Nintendo drops Wii U TVii in Europe ahead of E3ii

Hi(i), did you know it has been well over 6 months since the last firmware update for your Wii U? In fact, there has not been a single update in 2015 – with the last one (v5.3.2), coming on December 5, 2014. This all changed today, with Nintendo releasing 5.4.0. The update does not do a whole lot of new stuff other than bug fixes though. The official statement is as follows.

Further improvements to overall system stability and other minor adjustments have been made to enhance the user experience

However, there is something about the update that is undocumented, it removes the TVii functionality of the console in Europe. If you do not remember (presumably as you never used it due to constant error codes), the idea behind TVii was to aggregate content from the likes of Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, and regional television listings to provide a unique electronic program guide to help users find content to watch.

This never really worked well in Europe though, as each country has so many unique TV channels and digital media restrictions it made it near impossible to track. Instead of making their collective brains hurt trying to rectify the problems, Nintendo instead made the problem a non-issue.

Nintendo dropped the following buzzword filled PR nonsense statement to go alongside the news:

We continue to challenge ourselves to develop a range of entertaining experiences for all to enjoy. Due to the extremely complex nature of localising multiple television services across a diverse range of countries with varied licensing systems, regrettably we have taken the decision not to launch the Nintendo TVii service within the European region.

Although on this occasion we did not anticipate such challenges, we will always strive to develop a range of entertaining experiences for all our users to enjoy.

Sadly, based on my own impressions, the removal of TVii has in no way sped up boot-up or navigation on the Wii U. There may be a small minuscule improvement that the people at Digital Foundry would notice with fancy equipment, but I counted on my fingers and notice nothing. That makes it pretty much official.