Link: http://www.vooks.net/story-18483-Wii-Menu-System-Menu-42-released--homebrewers-be-warned.html

The Wii Firmware has been updated to version 4.2, and it seems to be required in order to access the Shop channel.
Homebrewers (both legal [community developed games] and illegal [online cheating, pirating]) be warned that this does stop homebrew from working for the moment.

Thats all that has been reported. I can't find any info about anything else it does, other than stopping homebrew. I will update in a moment, and report back with any changes I notice. But so far it looks like it doesn't actually do anything except stop homebrew. Perhaps it updates the Nintendo Channel for Europe/Australia? Who knows!

EDIT: Please do not turn this topic into a discussion on how to install homebrew or how to pirate games. I don't want it to get deleted.

Awesome, the battle continues!!!

Oh brilliant move, Nintendo. Way to show those evil homebrewers that what they're doing is wrong by forcing them to now pirate games because they can't access the Shop Channel. That'll teach em.

Well I updated, and nothing seems to have changed. We still have the old Nintendo Channel, and nothing else looks/acts differently.

Usually Nintendo sends a message to the message board, so I guess we just have to wait for that to arrive to see if there are any changes, or if this is purely an update to stop homebrew.

hmm, i have updated my wii like 15 minutes ago, nothing changed

I updated as well. I do not do homebrew.

This battle is already over and Nintendo have lost.

too busy playing ps3

I need homebrew unless nintendo puts out something with the ease and versatility of mplayer. Oh, and adds game boy, game boy advance, atari 2600, 5200, 7800, colecovision, game gear, neo geo pocke, and msx to the virtual console.

the battle is never over. Remember the hit the pirates took when Nintendo updated the DSi?

And all of them are already pirating again without even buying new hardware. It's a structure problem and Nintendo's is quite weak.

Care to explain how this update actually affects pirates?

Hmm, guess I was mistaken. As high as sales are, I don't really consider pirates much of a threat.

Huh... Well how about that... That's disappointing... Not sure how this is a good idea since like clicketyclick said, it basically forces homebrewers to pirate... Guess this might be as good a time as any to look into how one actually goes about installing those WAD files... Haven't bothered before since it's just easier to buy the games from the shop and I kinda do like to sponsor things I like. But now, since I don't really have that choice anymore, well there's really nothing I can do about that. Cause there's no way in hell I'm giving up my avi capabilities for the shop channel, it just ain't happening. Emulators and such, I can live without those, but no one's gonna take my MPlayer CE away from me. Nuh, and also, uh!
And this was gonna be my one year anniversary of posting local WiiWare charts without interruptions. I guess not though... Guess someone has to cover for me then... Or not, we'll see what happens. Cause while those homebrewers are crafty buggers, they aren't that good, there's no way I'll be able to get the shop channel working before tomorrow...

@lz2009: You remember when people were complaining about low sales of GTA: China Town Wars? Most people blamed piracy for that one. I wouldn't assume that was the ONLY cause, but it was DEFINITELY a contributing factor.

I don't know. I think GTA: Chinatown Wars had bad sales because it was on a system that wasn't known for mature titles.

Yes, that was another factor. But I think the correlation because GTA gamers and pirates is probably higher than with most games. I'm sure it'll do better on PSP, whatever the case was with the DS version.

Either way, high sales doesn't automatically mean piracy isn't a problem. Just because a game sold 2 million copies doesn't mean it couldn't have sold 20% more copies without piracy. And yes, I just made those numbers up to show a basic point.

I don't know, isn't the PSP also notorious for piracy. If the sales aren't high on that, then I'll be convinced that it is piracy. Selling only 88,000 in one month is awful, even with piracy.

True, but most of the Wii and DS fanbase doesn't use carts, and updates to the DSi have made some useless, now if only the Wii can completely stop them.

If the Homebrew guys don't have a workaround within a couple weeks, I'll teach you how if you're having trouble. Oh, and happy nearly-1-year-of-posting-swedish-top-games-charts anniversary!

The PSP has a much smaller installed base and much higher piracy. Saying it'll do better on PSP is pretty much saying that piracy is not a significant factor in the game's poor sales.

A point that I think some people (not necessarily you) often overlook is that, however high the piracy rate is, there's no basis for assuming that pirates would have bought the game were piracy impossible. The attraction of these pirated games is that they are free. Many wouldn't bother to even try the game if it weren't.

Actually, high sale does in effect result in piracy not being a problem. High sales certainly doesn't eliminate piracy in any way shape or form, but I do have a trouble seeing how piracy can be a problem when a game sells something like 4 million unit and recoup its development cost ten times over. Not saying it's good or ok, but for Nintendo, right now, piracy is no problem. However, if they keep messing with us homebrewers like this and it might certainly become one...