Last Saturday, just after the sun dipped below the horizon, I visited my local Wal-Mart store. It was tube socks I was after on that chilly night, but instead I found myself thoroughly entertained by a group of four poor Nintendo fans already nestled into three layers of clothes while sitting in some frail-looking lawn chairs. I had heard that many of the local big box stores, like Best Buy, were flooded with members of the Playstation nation (scrambling to get their frost-bitten fingers on just twenty four units), but this expression of Nintendo love seemed, for some reason, to be different. Wasn’t Nintendo shipping a substantial number of Wiis? I suppose that was beside the point.
These were devoted followers of Miyamoto, and although they looked too young to have basked in the glory of the almighty NES (as I once did), their passion was quite amusing. Alas, this morning I am wondering if those poor souls, who surely crept close to hypothermia around 2am Sunday morning, are one of the unlucky Wii owners affected by reports that Nintendo’s recent online update is “bricking” the machine and causing a substantial number of recent purchasers to ship the system in for repairs.
In was only last month reports surfaced indicating that Microsoft’s fall update to Xbox Live (which added streamlined menus and 1080p support) was causing 360s to lock up. The problem was considered pretty minor, with only a few consoles affected. However, it appears the Wii malfunction is a larger issue because:
For the devoted Nintendo fanboys who sat patiently in the cold Saturday night and Sunday morning, it’s got to be painful.
Those who are affected will experience difficulty immediately. After downloading the problem update from Nintendo’s WiiConnect 24, the consoles that react violently will display an error code with the number “110213”. According to reports, users affected by the malfunction are being told by Nintendo that the error cannot be fixed over the phone, instead requiring Wii owners to ship the unit to official repair shops.
Nintendo is remaining very hush-hush about the problem, indicating that it still doesn’t have an answer to the issue. That might also mean that Wii owners are left with some sort of cost, whether it be for parts, labor, or just shipping.
Hey, it’s still cheaper than a PS3.
Note: Stay tuned for our review of Sony’s console later today.
