Nintendo Fans Warned About Their Wii U Consoles: “A Ticking Time Bomb”

Nintendo fans have been warned to be careful with their Wii U consoles, which have been described, by some, as “a ticking time bomb.” Of course, the problem with video game consoles is their components can fail them over time. And as consoles have gotten more complicated, and perhaps as console manufactures increasingly cut corners to save on costs, this has become more and more a problem. To this end, hardware from the 90s and early 2000s actually has a better chance of standing strong over the test of time compared to consoles made in the 2010s and now the 2020s as well.

To this end, Nintendo fans have been warned about Wii U consoles dying, despite the console only releasing roughly a decade ago. The warning doesn’t come directly from Nintendo but owners of the last-gen Nintendo machine. More specifically, it comes from retro specialists, Retro Blast.

According to Retro Blast — and others — the Wii U has a major issue, and that issue rears its ugly head when left without power for too long. More specifically, when left without power for too long, the Wii U runs the risk of dying from memory corruption. When this happens, users will be met with the screen below.

This is a known issue, and apparently it impacts different Wii Us differently depending on what internal chip it has. In the development of the Wii U, Nintendo used a variety of manufactures, including: Toshiba, Hynix, and Samsung. And it is believed that Hynix chips are the most prone to failure. Specific to the Wii U, the black version is also believed to be more prone than other versions because of its use of the Hynix chips.

“The Wii U is a ticking time bomb. I hate to say it. It’s still a great console, despite underperforming…. [but] because of modern gaming hardware and features, modern consoles won’t have the same lifespan,” says Retro Blast.

Those interested in checking if their Wii U lives or not should not simply boot it up, see the main menu loaded, and assume there is nothing wrong. Owners are advised to run games or apps because sometimes the message is delayed and only spawns after doing this. Meanwhile, those interested in seeing what chip their console has can check as much here.

As noted the new black Wii Us are believed to be particularly susceptible to the failure. On the contrary, those with one of the launch white Wii Us will be relieved to hear that is is believed to have fewer issues than the models that came after it.

At the moment of publishing, Nintendo has not commented on any of this in any capacity. We don’t suspect this will change for a variety of reasons, but if it does, we will be sure to update the story accordingly.