New Wii Firmware Blocks The Homebrew Channel - No Homebrew for New Wii Owners

Nintendo have finally blocked the Homebrew Channel it seems

via wiifanboy

Update: Reader John writes in and points us to Wiibrew, who is reporting this update kills The Homebrew Channel, as well as the Mplayer that makes DVD play possible. If you've already followed our guide for playing DVDs and installed The Homebrew Channel, then you're fine.

Chances are, your Wii may have told you this already -- either through the friendly blue light or a message that pops up when you load the Wii Shop Channel. But in case it hasn't, Nintendo has sent out a new Wii firmware update. In Japan, the software is up to 3.4. The Shop Channel is down for maintenance as well, as all references to Wii Points are changed to "Nintendo Points" and various other pre-DSi maintenance is done. But in America and Europe, not much seems to have changed.

This NeoGAF thread is tracking the potential changes -- most notably that some people are now unable to install the Homebrew Channel. People with pre-existing installations are fine, but it's possible that this new update has blocked the ability to install homebrew. There was a fairly ominous message in the update description about deleting altered saves! Of course, these reports could turn out to be in error.

Other reported effects include improved Shop Channel loading speed, possibly reorganized item listings, and nothing.

I wonder if nintendo took this action because of the iso loader that was released, makes you wonder ?

crap, I finally decided to update the other day. I hope it wasn't out yet.

Should had added to the title "for the momment"

Woo hoo I'm lazy and didn't update!!!!!!!!

As long as they don't block or remove it when it's already installed, I'm good, I got it installed months ago.

It might block BootMii though, which is bad.

So, anyone know if this stops AnyRegionChanger from making small changes to the system.txt or is it only prevented from loading alternate firmwares?

Glad I installed the Homebrew Channel a few days ago. I can't blame Nintendo trying to stop it though.

Well, there's WiiWare I want to buy. Since I already have HBC installed and the only application I run, GeckoOS apparently still does it's thing (I only use it to launch import disc-games), I'm just going to put the update on; if I decide I want to play Mr. Driller bad enough I guess I can always buy a Japanese Wii; I've got a few Japanese Wii games and I'll have access to the Japanese Wii shop, so that will be cool as well.

There's no way I'm getting an American Wii just to play Midway Arcade Treasures, though, so hopefully GeckoOS will continue to function for the foreseeable future!

You could try the following, which will allow you to go onto the Wii Shop Channel, and not have to update. The version by tona will even add the signing bug into IOS51...

Wii Shop and IOS51 installer

Well, I wanted to buy Tetris Party, so I put the update on last night.

I can confirm that GeckoOS still launches Gamecube and Wii imports just fine, so if your main concern is playing legit imports like me, there's nothing to fear here.

I don't use emulators (I would use MAME if it worked) so I cannot comment on that, but I'm happy enough.

Now if only GeckoOS could launch Midway Arcade Treasures 2 or Mr. Driller Drill Land properly I'd be ecstatic. Hopefully they'll get that compatibility sorted someday...