Wii U’s Day-One Patch Will be Built-In Next Spring

I really do love my Wii U—and I’ve only played two games on the dang thing. I’m still keen to try out some of the other launch titles out there, and I flat-out can’t wait for Gearbox’s Aliens: Colonial Marines. Even still, the very first day of the system’s launch wasn’t without complaints, chief among them being the five gigabyte day-one firmware patch that had to be downloaded in order to get the machine online.

According to a post on Gamasutra, the patch will likely not be built-in to the system as-shipped until early or Spring 2013. The news comes by way of Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime, who defended the patch as the best solution to ensure the highest-quality experience with the Wii U:

“Nintendo developers want to make sure that the very best product is available to consumers. That creates a dynamic where our developers are working on elements until the very last point possible. That’s why the system update was required on Day One – and this is quite similar to what’s happened with other consumer electronic products.”

He also went on to explain why the first-day outage of the Miiverse—Nintendo’s walled, visual social-networking app—shouldn’t be much of a problem when many more people connect to the service on Christmas Day this year:

“Without getting into a lot of technical details, the Miiverse [problem] was not purely driven by capacity. That gives us confidence that come Christmas morning, those servers will not be challenged in the same way. Come Christmas morning, the Wii U will be available globally. We know there will be a lot of consumers utilizing their Wii U for the very first time. So we’re working very hard to make sure the initial customer experience is a good one.”

Works for me. Like I said, I’ve been enjoying the Wii U, and—maybe I’m a dummy—but I’m a believer in this console and the potential it has to provide some really interesting, unique gaming experiences. That said, it’s not a cure-all, and the GamePad mechanic itself isn’t enough to sell a game. In fact, developers still have some work to do in making sure their games work right: I’m looking at you, Rocksteady and Batman: Arkham City.

So I open it up to you, dear readers. Who’s got a Wii U? What are you feeling so far? Am I just seeing things with rose-colored glasses? Or am I right to believe that there’s a chance for some very cool things to come down the pike here?

Via Gamasutra