We already know that you’re going to need to update your Wii U right out of the box, since the launch day update is what’s going to give you Miiverse, TVii, the eShop and Wii U Chat. But another very important reason you’ll need this update? Backwards compatibility.
Wii functionality for the Wii U is happening, but this feature isn’t ready out of the box. IGN has just reported that when they inserted a Wii disc into the console, they received a notification that an update was necessary to play the game.
And while that’s not really a big problem for most people, there are still people who can’t connect to the internet, or who don’t know how to connect their consoles. It’s unfortunate that those people are going to miss out on a significant portion of what makes the Wii U special and different.
In the meantime, we’ll keep our eyes open for solutions on how to update without an internet connection—but for now, if you’re a non-internet user (in which case, how are you reading this? …more likely you might have a friend who’s not online, so go tell them), hang onto the Wii for a little while longer if there are still Wii games you want to play.
