Hasta La Gadget!

Over the past couple of weeks there has been several reports outlining a problem customers have been having in transferring the licenses of Virtual Console games from the Wii to the Wii U. Now there’s a solution. As one tenacious user tells in an epic tale of customer support, pain, and redemption, Nintendo seems to be willing to cut out the middle man and give store credit for the trouble – seems too good to be true!

The middle man in this situation is the Error Code 200101 that users have been experiencing in this process for several weeks. This error generally results in a screen in which users are asked to “repair” their purchases so that they may be correctly sent from their Wii console to their Wii U console. This repair cost has been reported as anywhere from $60 to $85 USD depending on the number of titles being transferred.

Though as some customers like Kyle Orland of Ars Technica decided that this phantom “repair” cost was acceptable, Ryan from the Nintendo Fun Club Podcast thought different. It’s Ryan who lived this epic adventure with the Nintendo customer service representative crew, the end result being a massive amount of Wii Points for his Wii Shop Channel. The amount he received, 57,000 Wii points (aka $570 USD), plus a $50 bonus, covered the amount of value his original library was worth.

Then the $50 bonus Ryan received was marked with a note, saying it was for “the inconvenience.” Of course none of these points can be exchanged for real cash, and none of Ryan’s saved games will be appearing here, but consider this: Nintendo could very easily have just told Ryan he had to pay the repair cost. Instead they cashed up his new account and deleted the licenses from the first set of games he had on the original Wii.

Seem like a kind gesture to you?

Wii to Wii U transfer error sees giant store credit windfall is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours — all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.

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The Wii U’s launch was a bit rocky, to say the least. Missing features, promised TV services and slow-loading, day-one firmware updates left Nintendo fans frustrated and disappointed. The company is still cleaning up the mess too, announcing that it will push two additional software updates to fix the console’s slogging load times. A quicker console will certainly be welcome, but the Wii U spring updates are missing an opportunity to close a rift that divides Nintendo from its loving customer base: how it handles digital content ownership.

Ever buy an Xbox Live game? You probably know that purchase is tied to your Xbox Live account, and will be available on any subsequent Xbox you purchase. Not in Nintendo’s world; Kyoto’s digital sales are tied to the gaming hardware, not the user’s account. It’s been a sore spot for Nintendo gamers for some time now, and the Wii U was the company’s chance to make amends — except it didn’t. Like its predecessors, the new console locks content to the device it was originally purchased on, imprisoning digital purchases in a physical cage. The Wii U takes content confinement a step further with its support for legacy software, providing a near-perfect example of the folly of Nintendo’s content ownership philosophy: the isolated sandbox of its backwards-compatible Wii Menu.

Filed under: Gaming, HD, Nintendo

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The folks at Nintendo have revealed a brand new iteration of their Wii U gaming console this week complete with a brand new Wii U Pro Controller right in the box. This release will also include the game ZombiU by Ubisoft and will include a lovely book of ZombiU artwork and commentary from the developers who created it. This release will be popping in with a 32GB hard drive and a charging cradle for the GamePad controller as well.

This new set will be appearing on February 17th 2013 for a grand total of right around $390 and should once again inject a bit of life into the supply lines that were left a bit bare back a month ago during the 2012 holiday season. Also included in this set is a digital download of the mini-game masterpiece known as Nintendo Land.

With this purchase, users are given an automatic enrollment in the Nintendo Wii U “Digital Deluxe Program” where they’ll be getting 10 percent back in in-store points for each purchase they make in the Nintendo eShop. These points add up to allow you to purchase future games and services galore just as a gift card would. The Wii U section of the Nintendo eShop continues to expand with Wii U-specific content as well as legacy games each week – have a peek!

This announcement also lets users know that if each of the items included in this ZombiU Deluxe Set were purchased separately, they’d cost a whopping $459.99 USD. With this pick-up you’ll be saving $70 USD as MSRP for this set will bring you to $389.99 in the end. Today’s announcement also makes note that the Wii U has sold more than 3 million units across the planet as well as 11 million units of software therein. Have a peek at our timeline of recent Wii U moments in time to get a grasp on where Nintendo is headed from here!

Wii U Deluxe Set revealed with Wii U Pro controller is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

At the end of last month, we did mention that Google Maps for the Nintendo Wii U was delayed, but thankfully, the waiting period was not all that long, as it has been reliably reported that Google Maps with Street View has finally found its way to the Nintendo Wii U mothership this month. Just how will the reception of Wii Street U that is Powered by Google be like in Japan? Only time will tell, but we do acknowledge that making it available for free all the way through the end of May this year is a marketing masterstroke. Keep folks hooked to a particularly good service for a while, and start charging them for it afterwards normally works. Basically, once the calendar goes beyond May, you will need to fork out a fee to gain access to the service’s Panorama View-like feature that will take advantage of the Wii U GamePad for 360-degree perspectives.

If you do not feel like parting with any more money simply because you cannot afford to do so, then there are always the traditional services to fall back on, and they are plain and Street View maps that can be see on the TV. US release dates or pricing details have yet to be determined, but this does not mean that we cannot hope and wait in full and eager anticipation.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Dead Space 3 Cheat Allows One To Obtain Items For Free, Wikipad Tablet Introduced At $249,