Right after unboxing the WiiU, i started the update. For this occasion, i stopped every other internet things in order to have the maximum bandwidth available (my connection can go up to 800ko/sec)

the frontend of the router is reporting data flow between 30 and 60ko/sec ...

@those-who-already-updated-the-system, do this tiny speed sound familiar to you ?

Let us know how long it takes

I think their servers are also being hammered right now from all the new regions getting Wii U. I'm in Manhattan, NY, and couldn't even log into the Miiverse or other online stuff when I tried a couple of hours ago.

Mine looks like it will complete at around 50 min-1hour. The server side seems to be the bottleneck

Am I right thinking this update has to be done before we can even use it?

@suze No, you can use it, it just doesn't have Miiverse, the ability to play Wii games, and many other important features.

Thanks 3Dash. Update first it is then )

I believe u can let it download in background , just hit cancel and play a game alot of our american friends have sussed this out.

They should of let it so you can download the update onto the pc first then transfer it onto the Wii-U by using a USB stick.

Like I do with my xbox 360 updates all the time.

more than 2hours elapsed, looks like 20%, so the update will take 10 hours .... this isn't serious
(this added to some cheap and noisy buttons, the volume control really looks .... no comment, big N is changing ....)
i just hope playing some games will have a more positive impact on me

Jeez! What speed is your connection?

Well I can safety say those with poor internet connections will have a wonderfull experience updating this. Bad times ahead.

I'm not even gonna bother with updating when I recieve it. Maybe I will when I go bed, I will let it update overnight.

This is taking hours to update and it keeps stopping and telling me it cannot connect to server. If I stop it now and try overnight will I be able to play the games I have bought for it. I got Nintendo Land, Sports Connection, Epic Mickey and New Super Mario Bros U.
I'll be annoyed if I can't play without the update as I spent over £400 in this morning on this lot and I haven't done anything on it yet.

...You can play those while the update happens in the backround you know...

Like some have already said, I think the bottleneck might be at their end.

I've got sillyfast BT fibre and mines been downloading for 30mins and the bar on the gamepad is only just over half full!

Thanks for that. I asked my sister and my niece if they wanted to come and have a go tonight and thought I might have to cancel. It's got to about 40% but that's it, so I'll leave it for now and update overnight or tomorrow when hopefully it won't be as bad.

If you press 'cancel' on the update you can play games while it updates, just whatever you do DON'T SHUT OFF OR UNPLUG IT.

Took me about 10-15 minutes.

Mine took an hour to download and install the update. This was yesterday

mine took about 35 minutes i downloaded trine 2 in about an hour too