It is never a good omen for a console to launch without things that had, up to the few days prior to said launch, intended to be included at launch. People certainly made plenty of fuss when Nintendo delayed the 3DSeShop until post-launch, and I imagine those people will be making equal fuss about the fact that the Wii U, scheduled to release this Sunday, will now ship without several of its multimedia features.

Specifically, the TVii feature, the one big trump card Nintendo's been touting for this new box over the last couple of months, has quietly been pushed to a December launch. Why? No idea. Nintendo buried the information in a general purpose press release touting the console's myriad gaming benefits, and hasn't followed up in the time since the release went out.

Similarly, the system's Amazon Prime, Hulu Plus, and Netflix video streaming support will not be available at launch either. Those services will debut in a more nebulous "in the coming weeks" time frame.

While the video services are hardly a deal breaker for most (after all, how many of us already have at least one of those video services hooked up to another console), the TVii features have been a unique selling point for the Wii U since they were unveiled. The service, which allows you to control your cable/satellite television services using the Wii U's GamePad, certainly had people talking for a bit there. And while a couple of weeks isn't a huge delay, it's still kind of crazy that such vaunted features are being quietly pushed back on such short notice like this. It's just weird, really.

It is never a good omen for a console to launch without things that had, up to the few days prior to said launch, intended to be included at launch. People certainly made plenty of fuss when Nintendo delayed the 3DSeShop until post-launch, and I imagine those people will be making equal fuss about the fact that the Wii U, scheduled to release this Sunday, will now ship without several of its multimedia features.

Specifically, the TVii feature, the one big trump card Nintendo's been touting for this new box over the last couple of months, has quietly been pushed to a December launch. Why? No idea. Nintendo buried the information in a general purpose press release touting the console's myriad gaming benefits, and hasn't followed up in the time since the release went out.

Similarly, the system's Amazon Prime, Hulu Plus, and Netflix video streaming support will not be available at launch either. Those services will debut in a more nebulous "in the coming weeks" time frame.

While the video services are hardly a deal breaker for most (after all, how many of us already have at least one of those video services hooked up to another console), the TVii features have been a unique selling point for the Wii U since they were unveiled. The service, which allows you to control your cable/satellite television services using the Wii U's GamePad, certainly had people talking for a bit there. And while a couple of weeks isn't a huge delay, it's still kind of crazy that such vaunted features are being quietly pushed back on such short notice like this. It's just weird, really.

grrreat

WiiOuch?

Not a big deal in the long run...but may hurt nintendo if they dont get it out fast. At least with the people that read news like this.

Typical launch window disappointments.

You'd have to be some kind of idiot to buy it at launch, anyway.

eh *shrugs*

That stuff doesn't really catch my ear anyway. I can wait

WiiU is doomed, just like every other new system.

360 launched without reliable hardware but everything worked out OK.

Meh. Push it back a month. Whatevs. That's not a reason anyone was getting a WiiU anyway. Hell, I didn't even know that was a feature. Though I don't have much interest in owning one either. Very interested to see how it turns out though.

It would have been a pretty great point to attract non-gamers so I can see it as something that might hurt them. Still, a few weeks without the feature isn't too bad, I'm sure the majority of launch owners are gamers who probably don't mind if the feature is missing for a bit.

I'm starting to get the feeling that Nintendo is doomed. Their ass-backwardsness is finally going to catch up with them.

If I cared about the Wii U I'd be furious.

I for one look forward to the day when those media services become so ubiquitous that console manufacturers stop feeling the need to include them in the first place. Just make your goddamn game boxes

I am pretty sure they said that TVii would come shortly after launch when they announced that feature.

I thin the Wii u is going to be a disaster in the long term, but I don't think this hurts them. Everyone pure ordered one of these would get it no matter what features they delay

That's pretty wiieak.

Sorry about that.

Now that I got that out of the way, wouldn't it be better if they were just up front about this sort of thing? I feel like if they didn't have these features at launch and didn't tout them as if they would few people would care but when they talk up all these additional services and features only to come back and say they're not ready yet it pisses people off who wouldn't have cared about the features anyways on a principles level.

So the US will have feature parity with the rest of the world for about a month? Great. Just remember what that feels like after the TVii launch, because that's what the rest of the world will feel like for the entirety of the Wii U lifespan.

Wow that's disappointing. Hopefully they'll get these services up and running quickly otherwise public opinion may turn sour on the Wii U and, once that happens, it's very difficult to turn things around.

I don't think nitendo will be doomed by the WiiU but there is a high chance they wont do anything like the Wii did. If nintendo doesn't start catching up and get past the competition though it could be bad for them in the future whether that's late in the cycle or next-next-gen

This is somewhat upsetting since I've never used Netflix and had planned on using the Amazon prime service that I just got this month. But really, it's two weeks, so that's not that big of a deal. I can wait.

Fucking disastrous that I can't consume Media on the 12th device I'm going to hook up to my tv what were Nintendo thinking???.

Woch

yep its a good job they got that 1 game, Mario or something i believe its called

Well that's disappointing. Oh well.

Journalists are blowing the delay of these features out of proportion.

@GenghisJohn said:

I thin the Wii u is going to be a disaster in the long term, but I don't think this hurts them. Everyone pure ordered one of these would get it no matter what features they delay

Yep, its soldout anyway lol

@gladspooky said:

You'd have to be some kind of idiot to buy it at launch, anyway.

unless u got so much money that you can spend 300-400 without any worries, I agree

@gladspooky said:

You'd have to be some kind of idiot to buy it at launch, anyway.

Why is that now? There are game I want for it, so I'm gonna buy it.

eh, i can live without TV features for a few weeks.

@Hailinel: I'd like to think I actually kept the delay pretty much in proportion, thank you very much. It's not a disaster, just weird and kind of unfortunate.

@Hailinel said:

Journalists are blowing the delay of these features out of proportion.

Gaming press is anti Nintendo. What else is new.

I doubt this will have any effect on sales.

Unless Giantbomb is simply trying to dissuade people from buying a Wii U at launch, there is no legitimate purpose to this article. LIke Alex said, most of us already use a console (or a myriad of other devices) to watch some sort of television if that's what you're into. Sure they may lose a few sales from this, but how many of us are specifically buying a Wii U just to watch television and movies?

If this is truly a big deal, then maybe the priorities for gaming consoles are just getting too complicated and weird for me.

@Hailinel said:

Journalists are blowing the delay of these features out of proportion.

I have to agree with you on this. I didn't think that many people are going to be canceling purchases due to this. Most people buy game systems to play games on them. It isn't like I don't already have a PC, 360, PS3, Roku, Smart TV, iPad, iPhone and a cable box that can already stream Netflix or Amazon Prime anyway. Besides, everyone will forget about the delay in a couple weeks when they get patched in.

I think Wii U has much bigger hurdles than this to deal with in the coming months.

@Hailinel said:

Journalists are blowing the delay of these features out of proportion.

Sure, as it won't really bother the people who will have a WiiU right away. This just shows how little Nintendo was ready for the Wii U though. I find it embarrassing for Nintendo, as I would if the new Xbox or Playstation would launch without something they were saying they would have.

After this generation, where consoles had tons of stuff added to them that they didn't expect to have at launch, I think it is a sign of poor planning if you can't have everything promised at launch. If you can't have stuff at launch, what can I expect you to add later? At least this shows that they can add stuff later. I'll count that as a win.

@BlatantNinja23: Because you are putting down 300-500+ on a whatif?

It's not just buying a $50-$60 product, if that ends up being bad, that's a bummer, but it's not a really big deal for most people. The investment of a new console + games is a serious chunk of change, and if it turns out to be user unfriendly, or the games you wanted end up being less then what you expected, you just set yourself back quite a bit, because you couldn't wait two months to see what other users think of it.

It's especially silly with all this talk of a new Xbox/Playstation getting announced in the next year. While the WiiU competes with the current gen just fine, we have no idea how the next gen will pan out in terms of upgrades. For all we know, the new consoles could be drastically more powerful then they currently are, which would mean everyone who purchased a WiiU now has a console that yet again can't keep up with the current generation of games, at only 5-6 months into it's life. Most would consider that a poor investment, as like the Wii, it'll be forced back to being a platform specifically for Nintendo products, something most would agree is not worth $300.

Early adoption on consoles is always a huge risk. If devs don't support it, or the competition surpasses it, you end up at a very high net loss. It's why console wars exist, and why console fanboys are so angsty all the time, they can't/won't accept the other consoles have merit, because if they do, they have "made the wrong choice" and wasted hundreds.

tongue twister

Netflix said they are going to be available at launch on the WiiU but they won't be available on TVii till next year. What I think that means is that since the WiiU isn't launching with TVii (their service for pulling multiple TV services into one place), you can't access the Netflix option when you select a TVShow. But of course you can't because TVii won't be there at all. You'll still be able to run a Netflix app though and hopefully that App is watchable on the GamePad screen.

YEAH, WELL THE WEATHER CHANNEL WASN'T DAY ONE NEITHER.

Good I did not need all those distractions with my gaming at launch. Now I can focus on beating the games and will have all the cool features about the time I start getting bored.

I find it funny how many people are making a big deal about this when it isn't even a feature that anyone else other than the US will get.

Stupid comment about Nintendo's doom.

LAUNCH WINDOW

Doesn't matter. They will sell a ton of systems. Lessons won't be learned.

@Alex said:

@Hailinel: I'd like to think I actually kept the delay pretty much in proportion, thank you very much. It's not a disaster, just weird and kind of unfortunate.

Yeah, I didn't feel like anything was exaggerated...

It's pretty embarrassing though.

@MjHealy said:

YEAH, WELL THE WEATHER CHANNEL WASN'T DAY ONE NEITHER.

THE TRUTH HAS BEEN SPOKEN *CRACK OF LIGHTNING*

@algertman said:

@Hailinel said:

Journalists are blowing the delay of these features out of proportion.

Gaming press is anti Nintendo. What else is new.

Calling them a "press" is giving them too much credit.

Meh wasn't like Canada was getting this stuff anyhow.

@Xeirus said:

@Alex said:

@Hailinel: I'd like to think I actually kept the delay pretty much in proportion, thank you very much. It's not a disaster, just weird and kind of unfortunate.

Yeah, I didn't feel like anything was exaggerated...

It's pretty embarrassing though.

I don't see why everyone is getting so pissed at Alex, he wrote an informative article about Nintendo's misinformation. Just because you might buy a console without Netflix, doesn't mean someone else will.

@Hailinel: I'd like to think I actually kept the delay pretty much in proportion, thank you very much. It's not a disaster, just weird and kind of unfortunate.