I agree. It would download the update faster.

Xxain said: - I dont think I have to say its never good to to turn off any system during an update.   First Wii U brick reported: Do not shutdown during firmware update Posted in News Tags: Nintendo, Wii U The Wii U will brick if you shut it down during an ongoing firmware update.   Ben Fritz, Film business reporter for Latimes, has bricked his Wii U without playing a single game. The reason? Shutting down the system during an update. The size of the update is something that’s not pretty either. It’s a known fact that many hardware manufacturers tell you not to turn any system off if it’s updating, but there’s always a backup mechanism in place if things go wrong, for example, the PS3 will retry the update as soon as the console starts. “Warning: don’t unplug your Wii U during the 2 hour plus software update or the console stops working,” he tweeted. The Wii U firmware update is 5 GB in size and adds the Nintendo Network to the console. Weird way to install a required service, but hey, it’s Nintendo. Here’s what Fritz had to say: So is there some secret way to hard reset a Wii U? Cause mine is totally busted — Ben Fritz (@benfritz) November 18, 2012 Warning: don’t unplug your Wii U during the 2 hour plus software update or the console stops working. — Ben Fritz (@benfritz) November 18, 2012 Since the console is bricked, my Wii U tryout party has turned into a “Predator” viewing party. #goodtrade? — Ben Fritz (@benfritz) November 18, 2012 @jonshiring seriously. I never played a single game and now as far as I can tell its unusable. — Ben Fritz (@benfritz) November 18, 2012 That should be really frustrating, but at least now he can check out how Nintendo customer support is like.

You have to know that type of person who UNPLUGS their console while it is update during a "tryout party" is the same type of person who corrupts their game save files by hitting the power button while their game is saving.  Warnings are there for a reason.  We are 20 years out from 1985, there is no excuse for being ignorant of the dangers of shutting off a console while it (or a game for that matter) is updating/saving.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_outage

And that's ignoring tens of other factors that could result in a console unintentionally turning off.

Welcome to the world of pretty regularly needing to patch your system and update your games.

Nothing ruins a quick online gaming session like the words "The latest version of the software has been found, press X to install now"


OT: If that guy really unplugged/turned off his WiiU during the update he is an idiot. Although I will agree that a 5 GB update is pretty freakin massive.

One of the nice optional features you can get with a PC is the dual BIOS. Once a luxury extra, it's become affordable at least since 2009, when I bought my current Asus MoBo. I understand consoles have to make every possible saving to be able to offer a streamlined machine that can squeeze a lot more power from mid-low-end HW that on PC would give far lower performances, but while once a console came out of the factory with everything carefully tested and having to update its firmware was very rare, since this has become a lot more common, a dual firmware, with emergency unerasable FW on ROM could be considered a necessary feature to offer the fail-proof HW most console users legitimately expect.

Edit:

PS: unexperienced users could inadvertently turn the console off during updates, if there isn't a very clear warning about it also in the quick start version of the manual that is surely the only one most users will ever read, not to mention that a blackout can always happen and it doesn't ask for user permission.

^I still want the answer to this question.

The download is 882mb.

It is taking so long because so many people are downloading it at the same time. Nintendo really needs to ensure there is enough servers and bandwidth across America to cover online issues in the future.

Yes it is 8gb and 5gb install. This was already answered a few times on the forums.

Then that's false advertisement on Nintendo's part. It should say 3GB of available storage on the basic SKU.

Well technically you dont need the update to play wiiu games so they are right lol.

However I agree. I don't think their intention was to ever install games on the internal sapce but rather for save files. Game installs etcc was fo rexternal hdd. Well that was the impression I got form one of those direct video summaries someone posted.

5 gig update!?!?! dont most wiiU's only have like 8 gigs of space :S