The Wii U's inconvenient day one patch will be greeting new console owners until next year. Speaking with Gamasutra, Nintendo America president Reggie Fils-Aime said the update won't be built into the system until early 2013.
"Nintendo developers want to make sure that the very best product is available to consumers," Fils-Aime told Gama. "That creates a dynamic where our developers are working on elements until the very last point possible. That's why the system update was required on day one – and this is quite similar to what's happened with other consumer electronic products."
Nintendo president Satoru Iwata had previously apologized for the inconvenience, noting he believed customers "should be able to use all the functions of a console video game machine as soon as they open the box." If you're getting a Wii U console over the holidays, make sure to practice patience during the update and, whatever you do, don't interrupt the Wii U doin' its thang.