparent as to what the hell it even did. The OS is still slow as shit and I never did have problems with lock ups.

Amazing. Nintendo making me appreciate Xbox Live every day the console is out.

Please excuse Patrick, in his language every day is Friday. You think we readers have it bad, imagine scheduling meetings with the guy.

Further improvements to overall system stability and other minor adjustments have been made to enhance the user experience.

That is just the greatest photo of Satoru Iwata of all time. OF ALL TIME!

I really, really really hope this sorts my issue with the Wii U. I cant play it at mo as the OS freezes after a 'please wait' message appears and I cant do anything else. I really don't want to have to take my console back to store because it is bricked. All I did was try to start the youtube app...

Any news on when we can expect to see Miiverse on the 3DS?

@jtm33: @jtm33 said:

All it seems to do is block flash carts. The DSTWO and some R4i cards that were compatible with the 3DS are blocked for now.

DSTWO already cracked.. Seems like another pointless update for 3ds.

Hope the update stops that weird noise the Gamepad makes when I shake it.

The only difference I have noticed is that sometimes there's no load coming back from another application/menu to the wii U menu. It's only about half the time. Super inconsistent, but it does make it a bit quicker to navigate.

@KJ869 said:

@jtm33: @jtm33 said:

All it seems to do is block flash carts. The DSTWO and some R4i cards that were compatible with the 3DS are blocked for now.

DSTWO already cracked.. Seems like another pointless update for 3ds.

Yep I just updated my DSTWO. This update seems pointless then. To be fair though, Nintendo have done a good job at breaking most other flash cards out there. DSTWO keeps on kicking though...

An update that doesn't fix the biggest problems of the system? Oh boy.