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In what has come as a rather unexpected move, the Nintendo Wii U has received an OS update. Update 5.5.2 is now live and ready to download for the remaining Wii U users out there. But, interestingly, note was also datamined in the update that may indicate the end of the Miiverse.
The update 5.5.2 hasn’t increased the speed of the console’s UI, nor does it make switching tasks any easier, and the Miiverse and eShop still take an age to load. Don’t worry, I checked. But it does however patch a browser exploit that was being used to enable homebrew on the console. So that’s something.
The potentially worrying thing is that it’s claimed a message has been datamined from the latest update, which states, ‘The Miiverse service has ended. Miiverse and any software features that make use of Miiverse are now unavailable’.
“The Miiverse service has ended.
Miiverse and any software features
that make use of Miiverse are now
unavailable.”— Shiny Quagsire (@ShinyQuagsire) July 18, 2017
It should be noted that the Miiverse is definitely still accessible, but this patch seems to indicate an intention to remove it in the future. It’s been a year since there was an update for the Wii U, and that’s pretty understandable with the focus shifting to the Nintendo Switch console. The Nintendo 3DS has undergone a few changes itself, with Nintendo halting production on the regular-sized New 3DS. With the recent release of the New Nintendo 2DS (and XL variant), all signs point to a different focus for Nintendo going forward.
The slowing down of support for the Wii U is completely expected, but it will still be a sad day when the eShop and Miiverse are no longer accessible on the Nintendo Wii U. Time to Switch, I suppose.
